Hansen Horno

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Here are some pics of course #9. Starting to get steep! It felt great to make some much-needed headway this weekend. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

I've been using only smooth-rim blades so far; I probably should have tried a segmented one. I bet I'll burn through at least 2 more blades at this rate, and that's $65 right there, so perhaps I'll see what I can get in a segmented blade for that price. The Husky-brand smooth blade did no better than the cheap Harbor Freight ones.

rocks, it's great weather up here lately (70s/80s and sunny), but I'll be dreamin' of Arizona in a few months! I just hope I can get this puppy fired up before the snow arrives.

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Because this area behind & above my arch isn't very smooth, might this create "turbulence" that prevents the smooth escape of the gases & smoke out to my chimney? I'm wondering if I should try to fill this in with mortar and scraps of brick. And maybe round off the back corner of the arch (visible at the very bottom of this photo). Anyone have experience with this?

[egalecki]

Re: Hansen Horno

The backside of my arch isn't smooth, either- I have some stair-step looking pieces too. I have had some smoking as I've been firing up the oven, but I think it has been more from the fact that my oven isn't dry yet (although it's getting there, see my thread!). Every day it gets easier to get a fire going instead of just smoldering along- and it's the smoldering that makes all the smoke. I had my first big fire today, and I didn't have much smoke at all. So, I think it has less to do with lumpy masonry and more to do with dryness...

[Ken524]

Re: Hansen Horno

Because this area behind & above my arch isn't very smooth, might this create "turbulence" that prevents the smooth escape of the gases & smoke out to my chimney? I'm wondering if I should try to fill this in with mortar and scraps of brick. And maybe round off the back corner of the arch (visible at the very bottom of this photo). Anyone have experience with this?

You won't have any problems with it. Don't mess with it. Once the dome is done you'll forget all about. 80% of the ovens I've seen on here are goofy looking right there (including mine!).

Smoke is pretty smart. It'll figure out where the proper exit is .

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

You won't have any problems with it. Don't mess with it.

Thanks Ken, I'll leave it.

Major setback yesterday. I was halfway through the next course, hurrying to get done before dark, and I stepped on a blunt metal rod sticking up out of my thermocouple hole. It never occurred to me that that thing could go through my shoe, but it did, right into the middle of my foot. Much pain and crutches today. I'll be out of commission for a few days. At least my tetanus booster was current! (gotta look on the bright side....)

There has to be a WFO joke here somewhere about my "arch" being impaled.

[Modthyrth]

Re: Hansen Horno

Youch!! How long do you think you'll have to be on crutches? How disappointing to be forced to delay when you were so close to finishing the dome!

[Ken524]

Re: Hansen Horno

Are you competing with DaveW to see who gets hurt worse putting an oven together??

Get well soon!!

[Frances]

Re: Hansen Horno

Outch!! Hope it heals up soon.

Just remember, if you want to compete with Dave you'll need to do a re-enactment shot once you get better...

[james]

Re: Hansen Horno

Ouch. That's gotta hurt. Rest, Ice, Elevation and Ibuprofin.

Should we add "don't step on the thermocouple sheath" on the safety page? I hate it when weird things happen and you really hurt yourself.
James

[toddj]

Re: Hansen Horno

Wow, sorry for your injury.

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Thanks for the kind thoughts. The stupid thing is, I put the metal rod into the copper sheath and left it there, sticking up, for no good reason (I was using it to straighten out the copper tube through the hearth). And wearing running shoes instead of work boots might've been my second mistake.

And to think I was only worried about breaking my ankle jumping down from the hearth. I didn't hear about DaveW's injury - I'll have to look that one up!

I'm sure it will heal quickly, and my doc said to take 12 Ibuprofin/day so it's already feeling better! I'll probably break my neck with these crutches, though.

Nice sign, Todd; that's pretty much what I looked like, though I didn't fall off the hearth.

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Here's a pic with my half-finished 10th course. I think I'll have to go with 1/3 bricks for the next course, because the gaps underneath each brick are getting larger.

[mfiore]

Re: Hansen Horno

Ooh. Sorry about the injury. We need a photo of you putting in the keystone with crutches!

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Another good weekend of progress. Here are some pics as I completed the dome. The rod/wire sticking out on the first 2 pics is a thermocouple probe.

Still limping on that foot, but it's getting better! I only needed the crutches for one day.

[dbhansen]

Re: Hansen Horno

Dome is complete! The first 2 pics are outside, the third is from the inside. A little choppy, but I'm satisfied with it. In hindsight, I should have crafted a better form to help guide the final courses into place, because it was too easy to misplace the bricks. Final inside height is 20.5 inches; 1/2 inch shy of my plan.