Another Kiwi Oven

[knownasgriff]

Hi,
Been a lurker for a while and have just gotten my arse in gear to build my oven.
Have used the resources here an enormous amount and am very grateful for all the help and advice that I picked up on the way.
Loaded my photos on Flickr.
will post link soon
Have still to wrap the ceramic fibre blanket and then chicken wire and vermiculite the outside.
Deadline is the 21st of June as it is my 40th birthday party and the oven needs to be done for that. Nothing like a little pressure to help you along.

Thanks,

Bob/.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Looking Good!!

[jengineer]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

I think you are the first to use the mason style of breaking bricks. Good on ya!

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Thanks. I bought a 14" segmented diamond blade for my metal cut off saw but it ran too slowly and burnt the bricks.
I used a 4" blade on my angle grinder to partially cut and shape some of the blocks keyed into the vent arch but mostly the bolster and 1.5 kg hammer.
The bricks cut remarkably well, cut the soldiers in half then used the cut sides together to minimise gaps.
Cut the main dome into thirds to create a 3" thick dome.

Bob/.

[krosskraft]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Love it! Its a shame you have to cover it up with insulation. Very nice job.

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

It is indeed but as you know keeping my heat in is a priority.
The pictures are here:
Wood Fired Oven - a set on Flickr

Bob/.

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

I lit my first fire with wood in the oven last night. As I do not have insulation on it yet I was able to use the mark 1 Hand as a monitoring device on my keystone.
Nothing above ambient. Bigger fire tonight. I have used refractory mortar and so I should not have any problem with cracking as it is heat cure.
We will see.

Bob/.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Almost all of us have experienced some cracking, even with refractory mortar. Take your time with curing!
Drake

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Thanks Drake.

I ran a small fire this evening and (because the dome is not insulated yet) had either steam or smoke in little streamers coming out of points in the mortar.
The exit points coloured the mortar and I will cover the points tomorrow before firing again.

The fire ran about 3 hours and as i just happened to have a batch of Pizza Dough made I couldn't help myself and put a small tomato and cheese in to cook. It was good.

[james]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Hey Bob,

Wonderful looking. You are almost definitely getting steam from the oven dome and mortar. You are driving gallons of water out of the oven, so take your time to cure it -- after all that great work.

One other thing -- could you put a link to FB.com [url=http://www.fornobravo.com] in your Flickr.com page? I always think it is helpful showing other potential builders where they can find plans and advice.

Thanks!
James

[asudavew]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Looks great.

It seems like you worked very quickly.
How long did it take you to reach this point?

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Thanks,

It took me a weekend to lay the floor and build the dome.
I lay the concrete slab on 8th May, Vermiculite on 16th May, floor and dome on 7th, 8th of June, big curing fire by mistake 14th June and the insulation and Vermiculite covering on the 15th June.

Another fire Wednesday and big Party on the 21st.

May or may not render the dome between now and the 21st. Depending on time frames.

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Well there is nothing like diving in at the deep end... Had a party for my 40th and so used the WFO in anger for the first time. Had about 20 people over and cooked about 30 pizzas over about 3 hours. Got to a point where I was cooking 2 at a time and shuffling the pizzas front to back. Had the help of a fantastic peel made for me by a great mate, sculpted American Hickory handle stainless steel blade and monogrammed. Built a door as well, possibly temporary, out of western red cedar with a handle made from sapele mahogany. The oven was over 512C (950F) when my thermometer maxed out when I was cooking, 24 hours later was still at 150C (300F) with the door helping. The door fist both in front of and behind the chimney vent.

[Janszoon]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

Good stuff I was hoping to find some more Kiwi's on the board...I would be interested to know where you got your bricks...Like Monier or something?

Also - the kiwi terms for the mortar / fireclay prods your settled on?

J - AKL

[knownasgriff]

Re: Another Kiwi Oven

J,

I got my bricks from placemakers in the end, they were cheaper for the amount I got than the manufacturer, Shinagawa, in Huntley. A company called certec in Ak has bricks cheaper than that and Bevan at Certec is very helpful. I bought my premixed refractory mortar, ceramic blanket and refractory concrete from certec, got 50kg of refractory castable from shinagawa, vermiculite from nuplex construction products (use fine or medium) otherwise give me a call and we can chat.