Tims oven - early days!

[Frances]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Oh, behave!!!

...erm, that was heavy breathing like Darth Vadar does... You know, his scuba diving impression? And then he goes "impressive, very impressive, but you're not a Jedi yet." One of my favourite scenes, that is.

However, I will admit you could well have been right, Dutch.

[egalecki]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

thinking some more- you could actually extend your form past the edges of your stand a bit- if you use enough rebar you'd be fine- that would maybe give you enough room to fit what you want on there without it being a problem. A couple of inches on each side is all you'd need- I'd build a form with legs, using concrete backer board to support the extended part. You could just leave the backer board in place later.

[egalecki]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

I don't know how practical a "tiny layer" of vermcrete will be- I think it might be hard to get on there that way. I laid mine up in vertical layers- it's about as thick as my hand in most places. I did stick it on in a thinner layer on the front of the vent- it's about 1 1/2 inches there, but that was a hard surface, not the softer blanket, and it was still tricky to get it to stick. It wanted to separate from the brick under it.

Do you need to have it stuccoed? Maybe using metal studs and building an enclosure might work better for the finish? You could space the studs to miss the really narrow area on the sides of the dome. Enclosures can look really cool. I didn't do one because I was worried about how big it would look in my yard, but hey, now that I'm almost finished, it's freaking humongous anyway!

You can't skimp on insulation, so don't even think it. I would either rethink your size or your finish options.

[Tim F]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Looking good Tim.
Can I ask what size WFO you are aiming for?

I'm planning an internal diameter of 105cm, although that is subject to slight variation when I decide on my final insulation option. At the moment I'm thinking I can squeeze in the 105cm if I use 3 layers of insulating blanket with maybe a tiny layer of either verm-crete or a castable insulation plus the render.

[Dutchoven]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Impressive (hhuuuhSHAAAA... hhuuuSHAAAA...*)... very impressive..., but its not an oven stand yet...


*this of course would be the heavy breathing.

Oh, behave!!!

Tim
Looking good man! I did that for a frien of ours the other day(laid the block walls I mean)...yes Frances I will be getting to build yet another oven!
Best
Dutch

[Tim F]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

I finished off the stand after I picked up the last few blocks I needed. Tomorrow I'm going to get some rebar and then fill the cores, and I'm hoping to get the forms set up ready to pour the next slab by Sunday!

[glennb]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Looking good Tim.
Can I ask what size WFO you are aiming for?

[Frances]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Impressive (hhuuuhSHAAAA... hhuuuSHAAAA...*)... very impressive..., but its not an oven stand yet...


*this of course would be the heavy breathing.

[egalecki]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Looking good, Darth!

[Tim F]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

I did my best darth vader impression in a dust mask, goggles and ear muffs today, cut my bricks, and almost got the stand finished. I just need to get a handful more bricks and some rebar tomorrow and I will be ready to start filling the cores!

[egalecki]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

You'll use the grinder a lot, particularly in the last stages of the oven. I used mine to custom-cut a lot of the bricks that attached to the arch- it was much better to use than the saw. I also used it to shape the keystones. No joke, though, use the eye gear and mask. (and hearing protection, too) I had a red-hot piece (a speck, really) fly out of a brick and smack me on the face- left a welt and burn, and heaven only knows what would have happened if it had hit my eye without the glasses!

[Tim F]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Good call. I picked up an angle grinder and diamond blade today (ironically it would have been cheaper to just buy the expensive bricks, but at least now I have an angle grinder) and it cuts through the blocks like butter.

[egalecki]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

The angle grinder should do ok cutting. Wear a mask and eye protection, it's unbelievably dusty.

If you look at my thread (link's below, I think it works) you can see my stand isn't standard, and two of the sides are freestanding except for the lintels on top. We put rebar into every core and filled them all, and believe me, when it set up, you'd have to really work at it to push them over. When you get your slab on top it gets even sturdier.

[Tim F]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Well, I started laying out the besser blocks today and spotted my first drama. I went with slightly thinner bricks (390x190x140)to save a few dollars, but realised that they don't fit together neatly like bricks should (although you can't see this in the pic with just the first course). This leaves me with 2 options - either cut the corner blocks to the right lengths, or stack them all without offsetting each course (obviously wouldn't be as strong).

Any thoughts on the best way to go? I think cutting would be preferable but they are just too big to fit under the disc of my chop saw. Any other ideas on cutting? If I just stack them all and fill the cores will the structure be too weak?

At least my slab is level!

Edit: after talking to another mate I reckon I'll just cut them with an angle grinder + diamond blade - although I'm open to any other solutions!

[dusty]

Re: Tims oven - early days!

Cool. I can tell this is going to be a great thread. I look forward to watching your progress.

dusty