Glenn's WFO

[Johnny the oven man]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Coming along very nicely Glenn.

[g8rjoe]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Great job, mate. The brick floor arrangement is quite interesting and compelling. I do like the way your transition on the arch turned out. It's one of my worries. I'll be starting with the brick floor here in about a week after giving the slab a bit of a holiday to cure.

Keep up the good job.

Joe

[carloswlkr]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Looks great! Can't wait to see more of your opening arch. Cheers!

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Hopefully i'll get some more work done this weekend if it cools down a bit, but this week has just been way too hot to even think about going outdoors. Even at 9pm at night, it's still sitting on 40deg C.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Well, despite the entire state turning into a blast furnace yesterday with top temperatures of 48 deg C in parts of Melbourne, I actually managed to get some more work done over the last week and today.

Working with the angled arch entry was kinda difficult and time consuming to get the bricks cut and set on the correct angles. I didn't use a form for the outer arch either, and kinda just made it up as I went. It turned out pretty good though, and it's still standing.

I'm playing with ideas for the finishing touches at the moment, and planning to use the red clay pavers to put a nice decorative layer on the arch face. I'll use the cream pavers to finish off the top of the slab and bring the Vermicrete and final render down onto them. Should look good and provide a decent weather seal.

Also, once my last bricks have set and i've bolted the chimney plate down, i'm ready for my first fire!! yay.

The weather has too been crazy though, with either extremely high heat (and total fire bans yesterday), to the odd shower today, so it's hard to get my oven fired and dry.

I want to fire it before i put the insulating blanket on though, so that if I get any major cracks i can patch them up again.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

A few photos of how I created my throat for the chimney.
Hopefully it draws nicely, as you can see that my outer arch is higher than the throat entry, so I might be at risk of getting smoke coming out the front.

Only a fire will tell me for sure.

[carloswlkr]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Looks good. I'm at a similar spot in my build right now, so it's good to see yours as it goes up.

[carloswlkr]

Re: Glenn's WFO

How are the curing fires coming? How's the oven taking it?

[dbhansen]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Very nice craftsmanship, Glenn! I wish I would have thought of that type of entry design....

[Bob C]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I agree with DB...Really great work. Anyone building an over now truly has a wealth of info and ideas to build a great WFO. IT kind of want to makes me want to build another.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Hi guys and thanks for the positive comments.
The curing fires are going great and had my 3rd one last night, with no cracks and no detectable moisture coming from the oven.

The dome's been built for at least a month now, and there is hardly a drop of moisture in the whole state, let alone my oven, but even so, i'm taking it easy with the flammage.

I've got the thermal blanket on it now and just started putting the vermicrete layer on it as well, but I only have 2 bags of Verm, which isn't going to go very far (photo shows result of pretty much one bag only).

I'm concerned about the amount of moisture i'm putting back on the oven with the vermicrete as this stuff needs to be very wet to make it stick. I'll have to give it a bit of time before putting the final render on it, but i'm not worried about it cracking or anything, as the bricks will be completely dry by then.

I've finished the brickwork around the outside and i'm happy with how it will turn out once the dome is rendered. The pavers are angled away from the dome a bit to make sure the rain runs away from it in winter.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Very nice craftsmanship, Glenn! I wish I would have thought of that type of entry design....

Thanks DB! It's very kind of you to say so, but i'm my own worst critic so I look at it and think of all the ways I could do it better or improve things (next time maybe).

It was a royal pain the @$$ to do the entry that way, but i'm glad I did in the end.
Having to place small peices of wood on the fire, you need to reach in a fair way, and a smaller opening would just make it so much harder to do.

To be honest, when i look at the straight sided oven entry's, they don't look as structurally strong as a pure arch type, particularly if it's done with a single brick thickness. Doing my research, this was kinda proven by a few people who have had to brace their arch entry sides. So I sat there for about a week thinking about how I could do it better (that's the Engineer in me talking), and then proceed slowly to build it up.

Once the chimney heats up a bit, the draw is actually pretty good, and i only get a bit of smoke out the front during wind gusts.

The other interesting (funny) thing about my build, is that although I initially had the oven drawn up in AutoCAD and all these fancy plans, once i started building, I just kinda went with the flow. I didn't use any bracing inside the oven at all (thanks to the sticky premix mortar). I used a arch form for the inner arch, but the entry and vent area was built using the patented "one eyed squint" method for working out my cuts and angles.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I agree with DB...Really great work. Anyone building an over now truly has a wealth of info and ideas to build a great WFO. IT kind of want to makes me want to build another.

This is a great testament to this forum and James, as I had no experience working with bricks at all before attempting this project. I knew a bit about concrete and i'm generally pretty hands on with tools and stuff but it was all new to me.

And I agree with you Bob about wanting to do it again (not for awhile though).

[Salv B]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I'm concerned about the amount of moisture i'm putting back on the oven with the vermicrete as this stuff needs to be very wet to make it stick. I'll have to give it a bit of time before putting the final render on it, but i'm not worried about it cracking or anything, as the bricks will be completely dry by then.

Glenn,

Your build is looking great! It's great to get those curing fires finally going.
I know what you mean about the vermicrete. I did mine 3 weeks ago and it has been out there baking in the Adelaide heatwave and still some moisture came out after I fired the oven to pizza temperatures. I reckon it is worth doing a few full fires and cooks before putting the render on. If you are having problems with the vermicrete sticking I found mixing in a bit of fireclay into the mix helped a bit.

[carloswlkr]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Beautiful job, Glenn. I really like the way it's looking. How did you fasten the chicken wire to the dome to affix the insulating blanket? Does the wire itself keep its shape? or did you secure it with wire towards the opening? I'll be doing mine probably next weekend.
Hope all continues to go well!