The Morgan's WFO build

[Les]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Ken, How far is the steel inserted into the block? It has a great shear strength but with loading, it can pull. Ideally, you would bend the steel 90 degrees into the block - been there, done that. I had a P.E. run my numbers and I came out "good enough". I'm not sure how this question relates to the insulation.

Les...

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Thanks you guys. The ovens on here are a true inspiration! It's funny how the insides of most ovens are nearly identical, but the outsides are a one-of-kind in every case. I can't get over how fun this project is and how everyone in the family gets equally excited about it.

That white board is just a piece of MDF board. We thought for sure it would snap when we bent it. It took two of us to bend it, and just when I thought "no way...", it plunked into place and held a nice, true arc - so we went with it...

*** QUESTION ***

I drilled holes in the blocks and suspended the rebar for the stuctural hearth slab. The bond-beam pour has these rebar locked in place now. Is it important that these "float"? Did we just set ourselves up for a problem? I'm hoping that if we have a substantial insulation layer that it won't be an issue, but I don't know. Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Ken Morgan

[dbhansen]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Great-looking design! I'm curious, what's the white curved "board" you used to form the concrete?

Daren

[CajunKnight]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

sweet... you guys are doing a wonderful job. keep up the good work...

[Ken524]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Hi Ken and Dixie!

You guys have a great start. Keep up the great work. You're going to love it when it's done!

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Too funny Modthryth, we had just spent about 1/2 hour going through your build when we saw you had posted to our thread! Excellent, well executed project by the way... Bravo! We hope you are getting a lot of satisfaction from it. Congratulations too on the "new edition".

We haven't been able to do very much with our project the last few weeks, but this memorial weekend we did the bond-beam. We extruded the bond-beam upward 3.5" and included the landing in the same pour.

Here's the forms for the pour...



It was a pain in the arse to notch-out all those concrete blocks, and we destroyed about 4 of them in the process, but in the end it all came together pretty nicely. We layed two peices of rebar all along the bottoms of the notched concrete blocks and welded some some small vertical pieces with a small "T" at the top and then ran two more pieces of rebar on top of the "T"'s to re-enforce the extruded top 3.5 inches of concrete. It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun doing it on a lazy holiday.



We are still going to build a bench along the entire front of the structure. We will build the forms this week in the evenings, and hopefully pour both the hearth structural pad and the bench next weekend.

Here's a sort-of concept sketch of what we are trying to achieve with our pedestal...



This project is turning-out to be a very fun, exciting build. The best part is that all family members are excited about the end result, and so everyone is very involved in it. Very good fun.

I have to say, this forum is awesome. We have picked-up so many helpful hints, tricks, and good advise from reading about what others have already done. Love it!

Ken and Dixie Morgan

[Modthyrth]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

It's looking magnificent, and it certainly sounds like you've really thought things through! It looks like there's going to be a nice patio space in front of the oven, too. I'm looking forward to watching the progress.

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

So far, the digging has been the worst!

We had a delivery of blocks this weekend and installed four of the five rows. The fourth row blocks are only filled half way with concrete in order to facilitate a beter bond with the fifth row. We waited to do the fifth row because of the extra time/work that will go into it. It will need to be notched for the bond-beam, front three spanning blocks notched to rest flush with angle iron supports, the bond-beam rebar, and we want to tie-in a cantilevered landing the entire length of the stand. This will require an angle iron frame, some rebar, and mesh al inter-woven prior to the pour. Then we will do the oven floor structural slab, and then the oven floor insulation slab.





After it has reached the above mentioned condition, I need to put a sealer on the sub-terrain portion of the blocks and devise some drainage. Then I can back-fill and call the pedestal done.

Sound like a good plan? If anyone see's any issues thus far, I would certainly love to hear your comments.

Kind Regards,
The Morgan's

[christo]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

If the digging was anything like my area in North Carolina, you are past the worst of it.

I'm really looking forward to watching your build!!!!

Christo

[vintagemx0]

We introduced ourselves in the introductions section...

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f3/new-forum-6658.html

We managed to pour the base slab this weekend. It's on undisturbed clay with about 1-1/2" gravel screeded flat. The concrete is heavily reinforced with double rows of rebar around the outer edges, a rebar matrix in the large center region, and a 2x3 mesh about 1" off the bottom throughtout the entire area. The slab is 4" thick, or 35 80# bags. We also inserted vertical rebar after screeding to reinforce the blocks which will be filled with concrete. The odd shape is due to the pedestal doubleling as a retaining wall.

It feels real good to have that done! In the next week while it's curing, we will have time to plot our next moves and get material on-site. We're pumped!





Ken & Dixie Morgan