Continuation of papavino's oven thread

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

papavino,
Try I-XL Masonry in Redmond.
I-XL Masonry | Showrooms - Redmond, WA
This is were I and bbell got our fire bricks and refactory mortar. The bricks were $1.15 ea. and identical to the ones you see at Lowes. (they might be 1.19 now) Get a friend with truck or rent a u-haul. That's my 2?.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Pics of my latest status. I removed the forms for the insulating hearth on Monday and poured the surround last night. I had a minor freak-out moment when my calculation for how much concrete I needed came up just a bit short. That was at about 6:30. I went and discussed my issue with some non-supportive () friends over a beer, then went to HD and grabbed a 60# bag to finish it off. Despite my detour to Die Bierstube and my neighbor talking my ear off about weeds, everything is looking good.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Just picked up the HF 10" tile saw. It's time to start laying brick!

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

We started laying the floor for the oven tonight. We were having trouble getting all of the bricks to line up and eliminate seams. We then decided to take the bricks off and use 3/8" shims dragged along the structural concrete surround under a 2x4 to screed the fireclay/sand mixture to an even height. This worked really well and only required some minimal tapping down with a rubber mallet to get all of the bricks to line up with each other. We ran out of daylight before we could begin using the HF tile saw, but we set it up so it is ready to go tomorrow night. I'm really looking forward to firing it up! Photos to come.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Here's the oven as it currently stands. Looking good so far. I like the HF tile saw. Works pretty well. I bought a Dewalt diamond blade to use with it and it cuts the bricks pretty quickly. The second photo is of all the stuff I put into my Civic yesterday. It was riding pretty low. I'm really abusing that car during this project.

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Great progress! Looks like you may be eating pizza before September. How much did you end up paying for you bricks?
Cheers,

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Thanks! The bricks ended up being $1.18. And the HeatStop 50 was $70 plus some change.

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Great price! I recommend You get a 5-gallon bucket and lid from HD to put your HeatStop in. It is to expensive to not protect!!!! I ended up using 3+ bags.
I have those steel studs if you decide you want them. I also have about 2/3 of a bag of Perlite you can have as well. Both should fit into a Civic!
Cheers,

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

John,
I have 4 of the HD buckets lying around. I've been using them for everything. I probably need to buy one or two more. I'm using one as my reservoir for the tile saw pump, one to keep my oven tools in, two were used to scoop concrete out of the wheel barrow and one of those two has some concrete set in the bottom of it. It has become a waste bucket.
I think I will take those steel studs. After you decided to do the igloo, it got me thinking about doing one, too, but I think I'm sticking to the gabled house enclosure. I'll set up some time to come grab them, probably next week. Thanks!

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Well, I finally got around to mortaring the soldier course in place last night. I started to get worried at one point that I'd burn through a whole bag of Heat Stop, but I still have a bit left over after finishing. I need to put up some lights out there as it was getting too dark to see what we were doing at the end. I went out this morning to check and things look okay, but I already noticed two cracks in the mortar.
On another note, I'm pretty pleased with the brick chisel for making half bricks. It's really quick and easy. This way I can set up a jig on my tile saw to make the halves trapezoidal and cut down on the size of the inverted "V" in the mortar while another helper cranks out the half bricks.

[christo]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Very impressive start!!! I can't wait to see more!

I liked hearing about your experience with the tile saw and the chisel to break bricks. This might make for a good topic for the tools, techniques and tips area if you's like to take even more pics to document fully.

Christo

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Here's the next batch of photos. I put the first ring in place on Sunday and put 4 bricks in place on the second ring yesterday, but had to stop as I need to make something to hold the bricks in place. The bricks now need to be at a 29 degree angle and it's difficult to keep them from sliding. But it's fun to watch it take shape. Also two bonus photos of the brick chisel in a before-after shot.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Finished the second ring last night.

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Looking Good! You better start thinking about fire wood

[jmhepworth]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I talked to the guy at heatstop this week. I've seen this advice before, but it's worth mentioning again. Only mix up the amount you can use in 20 minutes. Make sure the bricks are soaked well before using them or they will suck the moisture out of the mortar. Mix the mortar with cold water.

Joe