Another Aussie Oven

[david s]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

If you are not confident to lay blocks, use a mortar bed to position and level the first row then use a masonary contact adhesive (Liquid nails for mortar in Australia) to join the rest. Fill some of the cores with concrete and rebar and render over.

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

David,

I have already done 2 courses of blockwork and I am halfway there already so It's a bit too late to change now. There is nothing wrong with the blocks so far as I take my time to get the quality finish that I want.

When I have done other jobs like tiling, plastering, painting etc in the past I look at other peoples work after I have finished and I realise that often tradesmen do not do a better quality job that the finish I get. I am sure that the work they do is 10 times faster than me but it is not always better. I started off my career as an electrician and worked on many construction sites. Watching other trades on sites gives you a big advantage when it comes to doing the work yourself but it they still make it look easy.

Although I was an electrician and spent many hours digging trenches while I was an apprentice, digging the trench for the power to the WFO wasn't much faster than my other trade skills. Too much time behind a desk these days tapping at a keyboard!

Paul

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

... and my typing is not much faster either! I still use 2 fingers to type

[david s]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Paul,
I agree with you entirely, although I have also gained appreciation of good workmanship after seeing some of my own bodgey efforts.

[KINGRIUS]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Paul, I laid my blocks like you're doing. It looks like you're doing a much neater job of it than I did though. I like the idea of the form you're using. All I can say for the block work on my foundation is: I'm glad it's covered up!

Keep up the good work!
-Darius

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

The form I used to make sure the first course was straight and centred on the foundation. It was easy enought to put in place as I have not yet stripped the formwork from around my slab so all it took was a few screws into the ply.

It is the weekend tomorrow and there are no social activities and the kids do not require any taxi driving services (well as far as I know but that never stops them from putting in last minute requests) so I will have 2 full days of WFO building.

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

After a week off building due to a family holiday on the NSW north coast (Woolgoolga) I have managed another day of building. The progress is slow but at least things are moving forward!

The hearth slab formwork is now complete (the sides of the formwork are also complete but I didn't get a photo) and I plan to get the reinforcing in during the week and then mix and pour the hearth slab on the weekend.


Formwork construction in progress.


I originally started with the intention of a hexagonal slab, however it didn't fit very well into the tight corner of the fence so the design got changed to an octagon halfway through.


Testing the formwork!

[Rodneyf]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

It must have been hotter up there than in sydney going by the empty refreshment bottles on the fence.
Just two questions though, what if the formwork didn't hold, and what are you using to stop the concrete falling off the top of your ply wood?
Good looking so far and keep the pics up.

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

It must have been hotter up there than in sydney going by the empty refreshment bottles on the fence.
Just two questions though, what if the formwork didn't hold, and what are you using to stop the concrete falling off the top of your ply wood?
Good looking so far and keep the pics up.

Rodney,

The bottles lined up on the fence are nothing but a research project. I have seen lots of people posting questions on the forum like "how many bricks does it take to build a 42" WFO" but nowhere have I seen an answer to How many bottles of beer does it take to build a WFO! I should be able to give you an answer in a few months but so far it has taken 12 bottles, 2 cups of coffee and 1 cup of tea.

The form work is 20mm ply held up with plenty of timber so it was never going to fail. I now have 100mm edges on the ply by this was completed at the end of the shift when I was being harassed to finish up and get ready to go out so I didn't have time to get a photo.

I was lucky with the ply and timber as the company I work for has just completed a project at a gas turbine power station and as most of the gear transported to site came in timber crates there was plenty going spare. I even managed to get some leftover insulation that was used around the exhaust of the turbines where the temps are over 500 deg C.

Paul

[Rodneyf]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

You gotta love the freebies. Make sure you put some plastic between your slab and stand because your slab will be inclined to expand horizontally and if the 2 are joined you will get cracks in your stand.

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

I poured my hearth slab yesterday so now comes the exciting part of building a brick dome!

The hearth slab pour went fairly straight forward until I ran out of aggregate when I was nearly finished. After I quick run to the landscaping suppliers I was able to finish off with only a 40min break. One thing I did discover is that concrete is heavy stuff when you have to shovel it out of the barrow & up into the form work.

During the week I will organise my bricks and make the decision whether to buy a brick saw or not?

Paul

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Hey paul,,
looks nice.. your good with a trowel.. will you be using vermicrete or insulboard under the dome ? or is it already in there ?
cheers
mark

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Mark,

Thanks for the nice comments. I don't think that insulboard is available in Australia (well at least I haven't read in the forum of anyone else using it here) so I will probably use insulating bricks which are available from the refractory brick supplier in Sydney. That way I can get everything from the single supplier.

Paul

[Rodneyf]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

If you are referring to Field furnace insulation bricks, they have worked well for me now they are dry, but on the first and second firings the heat did transfer through to my slab and it got up to 70C. It is now not even warm to the touch when the floor is up near 400C. I set mine inside concrete with some more reo and it has worked just fine. The last photo is the earth slab and the first photo is the insulation bricks, i just uploaded in the wrong order.

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

If you are referring to Field furnace insulation bricks......

Thanks Rodney. Field Furnace is the only supplier I can find within a reasonable distance. My only issue at the moment is if I go for the whole fire brick oven it means a 2hr drive to Newcastle with 1T in the trailer and making 2 trips seems unnecessary. I need to find a cheap delivery who will do a back load to Newcastle.

What did you do for cutting your bricks. Did you buy or hire a saw? Where from?

Paul