Another Aussie Oven

[John K]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Love the deck Paul. it looks great and the lights just set off the whole area!

I assume you are all done now?

Whats next?

regards

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

John,

It's almost finished but not just yet...

I still have to oil the deck, I need to a minor bit of sealing and I also want to ass another coat of waterproof on the dome. The plan is to finish it all of this weekend. Hopefully the rain will stay away.

Paul

[cabsauv]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Getting Closer......

The brick laying is slowing down considerably now that I get higher but getting thirsty with the prospect of finishing the dome.

Hi Paul,
I'm now at chain number 6 and wondered how much you trimmed off the bricks, it proving to be a challenge to keep the gaps to a minimum on the inside.

Russ

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Russ,

Below is a photo of my construction once I started getting that high. Chain 6 was still 1/2 bricks & chain 7 was when I went to 1/3 of a brick.

I cut my bricks the maximum angle that my saw could do from the vertical before the blade hit the edge of the slot (I hope that that make sense?)

You will see from the photo that there is still a larger mortar gap at the bottom.

Paul

[cabsauv]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Thanks for that Paul. I figured from your pictures that you must have made the brick 80mm at the bottom and 60mm at the top, thus getting 3 from a full brick. I have the same AR brick saw and didn't think to tilt the blade just a little. I've been using a block in order to set the brick on an angle.

Regards,
Russ

[cabsauv]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Today I also finished rendering the outside of the oven and next weekend hopefully I can put the colour coat on the dome and start think about tile decoration on the concrete base.

Hi Paul, Thank you for your input thus far. I'm interested in knowing what you used to render over the insulation blanket and what thickness did you finishup with prior to a final water proof layer?

Russ

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

After the insulation I put a layer of bird wire over and then 2 coats of render. The 1st cost is probable about 15mm thick and I scratched up the surface so the top coat would bond. The top coat was about 10mm and smothed off. Because of the difficulty of rendering over the flexible insulation I'm sure that there is plenty of variation in the thickness.

From memory I used 2 bags of the Bunnings render mix on the base coat & 1.5 bags on the top coat.

I hope this helps.

Paul

[OscarA]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Hi Paul

Fantastic job mate really impressive.
I'm about to start mine in a month or so and am trying to figure out exactly what I'll need and how much of it so I can work out costs.
If you don't mind roughly how many bricks did you use for your dome. I did a rough estimate and figured you probably used 150 or so but I'm probably way of.
Also is yours a 42" dome or bigger. I'm thinking of a 32" for myself but might decide to go slightly bigger.
I love the way you did your stand and will probably do something very similar.
Two more question if you don't mind, did you make your own heat mortar for the dome or did you buy the commercial stuff and if bought roughly how many bags of mortar were needed.

I love the way you used insulation bricks under the cooking floor. I was thinking of using silica board for mine but will look into your option as well.

Again, fantastic looking oven and thanks for sharing.

Oscar

[Alter ego]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Oscar,

Thanks for the nice comments.

My oven is 1m internal dia at the floor (approx 39") and I bought the insulating bricks, fire bricks & mortar from Field Furnace Refactories in Sydney. Here's the shopping list

• 60 x insulating bricks @$1.80 ea (about 5 left over)
• 180 x Bricks @ $3.30 ea (none left but if I'd bought another 6 bricks I feel I could have finished around my chimney better)
• 5 x bags high tempmortar @ $33.00 ea (none left)

It also took 46 beers of various types

I'm glad that I built my oven as it was very satisfying to do and has been fun to use. All the best with you build and just shout if you want any more info.

Paul

[OscarA]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Thanks for the reply Paul.

I think I will go with the firebricks as well but as cash is a little tight (so the wife says) I will spend the next few months acquiring the necessary materials in stages rather than in one lot. Hopefully along the way I'll find some deals (ebay).
I can get firebricks 5 mins from home for $4 each or a 45min drive for $3.30, big difference and some places want $4.40. I even had a second hand brick place quote me $3 a brick but he only had 10. Rip off I thought.
Anyway I figure I can do the oven for roughly $1000 saving me at least $1500 to $2000.
I love threads like yours as they give me so much to think about.

Thanks again. Oscar

[cobblerdave]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Plans call up 200 bricks for a 42' oven if your carefull and build the entrance from commons you can get away with 160 bricks. I brought 75 to start which gave me the hearth and a couple of chains into the dome more than enough time to find the next funds

regards dave

[OscarA]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Thanks Dave
yeah I figured the dome needed the fire bricks to be on the safe side but the entrance has no real need for them. I love clinker bricks so at this stage I will probably source second hand ones for the entrance and get the fire bricks in 4-5 parcels for the dome.
My wife isn't keen on a WFO believing it'll be an eyesore and rarely used but I'm convinced if I do it right she'll appreciate it.

[cabsauv]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the information, you've done a great job. All things going well I should be able to start the curing process this weekend if not before. Like your self it's been hard to resist lighting just a small fire, but I've managed to hold off, at least until the flue is in place.

I ended up with two layers of insulating render of about 10-15mm each and then a final acrylic render around 6-8mm over 25mm of high temperature blanket.

For information I got all my materials through Thermal Ceramics here in Adelaide and paid similar prices to yourselves. All up materials for the WFO are about $1600.

Russ

[cobblerdave]

Re: Another Aussie Oven

What can I say.........
Very neat job......you must be pleased with yourself ......and rightly so

Regards Dave

Start a few low and slow fires you'll have that puppy cured and cremating ooops creating meals by xmas

[Lburou]

Fabulous job!

Your pictures and descriptions are the best I've seen so far! I'll be happy to do half as well as you did. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.