My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

[FrankT]

I have uploaded a few pictures of where I'm at and would love any input and suggestions.

Thanks to this great forum I have gotten to this stage...

[Tscarborough]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Hello, Frank, looking good! You should close the courses as you go though, it makes it much stronger.

[FrankT]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Thanks for your feedback and your contribution to this forum I have read many of your suggestions and advise. I understand, I defiantly got ahead of myself.

The mortar job as you see it was done on Thursday in 4 hours with a break for lunch.
I mixed two batches, I used type S mortar, heatstop50 fireclay and fine silica sand.
I have zero experience with brick and mortar, my friend who happens to be a retired mason helped me mix the mortar and my goal was to finish 3 courses that day.
I was kneeling on the floor as he handed me each brick. The work went fast, the 3 courses were done in the first hour, I had most of the bricks cut in half and the vent arch was not ready when he came over.
Had the vent arch been formed and we had not run out of bricks we would have closed those courses and almost finished the dome.

Another strap of 75 bricks and we will have enough to finish.

[forno di Lucca]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

so you will have used 150 firebricks for you WFO...can i ask what the internal diameter is???

[dmun]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

I have zero experience with brick and mortar.
I used type S mortar, heatstop50 fireclay and fine silica sand.

Well there's a novel mixture. Where did you get that idea?

[FrankT]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

The oven floor is 42" in diameter. I'm sure I will have a few bricks left over.

After reading Appendix 6 High Heat Mortar, my friend who happens to be a retired mason, came up with this mortar mix recipe. The type S masonry cement we used has no aggregates so, 1 part type S, 1 part fire clay and 3 parts sand.

This mix is like coolwhip, then once the brick is placed you have less than 10 seconds to position the brick before the mortar bonds, if you try to move the brick after that the bond will break.

[FrankT]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Correction on the homebrew mortar recipe I am using...

I was not paying attention when he was mixing the mortar, until today when I wanted to mix my own and I called him and asked.

2 part sand
1 part type S masonry cement
1/2 part heatstop50 fireclay

[dmun]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Just to clarify, for new builders who may be lurking, Heatstop, whether or not it's in a fifty pound bag, is a ready mix refractory mortar. It may have a bit of fireclay in it, but it isn't fireclay. Among other things it's about five times more expensive than fireclay.

[fxpose]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

I was a bit puzzled myself with the above mentioned home brew mix using Heatstop.

[FrankT]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

So what do you all think will happen to my oven?
Did I put too much faith in my friend and his recipe?

I'm pushing on with confidence, today I set two more courses by myself...

[Tscarborough]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

I can tell you that 98% of actual line masons really don't know dick about what they are doing other than their ability to put units in the wall.

They do not know or care why they are doing something a certain way or using a particular type mortar, to say nothing of the engineering or physics of the job.

Nor should they, really, other than personal interest.

The fact remains that doing something wrong for 20 years does not make it right, it just makes it a habit.

The hardest people to convince about the proper way to do something are often those people who do it everyday.

[Tscarborough]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

FrankT, your oven will be fine. The design that Forno Bravo has put together is almost foolproof, and there is enough margin for error built in that it would be hard to build it such that it WOUDN'T work.

[FrankT]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I needed that.
I will be updating the status of the mortar as I start to use the oven.
The Forno Bravo design is amazing and in my heart I know my oven will stay up.
I will close the dome this week...

I am having a blast constructing this oven.
I just hope the next oven I build will be at a different site.

[phippsj]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

They are right, it really is hard to screw these up! I just finished my first oven and ate pizza yesterday. I probably messed something up every step of the way, yet it works great Keep building!

[texassourdough]

Re: My first oven build...HELLO from Texas

Welcome aboard Frank!

Ovens are pretty forgiving. Almost all of the ovens have "peculiarities" that reflect material availability and cost, or simple error. And they work anyway. Looking at old ovens in Europe it is obvious that they didn't have standard plans or materials and lots of those have been used for centuries.

Hang in there.
Jay