I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

[CajunKnight]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

Amazing, I like the way you are working it into the landscape. I have a question though. The small hole at the bottom of the rock face. Is that some sort of drain for water run off or what?

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the journey and the journey is the destination

This is the ash drop where the ash drawer will go, The opening is under where the arch form is sitting (just temp to see how its going to fit

[SpringJim]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

It could be an earth bermed oven!

Sod roof?

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destination

Yes, that is pretty much the idea. My plan is to bury the oven in earth then plant over the top. I will put perlite mixture to insulate then 6 mill plastic for water proof. ...water is big here the Seattle area. My idea is a hearth standing alone against the sand bank
berryst.

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

it emerges!

[SpringJim]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

Making progress....looking good Berryst.

It looks like you're using a red building brick for the dome instead of a firebrick, but the hearth looks like a different brick color with firebrick splits on top...and different brick widths and thicknesses.....what am I seeing?....details?

Has it come together as you planned?

Jim

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

You are seeing correctly. I have lots of building brick that I bought cheap on craigs list, The fire brick on the bottom was used and a little rough so I bought splits. Because the shape of the barrel and I did not want gaps I cut a few shims out of the splits. I put the shims into the wide end of the gap where the brick taper. It was easy to cut but now I need more splits Its coming along OK.
I think the barrel shape will keep the heat in but we shall see.
berryst

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

Well, You know how I said earlier that I was waiting for disaster but that so far so good, that disaster had not arrived yet. That's what I said. Well, disaster arrived last weekend. I really should stop here otherwise you'll know what a fool I was. The barrel was progressing at lightning speed . One day and the arches were almost done. There was a two inch Gap to fill but I surmised that instead of cutting all that brick to put in a two inch arch I would just shorten the oven a couple of inches. I managed to kick out the supports and get most of the barrel form out. That was when I bumped the freshly laid arch with the form .....it moved ....just a little. No problem I will just Tap it back into place...tap ....tap....tap.....CRASH!!!

The whole back arch collapsed.

That was pretty bad but apparently not bad enough. As I started to dig out the wet cemented bricks I didn't have any place to put them.....except on the still standing arches. Yes indeed I told you this was just stupid. Yep, the whole works collapsed.

Oh joy. I was pleased to wash the piled wet cemented bricks and some-now-broken fire brick. Could have waited even a couple of hours but no I couldn't wait

No Pictures!

The next morning I sort of mentioned this little set back to my wife. She sorta wondered if I was angry. Well, to heck with all of you, especially the god of brick...I'll be back next weekend. ANGRY...Well maybe just a little

I'm thinking about putting a two inch back pipe vent that I could turn off and on to regulate oxygen ...any thoughts out there?
Have a made a mistake going with building bricks... I could always stucco if the bricks begin to start spaulding?
berryst.

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

today I am back to where I left off last week! ....no tapping ever again!!!:

[dmun]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

I pre-built a number of my arches, and tried to move them before a week passed. Just doesn't work.

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

dmun
Thanks for encouragement. Your build is brilliant.
Hey, I am having trouble starting a new thread how to I start a new thread

I was looking at foiling for the slip plain before purlcrete. Is there some reason I could not just use newspaper to create a a slip plane instead of foil???

[Wiley]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

Berryst,
I used aluminum foil between the dome and the firebrick base as well as between the sections of my "cast" dome. It is not a problem to work with. I made sure as best I could that it was flat against the surface in hopes of not creating voids. Several places of the web suggest using foil between the bricks and cladding on traditional brick ovens so that there is not as much problem with expansion cracks. I would think paper might work, but foil has a track record of working and is not expensive.

Sorry to read about your collapse but glad that you're back and charging ahead.

Bests,
Wiley

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

thanks Wiley

Here is a question. The arch support to hold up the chimney is a lot of cutting. I was thinking of just putting a couple of 6" channel steel over the door and building the chimney on top of channel steel. It would be fast and easy and I have the steel just sitting around.
So, a couple of brick walls with a bridge of steel....any thoughts. Will the thermal expansion cause grief? I just don't see this approach anywhere.
berryst

[berryst]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

just a little update

I have beehives. last winter my last two hives died....bees are dying everywhere and that is discouraging. But there I was next to the hives building the oven ...bees were every where ...thousands! Two swarms of bees arrived and filled two hives. Very cool. I'm back in the honey If they survive

[Wiley]

Re: I embark upon the jouney and the journey is the destinationi

Yo Berryst,
We used to keep bees, "used to" being the primary term. I really enjoyed it but we constantly had problems with enough forage where we live. Now there's this latest colony collapse disease/problem. I understand it is not known what is causing the problem. However, I hear that areas of collapse in Florida are now having bees return :-) The average Joe Sixpack hasn't a clue how important bees are to our civilization to mankind and the world as we know it. Global warming has nothing on the problems a total loss of bees worldwide would cause.

But Very Happy for you that you have bees again :-) and a swarm of bees is one impressive sight!

Regarding using steel in these ovens. As you know I'm experimenting in my oven construction. I tend to overbuild and over think problems (I'm also very big on redundant systems). People have been using steel dampers and cast doors in ovens for a long time, maybe they don't get as hot as we are talking here but the concept is there. I would say try it with two caveats: 1) allow plenty of room for thermal expansion and subsequent contraction...if the support is just sitting on a shelf and is free to move independent of the rest of the oven then chances of cracking etc are less; and 2) if it doesn't work have a backup plan, in other words if the system you are envisioning fails so be it; but build it so you just have to rebuild the chimney not the whole oven if it does fail.


Wiley