Hi

[brickie in oz]

I did a course last weekend with Alan Watt on Wood Fired Pizza Ovens.

Here is mine so far, I started it yesterday morning and it took about 4 hours to get to the oven base completed.

[Jed]

Re: Hi

Hey Brickie,

Welcome to this site.

Your oven base looks great! Off to a super start.

Will you include a refractory insulation under your cooking floor, or will your cooking floor set directly on the holey bricks?

What style and material will you use to finish the outside of your oven?

At the rate you are going, you will be cooking soon!

Keep us posted with your pictures.

JED

[brickie in oz]

Re: Hi

Hi Jed.

I put a 40mm calcium silicate board under the bricks and filled the holes in the bricks with a strong mortar mix, the bricks have sand underneath them too.

The outer oven will be castable refractory concrete with thermal blanket on top, then a concrete cover and rendered.

I intend to mimic the lower arch for the oven opening.
I picked up some terracotta tiles for the outer surround today, so I should get it finished off on Sunday next.

Hopefully we can have a Pizzafest for Easter....

How long do you think it should be cured once the sand molding is taken out?

[Jed]

Re: Hi

The 'curing' question....

There is a thread on this forum that details the 'prescribed' curing program. Most of us have used this program with good success.

Since you work with cement (concrete- mortar), you know the cure is a chemical process that uses water. The cement won't reach it's 'near maximum' strength for 28 days after setting, and it needs moisture to complete this chemical reaction.

With your first curing fire, you begin to drive the moisture from the cement, cutting short the chemical curing process. So the question is 'how strong, is strong enough?" The cement that is involved with the dome of the oven is the only cement that is effected by this curing process, and the dome is a shape that will hold itself together. So if the cement doesn't come to full strength, so what? Strong enough is strong enough..

The general procedure for curing the oven is to let the dome set for a week or so before starting the 'curing fires', and build small fires in the first days, and ever larger fires over the following days for a week or two before building a full - big - hot fire. The other issue to be aware of is that the fire will turn the water in the cement to steam or vapor which expands in size relative to the water. If it expands to fast, it can cause cracking to occur in the cement.

So the upshot is read the thread that details a curing process and get busy with the fires.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f16/...uring-767.html

Does the manufacturer for your castable refractory concrete detail a curing procedure? This oven curing procedure is designed around a fire brick oven. I don't know how the castable material will be different.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the build!

JED

[brickie in oz]

Re: Hi

Thanks Jed.

So Easter will be out then....?
Not to worry, Id rather have a good strong oven than set a date by which to use it.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Hi

More pics of the progress.
The sand dome with flue opening in place, and the brickwork almost done.

Cheers, Allan