Too hot on second firing while curing

[Il Patricio]

I am in the curing process. I have skimmed all the instructions, watched all the videos. I admit I did dive in headlong, I bought the kit and left assembly to a landscaping crew who have done this before. As far as I know, they did an decent job.

It was 20F for for a few days, by oven had been assembled for about a week. I first put a space heater in set on 90F for two days. When the walls had read 90 for 12 hours, I started my first fire. I did my level best to keep it small, but I am trying to work from home at the same time. Most of the time, it stayed between 250 and 350. It did get up to 600 once!

I noticed a crack on the top of one of the dome panels, at the corner. I know small cracks are normal, but do not know if all of our definitions of large and small are the same!

today I was firing it up for day 2, and trying harder to keep it around 400F. It was still quite warm from the day before. I was a little surprised that my fires were only getting me to 350 or so, and then like an absolute moron, I noticed that my IR gun had been toggled from F to C. Rookie, idiot mistake. Like I said, I am distracted.

So, I have been firing at 600 - 700 F for a few hours!! The original crack looks the same size, and is hardly noticeble when the soot burned off (yes, it went white...way to early, I know).

the sides also have a pretty extensive web of what I am sure are acceptably small cracks. I will upload a pic when my fire dies, and i guess to a large extent there is not really much I can do at this point. But I was wondering if anyone thinks I have done permanent damage.

Thanks, glad to be here, can't wait to share experiences that are not so stupid.

[david s]

There are two kinds of oven owners, those who say their ovens have cracks and those who lie about their ovens having cracks. The beauty about the dome configuration, particularly a hemisphere is that it can’t collapse..It’s too late now but purging an oven of moisture is best and safest if done after the insulation, which will help even out the temperature difference between the inner and outer surfaces. Additionally it is also easier for that moisture to escape if the moisture purging is done before any outer hard shell rendering is done. This also eliminates the possibility of a steam pressure build up that can crack the outer shell.