SPRING!!! and a new project

[Acoma]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

George, me too!

[chuckster]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Oh Wow!! I thought the SC in your location was South Carolina. Stupid me!!

[TDVT]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Oh Wow!! I thought the SC in your location was South Carolina. Stupid me!!

I don't know, looks like S(outh) C(arolina) to me. We'll find out, I guess.

[gjbingham]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Huh! Me too. (South Carolina). It may be SoCal. I didn't even consider that when I was babbling. Colder water, better waves!

[Acoma]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Colder water in S. Carolina (yes). Better wave, no. George, there is no way you lived for surfing in S.cal if you can say that?

[cvdukes]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

South Carolina... smaller waves, warmer water. This time of year, we get a lot of Canadians down to bask in our warmth ...still too cold for us native sons right now without a wetsuit, but guarantee that you'ld see a bunch of thongs out on the beach.
Hey, I went in YOUR ocean one time and thought I was gonna die, and that was late August in San Diego. I can't imagine what it would be like further north on the Pacific.
No mortaring tonight. Freeze warning inland.

[Acoma]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

CV, that is when I gave up surfing, when I moved to N. Cal. Was not interested in 5mm suits and great whites.

[gjbingham]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Ahh, fond memories! The heat of August in San Diego. The Pacific's at 72 degrees F. 45 minute (to an hour or so) surf sessions before the digits went completely numb. 4 mm wetsuits in the winter in 58 degree water. Still, it beats the 53 degree water up here. My board is in the barn collecting dust, and there it will stay.

[cvdukes]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

I must have been on the wrong part of the San Diego beach, 'cause I definitely don't recall the "Heat" of August. Postively cold compared to here. And I seem to recall a water temp sign that said 64. One dip was all it took.
Give me my high 90's air temp and warm water!
What is the Mark Twain quote about the coldest winter he ever spent was the summer he lived in San Franciso? I kinda think the entire West coast has to be that way...I have frozen everytime I've been out that way.

[gjbingham]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Try Riverside or Burbank in August! Dry as a bone but hottern'hell! The deal is there's so much less humidity on the west coast, I just feels cooler. If you're within 5 miles of the beach in San Diego, it is often cloudy and cool. Go 50 miles north and it's completely different. Newport, Huntington, Seal Beaches all the way through the LA Basin to Malibu are warm and gorgeous. You've got to pay to live there though, and have steel cajones to get in that water!

[Xabia Jim]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

Link I found some info of interest. (28 wet day cure recommended)

english.html

but how will it work as refractory?

[cvdukes]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

[but how will it work as refractory?[/QUOTE]

Jim,
I have every idea that it will work... my pizza oven dome was made the same way. I first fired it October 31 and have been firing it on the average of approximately every 9 days since. Most times I have taken it up to full temperature (somewhere up above 1000 degrees f as my digital thermometer goes off-scale at that point) and we've had some fairly large pizza parties where I kept the max temps up for hours. Granted, I don't have years of data yet, but so far, there's been no evidence of cracks or other failure of the dome.

Of course, there are a few differences in this project compared to the pizza oven. Main difference is that the pizza oven is encased in loads of vermiculite insulation, whereas the monster chimnea beast will be exposed directly to the air. I could envision a problem created by a huge temperature difference between the ferro-cement and the outside air on extremely cold nights. Although, I also think that the cement will not get as hot as in the pizza oven so this may not be as bad of a problem. We'll just have to see what happens when I get it cranking hot.

[cvdukes]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project (progress report)

Had a rainy day on Sunday, so was able to a over the wire armature for the top of the beast with chicken wire. Its a little less than 2 feet tall and an inside diameter of just over 12 inches. This will bring the beast to a total height of 11 feet.

Used expanded steel mesh just under the cap for the cinder arrestor (got lots of woods around so cant risk live embers getting out). The expanded mesh was a peice of gutter guard. Have done the same on the other chimneys on the oven complex and it seems effective.

Smeared a little bit of mortar over the top of the cap from the top side... couldn't get my hands up inside the cap when adding the mortar so it was a pretty loose pack. covered with plastic and set aside until this afternoon.

Since the wife is out of town on business today, I was able to escape having to pull weeds this afternoon after work. Unwrapped the plastic and took a few pictures of the chimney cap before flipping it upside down and packing some mortar in the rest of the frame. Packed it farily well in about 30 minutes, covered it completely with plastic and rolled it to the party areas. total weight of cement mix on the cap thus far is 23 lbs.
Sort of lost track of the exact time on sunday making this wire frame...probably around 6 hours... will have to recalculate my total time and expenses.

[gjbingham]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

CV,
Tell me about your pizza oven. I've either forgotten or you didn't post the particulars previously. Pompeii brick built, prefab purchased, or some other variant? I'm interested in your lack of cracks.
Thanks
George

[cvdukes]

Re: SPRING!!! and a new project

George,
Pizza oven is a ferro-cement (only) dome

pretty much have documented it
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f3/f...html#post19294