1st fire

[ls2671]

My 36" oven has been sitting fro 8 days now and I was going to do the first fire in a couple days. As of now i don't have any insulation on the outside of the dome, just a coating of fireclay and portland cement mixture over the firebicks. My plan is to enclose the strucuture, put 1" cermaic blanket and then fill it with 6-6" of perlite. Should I do this before I start curing the oven? I would prefer to wait incase i have any cracks or issues.

[mrchipster]

Re: 1st fire

My 36" oven has been sitting fro 8 days now and I was going to do the first fire in a couple days. As of now i don't have any insulation on the outside of the dome, just a coating of fireclay and portland cement mixture over the firebicks. My plan is to enclose the strucuture, put 1" cermaic blanket and then fill it with 6-6" of perlite. Should I do this before I start curing the oven? I would prefer to wait incase i have any cracks or issues.

I would start the cure before insulating, are you doing a dome or house enclosure?

What is 6-6" perlite? 6 ft 6 inches? 6.6 inches?

1 inch of ceramic over the dome is a little light if you can afford more it would help retain more heat.

Go slow with the fires.

[boerwarrior]

Re: 1st fire

I started curing before I put insulation blanket on my oven. Like Chip said, go slow initially. It is an important step in learning how your oven performs! You learn a lot about air/smoke flow and controlling temperature while you are curing!

One warning - you will most likely get some small cracks no matter what. Don't panic but watch the cracks to see of they get big enough to allow smoke to get through and out (mine didn't but some people's do). If they get big you can fill them and then no longer worry about them!

Good luck!
Neil

[ls2671]

Re: 1st fire

thanks guys! I am building an enclosure and meant to say 4"- 6" of perlite fill over the 1" ceramic blanket. Should I put insulating concrete over the 1" blanket and then the perlite fill or am i just causing more work for myself?

[texman]

Re: 1st fire

i think more layers of blanket would be better. It is way more efficient and lighter-just cost more. But easier to apply as well. If you can swing 3 layers (3") that would be great.

Texman

[Greenman]

Re: 1st fire

I started the curing fires before the insulation went on but finished the insulating layers during the curing fires. I left the stucco layer until the oven was well cured and then let that dry for a couple of weeks before the waterproofing top coat.

I did mine as a igloo and put a roof over the whole area rather than a doghouse.

Slow and long was how I started the fires and had very little by way of cracks and they were only hairline anyway. Good luck with it.