Oven Curing

[Harrison]

Re: Oven Curing

thanks David, ive decided to go with your idea and am splitting the wood to 'wrist thickness' as i go..

finally i completed my curing/firing yesterday. Today i wanted to fire it up to see how hot i can get it. Admittedly i didn't load it too much but had a descent size fire going for about an hour or so... burnt through about 24 logs 2''x3''x16'' each.

only managed to get the internal temp upto 280C... i imagined it would have got alot hotter... any advice on what im doing wrong?

the outside of my oven was only slightly warm to the touch.. and also the top of the chamber(on inside) turns white, which i am told by my elderly italian neighbour it indicates ideal cooking temp

[david s]

Re: Oven Curing

Your oven still contains water and the fuel is busy using its energy to convert it to steam. Don't try to get the dome completely white yet. Do some roasts or bread making. You will find that your oven will use less fuel and get to temp quicker the more you use it. Reread the threads on oven curing and enjoy some cooking along the way,
Cheers

[blacknoir]

Re: Oven Curing

On the last day when I reach 800 can I make a standard pizza making fire? Or should I only let it get to 800 and then die down? I'm ready to clear up the dome and cook some pizzas in the inferno from hell!!

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

I have a question on an LP burner to use for the initual 300 degree 24 hour burn.

Is this what we're talking about? (I found MK1s pictures of his burner, shown as burner2) This makes a bit more sense as nothing is combustable on his rig.


Thanks

Chris

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

It's about 7am now and I've been running a burner since 5pm last night. The interior temps have been maintained between 250 and 290 and the outside dome is 160 on top and 120 to 130 on the soldier course. The sun isn't quite up and I'm already having to adjust the burner down to maintain 300 degrees F. It's a clear warm dry morning about 60 and should go to 80 or more today. Wednesday evening I went looking for burners that would work. I found that the turkey fryers had flexable hoses to the jet assembly and these brought the hose within a couple of inches of the burner. This was not going to work. I found a burner at Lowes, in the tool area, that's either for burning weeds from concrete cracks, or for applying roll roofing. Anyway it's working great. I have a 1.25 inch 90 degree copper fitting redirecting the flame vertical and have one of the used 10 wet saw blades dispersing the flame. I've used an estimated 2/3 of a propane over the last 14 hours. I need to shutdown now and get back at it this evening.

Chris

[mluttropp]

Re: Oven Curing

Chris, any obvious signs of cracking or other problems? I was thinking of using a similar approach to cure my oven.

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Mluttropp

No cracks that I've seen yet. All that said, it's early yet, and I kinda feel like some cracking is part of the deal, I just want them to be small and stay that way. Like I tell friends, it's really just an organized pile of bricks and it's going to expand and contract. I'll get onto 350 tonight and 400 tomorrow and keep things here updated. Keep your fingers crossed.

Chris

[jmhepworth]

Re: Oven Curing

Interestingly, I didn't see any cracking until I thought I was done with the cure. After one of my earliest cooking fires -- when it really got hot -- I saw the first crack and inspected further. I've just had to become accustomed to them.

Joe

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

I figure I'm not going to know about all the cracking for a couple of weeks, after a few "big one" burns. I've included a picture of the burner I found. I set a few bricks up at the doorway to allow for heat saturation in the dome. I figure I'll have to switch to wood for the 500 degree burn and because of the current containment of the heat in the dome, I may run a low wood fire or 2 before going 400+ with wood to let the entry do a bit of baking.The wood is going to create more draft, in and out.

This burner may also be a help in getting wood fires going.



Chris

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

I've had the burn going for 14 more hours and here is the update. I started the burn at 6:30 and the oven temps were 150 on the inside and 100 on the exterior of the dome. The warmup last night seemed to take forever. I started things slow to avoid thermal shock and after 30 minutes I dialed things up a bit. I did this for about 4 hours, adding flame and taking stock 15 to 30 minutes later. I finally went wide open a bit after 10. At this point the oven was running between 280 and 300 and wasn't gaining temp quickly. Even after going wide open I haven't gotten over 340 on the interior and some areas of the dome, at the same level, are 30 degrees lower in temp. I kept checking on the temp and LP level throughout the night. The temps have continued to move up but not to the target of 350. I'd have liked to be dialing the burner down to keep from going over this mark but the burner doesn't seem to have the BTU to push past 340 given all of the variables. I've decided to insulate and see where that takes things. Currently the outside of the soldier course is 144+ and the outside top of the dome is 172. With insulation and day I'd expect to bring the interior temps up a bit. No external cracking has been noticed.

Chris

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Oven Curing

sounds fine chris, dont forget it takes a while to drive all that moisture out.. you will reach your desired temp, I am curious how much it will go up once you add the insulation,,

Cheers
Mark

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Mark,

Thanks for the encouragement, I’m also curious to see what’ll happen with the insulation. I’d hoped to get things wrapped, but the rockwool bats turn out to be rockwool soft boards. Heck they were not overly expensive, and I’ll use them, more insulation is better. I also have 3 very large bags of vermiculite and will find some quality batting, it's only money :-|... The containment building is beginning to look like it’ll be filled to the top with all sorts of insulation. I’ve started another overnight burn and hope I can run closer to the 350 mark and more important get the water out. It sounds like there is a chance of rain next weekend, so I’ll focus on getting the building up, not finished but to the point where the insulation can be finished and curing finished up as well. I found a source for wood, Almond, Orange, Oak and Eucaliptus among others. From what I saw the wood is nicely aged, I’ll have to shop for price to verify it’s market price.

Chris

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Oven Curing

Good job keeping focused Chris on getting the moisture out. I think your process of heating up the oven as you did will work out. I'm hoping that your getting to the low 300's for a few hours got you over and past the "OMG...I've got a big crack" point, and I'd bet you've done that. You'll be so happy in few weeks when you're tossing all that wood into a 700 deg fire and thinking nothing of it. And like Mark said, your temps will go way up with the insulation.

Hey and I'm glad you've found a use for those expensive, dull 10" wet saw blades! -dino

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Last night?s burn went different than I had anticipated, not bad just different. I started the burn at 6:30 and gave it an hour of gentle flame, less than full throttle, before I opened things up full. At 8:00 I was approaching 360 at 9:30 I was 370 in some places and at 11 I was about the same although the temps were more consistent. It?s at this point I decided that I could settle in for a few hours, and did. I woke at 3:30 and went to check temps, holy $#1+, I was 410 throughout, and 210 on the top outside ? of the dome, 180 on the soldiers. I decided that it was time to shut things down and take stock in the morning. The interior temps are now about 260 and the exterior top is down to 170. No cracks that I can see so far. I still need to do a real visual of the interior and exterior without the loose bats, but these will wait till things cool more. The 210 temp says to me that I was pushing steam, I didn?t see any, but the temp and broad distribution of this temp says that this is what was going on. The chimney stack was cool and the top of the interior entry arch was over 530. Today's work is to get a building frame in place. With weather coming and the need to organize the semi-rigid insulation, at least to the point where I can continue curing. I'm a bit suprised that the burner is able to push temps to 400+ without formal, taylored, insulation.

Chris

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Oven Curing

Hi Chris,,
As your driving the moisture out, you can see its building heat,, Thats great..

Cheers
Mark