Oven Curing

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

I have about 6" of the loose vermiculite over the top of the 3 layers of the ceramic blanket.
I should have time next week to start the curing process.
How important is it to build the fires on consecutive days?

[david s]

Re: Oven Curing

I believe a very slow and steady increase of temperature (around 25 C/hr) is called for, however particularly when firing with wood it is difficult to control the fire and keep the flame away from direct impingement and because heat rises you wil heat the top of the dome and the centre of the floor much faster and too much greater temperatures than the rest. However if you let it cool and waited several days some of the moisture would migrate back to the areas that had dried so the moisture distribution would be more even. Then when reheating the temperature difference of the different parts of the oven would be less. The consecutive days thing is really only a convenience thing IMO. I don't think it really makes much difference you just need to take it slow to be safe.

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

Very good point, it makes sense that time for the oven moisture to even out between firings will help to minimize problems. Thanks

[david s]

Re: Oven Curing

Yes, but I think you'd need more than a day for it to do that, probably about a week.

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

I probably wont wait a week in between, that would put me at about mid January to cook my pizza. I will post my process.

[kewheels]

Re: Oven Curing

I am trying to cure my oven . I live in Salt Lake and temp is 23f today. The oven is Case 2G 90 which was just given a final stucco coat last week.I cannot keep a fire going with kindling and newspaper. Should I go the torch route? Does it matter where in the oven the fire is started? I am using dry cherry ,apple and oak wood. I have split is into very small pieces and does not seems to want to catch.

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Kewheels, If this is your first heating of the oven and you haven't tried a shop lamp to start the warming, try it. First put the 500W, or so, lamp in the oven and put some plywood as a door on the entry. You'll need a bit of a gap to allow the air movement to bring in cool dry air and vent out warm moist air. After a few days of this you should be able to graduate to the curing described for your oven by the FB folks.

Chris

PS think in terms of getting a fire started snow camping. You'll need the fire up off of the cold bricks and on something dry that won't steal the heat away and snuff the fire. You're fighting the moist, cold, oven structure.

[david s]

Re: Oven Curing

New ovens are a bitch to fire because they are moist. Try some firelighters, I use dried teabags soaked in methylated spirits. As your oven dries a little it will improve.

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Davids right, you could try a can of Sterno, also known as canned heat. Put something under the can if you try it.. Let us know the results if you do.

Thanks

Chris

[That's Amore]

Re: Oven Curing

I do think the wood cure is the best but don't rush it folloe the curing thread and when you get near the end try to keep a fire going all day so not to make it the big one but to maintain at least 500 to 550 then the same the next day and increase the amount of wood to build it up to 700. after this I think you would be safe to load it up.

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

I purchased the lazer thermometer to check the temperature of the oven.
With the light bulb in the oven, the bottom wall temperatures got up to about 80 degrees while the inside top was at 140".
With such a wide range of temperatures, which should I go by when I actually use fire in the oven to cure it?
Should I use the readings from the inside back or the hottest readings at the inside top?
I guess I just need to know where to take my readings for the recommended temperatures for each firing.

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

Gino, This is a question that all of us who cure ask. I went with the roof temps and ran very long saturating burns.

Chris

PS in review of my curing process the differentuals were about 40F from top to bottom and my 250F burn was 10 hours long. The oven had reached 175F or so after using a 500W quartz lamp in it for about a day. This higher wattage lamp replaced a lower wattage lamp after several days of running about 130-140F. My curing notes start at post 111 of this thread.

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

Thanks, I will check out your notes.
After my oven cooled when using the light bulb, the inside of the stainless steel door was full of condensation, I imagine all that moisture was in the brick.

[SCChris]

Re: Oven Curing

I'd keep the bulb running right up to your first curing fire. As long as the light is moving air and drying the oven, it's an inexpensive no harm way to get a foot up on your next phase of curing.

Chris

[gtofani]

Re: Oven Curing

That sounds like a good plan. The light has been on since last night, I may add the ceramic heater to the mix but just have the fan running for air movement.