Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

[ronwass]

Today's progress

Well, I cut the insulation. It seems to be the exact same color as the fireclay dust from my brick cutting, which leads me to believe that it is of a similar chemical makeup.

I used the fireclay dust mixed with mason's sand to lay my bed of bricks on top of the insulation.

As you can see, I started laying down my herringbone. I had to re-do the whole thing a time or two to get it straight front to back.

The level shows pretty much spot on front to back, but a bit low on the right side. I'm going to rework those bricks a bit with more fireclay tomorrow.

The local masonry supply was out of straight fireclay. I was going to do a homebrew mortar with the sand and the portland cement I got at Home Depot, but I don't know where to get fireclay now. The same supply place also had Heatstop mortar in a 50 pound bag for about $60.

I don't know if you can see it, but when the insulation board got a little wet on the front right corner, it started to disintegrate. I have tarped the whole table until tomorrow.

It's hard to see in the picture, but on the right side of my herringbone, my craigslist bricks include some 4.5x12. Makes way fewer small pieces towards the edge.

I am going to be doing the walls directly on the floor type of build. My bricks are so chipped already, there is no reason to plan ahead to be able to replace a future chip.

[ronwass]

making fast progress

The harbor freight wet saw makes short work of these bricks. My floor is done. I've done some dry laying out here. Amazing how fast you can progress when you are not out for perfection.

Notice how I plan on using brick chips to space the courses to the correct angle. Seems better than wood shims which have to be removed.

I also plan on cutting the opening sides to meet the backs of the soldier course, rather than cut the soldier course bricks.

Is this enough of a door stop? Speaking of doors, I was going to buy one from FB, but I looked around the site, and it seems to me that they only sell doors as part of the kits. True?

Any other comments? I plan on studying some builds here to get ideas for brick cuts.

[ronwass]

Pizza peel seems to be able to get in everywhere.

I don't have a handle yet for this nice stainless steel peel that a friend gave me as a building present. He also lent me a concrete mixer that came in quite handy.

[deejayoh]

Re: Today's progress

The local masonry supply was out of straight fireclay. I was going to do a homebrew mortar with the sand and the portland cement I got at Home Depot, but I don't know where to get fireclay now.

Use the brick dust from your tray for fireclay. Screen it to get rid of the big chunks. It will work fine. No need to buy fireclay unless you want to have more stuff to throw out.

[boerwarrior]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Home Depot sells stuff called Mortar Clay which people here (including me) have used.

It's a good idea to use firebrick dust but I couldn't generate it fast enough! Of course now that my build is over I have plenty

Have you thought about making a single angle cut when you cut your firebricks in half for your dome courses? Same number of cuts (one cut per brick) but you end up with much smaller "wedges" between your dome course bricks. Much less mortar filling needed.

Several threads here show how to do that.

[ronwass]

I'm ready to start mortaring.

I used all my brick cutting waste for the dry bed below the floor. I did find a fireclay supplier near me for $20 for 50 lbs.

So now I have my portland cement, mason's sand, and fireclay. (I'm ignoring the disclaimer.)

What and where do I get lime for my 3:1:1:1 mix?

The test mix below is a mixture of 3,1,1 (sand, cement, fireclay) no lime.

The consistency seemed good. I spread it to try to encapsulate the insulation. It didn't harden quickly. A few hours later it was starting to set up.

How do you get the joint between the mortar and the concrete slab waterproof so that your under-insulation stays dry?

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

So I bought some lime, and I continued to seal up the bottom insulation. I used a little less water to mix this mortar. It dried a little faster. Seems solid enough, especially since this will all be covered by blanket insulation, chicken wire, and another coat of stucco.

I am using plywood for my forms. I cut them into quarter circles, but I still may not be able to remove them at the end of the build. Is it OK to burn plywood in here?

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Looking nice Ron, You could burn them but I would fear that much plywood would make a larger fire then you would want on your first burn. You really want to slow cure your oven.

I would cut your forms into smaller pieces and scab them together with screws then once your build is done unscrew the form. No one piece should be larger then your oven opening.

Are you having fun yet?

[SCChris]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

What Faith said!! Burning the plywood to clear it out will be a much bigger burn than you'll want.. Curing needs to be done slowly. Think in terms of a very low penetrating heat done over many hours or days. I recommend starting with a high wattage work lamp kept on for several days and closing the oven opening enough to contain heat but not so much that you don't get some circulation of air. I also feel that once your oven interior goes above 250F or so, wrapping the oven loosely with insulation helps to minimize the heat related stress. This is my opinion, others have their take on curing.


Chris

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Got it, will do, but I'm a looooonng way from curing burns.

What do you guys think of my idea of using brick shards for shims?

Also, do you think it a good idea to taper the bricks so there isn't such a large space between each brick left to right in each course? (They are already tapered a bit top to bottom, not to say that I can't do more.)

I can always go back to the Craigslist guy if I run out of bricks. I have about 80 that I can cut in half to make 160 halves, but the guy had hundreds in his basement, if not thousands, for a buck a piece.

Ron

[mikku]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

By adding that much more water your concrete will be weaker. If you use a superplasticizer you can get it more fluid without having to add that extra water.

This is out of sequence for the thread, but I did look up superplasticizers and they seem to be quite the product. Now I am searching locally for a product that I can use. Looks like you can get the fluid consistency needed for quick placement without the additional amounts of water. We pump concrete on a regular basis for projects I work on, I never even checked with the concrete company what they put into the concrete to allow the very fluid mix and still get design strength concrete.

I am looking forward to playing around with this new item! Thanks for bringing up the topic --You are right again..

[SCChris]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Got it, will do, but I'm a looooonng way from curing burns.
Ron

Yes you are!

:-)

Chris

[ronwass]

My first few bricks drystacked

Here is the beginning of the first course dry stacked. You can see that I am going for a very simple design as far as the transition between dome and arch opening is.

Sorry, I don't know why some of the pics are coming out sideways.

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

My first few bricks mortared in. I'm using the home brew method.


3 parts sand, Maybe 3.5 parts sand.
1 lime
1 portland cement
1 fireclay.

After these first few, I will work harder getting less space between the bricks where they face the inner part of the oven.

[Laurentius]

Re: My first few bricks drystacked

Here is the beginning of the first course dry stacked. You can see that I am going for a very simple design as far as the transition between dome and arch opening is.

Sorry, I don't know why some of the pics are coming out sideways.

Aren't you lying down on the job?