Getting my barrel started!

[Tscarborough]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

NCman, what are you basing your recommendations upon?

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Well I pulled the forms off. Looks pretty good! Thanks the advice unfortunately I pulled the forms from underneath. The finished thickness was 4.3 inches. The vibrating sander did a great job of removing air. There are a few blemishes in the service I would like to polish out. Any recommendations?

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Picture of it after I pulled the forms.

[Gulf]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

[QUOTE=Rotterdam;17The vibrating sander did a great job of removing air. There are a few blemishes in the service I would like to polish out. Any recommendations?[/QUOTE]

There should not be very much of your hearth slab exposed after it is finished .

Edit: Looks great to me

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Correct after it's all said in done there will be an 8" curved ledge in front.

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

When originally looking at doing this project it looked like too much for me to handle. Finishing this has been encouraging!

Now a question? I've got a 2" foam glass board but nothing really to put on top of that, except some vermiculite or pearlite. I'm trying to decide if I need to go hunting for cal-sil board or maybe add an couple inches of vermicrete to go under the slags I have for my hearth. I would rather error on the Side of caution and over do it than under build.

[Gulf]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Correct after it's all said in done there will be an 8" curved ledge in front.

You can place some slurry mix (portland and very fine sand) in any of the "spider holes" now while it is still green and smooth those down with a stiff sponge. A few hours later, you can use a fine grit automotive wet sand paper and water to simi-polish. Even later, you might get away with using some acylic fortifier to give it a shine.

If you are looking for a glistening polished effect, you may have to spring for some diamond polishing pads for that curved area.



They are the rectangular blocks in the pic. They are diamond coated sponge pads. I got mine off ebay. I think that Stoncutter recomended them or something similar for the curved areas. They did work great for the curved areas of my polished concrete.

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Thanks gulf! I took some fine grit paper to knock down a rough areas.

[NCMan]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

NCman, what are you basing your recommendations upon?

Knowledge and lots of experience. I stand by what I say. I should ask you the same.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

The same, 30 years experience in concrete and masonry. We strip forms ASAP and often used berm and flood curing when I was doing commercial flatwork. Chalk it up to regional differences, I guess.

[NCMan]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

I guess. I could go into this a whole lot more, but it's probably best to leave it alone. That's what I'll do.

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Well I'm up to 2 weeks of concrete and masonry experience, so I appreciate the help. I'm sure you are both very knowledgable.

Here a pic of my stash of firebrick I got cheap!

I've got 50 no2 wedges
200 no 2s. (I think that's what they are called)
6 slags 13.5 x 16 x 4.5
And as many flats as I want to dig up from my fence.

I'm trying to lay them out to see what will work best on my platform.

I'm hoping I can use the wedges to build the opening and chimney area. If you have thoughts I'd love to hear them. I'll start building on 7/27 when I get back from DC.

And if anyone needs a stack of brick like I had I know where to get them for about $100 near Burlington IA.

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

The red pavers in the pic above were an experiment. I went to high-temperature refractory warehouse in St. Louis. And they recommended I used morcoset 50 premixed mortar. So I bought two buckets. After I purchased I read somewhere in the forums that somebody had used this product and then the rain came and eroded all the mortar away. I was paranoid that I wasted $70, So I mortared those bricks together and left them outside in the rain and they are as solid as can be even after leaving them in a bucket of water for a week. My guess is that this gentleman bought some of the morcoset that needs heat to set up.

Rott

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Back from a business trip, that elevated platform has had a week to dry. Yesterday I tried making the vermiculite and Perlite concrete mixture for the first time. I use the ratio of 3:3:1 I was fairly surprised at the amount of water needed to make the mix workable. I use some 2 x 4s to form of a 4 foot 545 inch rectangle then added my 2 inches of foam glass right in the bottom of the forms. In hindsight it probably would've been smarter to put the foam glass on top just because now I know it's going to take a very long time for that to dry out... My thinking at the time was that it was easier to do it this way so I didn't have to rip the two by fours and have to get an additional 2 inches of insulation. I broke down the forms this morning it's still pretty moist but it's set up nicely and has a firm but slightly spongy feeling which I guess is do just to the materials used. I'm not sure how to let how long to let this dry before I can set the hearth. Because I can't work out for a few days I'm heading to my dads to go fishing in Wisconsin and we will check it when I get back on Friday. I'll upload a few pictures when I get a better Internet connection.
If anybody has insight on how long will that dry feel free to chime in please!

[Rotterdam]

Re: Getting my barrel started!

Made some good progress today. Set the oven floor using a bit of sand for leveling. Cut my arch supports using plywood and some left over drywall I had laying around. Then laid my first layer of bricks! I had been hesitant to start but after the first couple of bricks I got the hang of it. I've included a few pics comments welcome!

Can't get photos to upload...I'll try again later.