Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

[NCMan]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

You can also use your oven as a kiln to dry out wood. Simply place a few pieces in after your oven cools a bit, close the door and it will be nice and dry for you. Also, if you do a bit of smoking, I find the wood smokes a lot better if it's not dried out, even green. I use hickory, wild black cherry, apple, pecan and white oak to cook and smoke with. My 2?.

[Gulf]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Drying time will be effected by humidity as well. We talked earlier in this thread a little about dead trees and limbs. That is one way that I fueled my oven until the fresh cut had seasoned. You might consider "buying" (I don't even like saying that word in the same sentence with firewood ) some seasoned wood to get you started. I don't know any thing about South Florida. But, if you can find a source for dry wood you wont have to have as large of storage on hand. IE: Sawmills, furniture makers, tree trimmers etc. Just about any wood that is dry and not treated with some chemical will do .

[Gulf]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

You can also use your oven as a kiln to dry out wood. Simply place a few pieces in after your oven cools a bit, close the door and it will be nice and dry for you. Also, if you do a bit of smoking, I find the wood smokes a lot better if it's not dried out, even green. I use hickory, wild black cherry, apple, pecan and white oak to cook and smoke with. My 2?.

I do that in damp weather. But, only to rid previously seasoned wood of a that little extra moisture for the next cook. I haven't tried that with fresh cut oak. I'll have to give it a go sometime. But, smoking meat with gguhrreen wood . No thanks, been there and done that. I agree that it does smoke better. Lots and lots of it.............. It just taistes bad .

Edit: Sorry, for a minute, I thought that I was on the BBQ Brethren's site .

[NCMan]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

But, smoking meat with gguhrreen wood . No thanks, been there and done that.

I didn't actually mean "cut it up w/your chainsaw and slap it into the oven" green. I meant using wood that is not entirely "seasoned" to smoke with. I have, however, taken some fairly green wood, (usually hickory or pecan), and dried it out in my oven overnight to smoke with the following day. Works really well.

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Guys need your help real quick, there is jointing sand and leveling sand in home depot. I just notice I bought jointing also called multi use sand. Can I use that under the oven floor for leveling or it must be leveling sand? see image below of the product.

[mrchipster]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Good choice. The other stuff is much to coarse. And designed to level patio pavers.

[mlucas]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

You do not have enough lateral support for the weight of the total build.
It will not take much to push if to the right causing a catastrophic collapse! With the narrow 4-4 1/2" wall, you should have built pilasters in to the walls. (Or better yet, a double thickness wall.)

Pull out my forms today. I am happy with the results. Now just waiting for the boards to arrive so the fun can begging. The wedges was a great idea and thanks for everyone that told me to do it. It would have been very difficult to remove the forms without it. See pictures below.

[Gulf]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Though, I probably would have turned the front corners with a whole brick, the slab ties the side walls and the rear wall together. For it to twist and fail, that connection would have to separate. I think that it will take a lot of force to make that happen. But then, I don't live in earthquake country .

[mrchipster]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

I agree with gulf the way you poured your slab your walls are keyed into the slab it would take quite a rotational force to. Cause a collapse and I am not sure Miami has ever has an earthquake. Hurricane yes, earthquake no.

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

You do not have enough lateral support for the weight of the total build.
It will not take much to push if to the right causing a catastrophic collapse! With the narrow 4-4 1/2" wall, you should have built pilasters in to the walls. (Or better yet, a double thickness wall.)

I can only hope you are wrong. I might ad another side all on the right and close the front with a arch. But since my oven is quite small I don't think it will collapse. We also have no earthquake here and my ground is very stable. Hurricane we do have but I believe I should be ok as its solid right now. Looking forward to your build.

[NCMan]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

I can only hope you are wrong. I might ad another side all on the right and close the front with a arch. But since my oven is quite small I don't think it will collapse. We also have no earthquake here and my ground is very stable. Hurricane we do have but I believe I should be ok as its solid right now. Looking forward to your build.

I believe you will be fine. Granted, it's not an ideal design, but I would not be overly concerned. My 2?.

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

It has began. I was planning on getting alot done this week. But I had to redo my floor 3 times. My ceramic boards where not lining up right. So I thought ok I will compensate that with sand. So I leveled it with said. HUGE MISTAKE! I complete the hole floor like that and put the first corse of the side walls, than once I was done I notice that since I put alot of sand under the first course it was not very stable and the bricks were not solid. If wind was to blow a little of the sand away that the bricks would be floating. So I took the whole thing apart and started over.

That I used used an utility knife to cut the fiber board into proper shape so it would align perfectly. Wow my hands was killing me after the first 3 cuts. So I was like F*$% this $h!*T! I am going to use my angle grinder to cut it and it cut beautifully. I read on many post that everyone was cutting the ceramic fiber board with an utility knife don't do it. I have blisters to prove it. It will cut but not worth the trouble. So when i was done cutting all the boards and I started to put it all in place and leaned also from my mistake that I should not use sand to level if its completely off with sand. So I used my angle grinder to grind off the ceramic boards until they were completely level and perfect to my liking. So I started laying down the bricks and I was really happy to actually start mortaring the brick which is what I really like. it was about 4pm on sat when I was done with the 2nd corse of the side walls. I was just so excited to start building that I did not even step back and look at the whole thing I was doing. So when I was pretty much done for the day I step back to notice that my oven was not perfectly aligned with my base walls. It was way to the right of it. I was like FFFFFFUUUUU%! my life! This cant be happening to me. I said you know what I need to take a break. So this all happening on sat. I woke up at 6am and was working on the oven until 4pm and I did not had anything to eat. So, I stopped too a brake went to eat an watched a movie once movie was done went back to the oven. Took it completly apart removed all the mortars from the used bricks and moved the boards 4 inches to the said and stared over. I was done setting the floor at 10 pm. I was dead.

After going to sleep I woke up 8am on fathers day my kids and wife game me some nice gifts and my wife prepared a strong huge egg sandwich for me so I can start the work again. Since all was ready from sat I started mortaring the first corse and 1 brick on the second course as you can see the picture below. I can finally say that I have learned alot from this weekend. One think that I learned the most is that do not rush things. There is no reason to... Dont work tired and hungry as you will not care about what you are doing as your mind is thinking about food.... and most important if you are tired and dont want to work on it dont do it at that moment. You will regret it later and do double the work. I am pretty happy on how it is right now and I am looking forward to this week as I plan on finishing the side walls and front. The blue take is so that the insulation dont get wet and the same thing for the floor. I have a lychee tree on the side of the oven and they fall in the oven and the juice of the fruit is sticky so I can stand cleaning the bricks all the time so its a win win for me as I dont have to clean the mortar falling and the juice from the fruits that fall.

[DavidApp]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Hello Gugahulk

Making good progress.

I am a bit late to the chainsaw party but I was out of town. You may already have a Bow Saw but if you do not they are a good tool for cutting up smaller limbs and do not require gas. I make a lot of use of one for the smaller pieces.
Remember to take into account of any pent up energy in limbs that are under a fallen tree but still attached to the tree. When you cut them they can spring back in unexpected ways. Also consider what will happen as you cut through the fallen tree trunk. If it sags one way the saw cut will open up but it can close up and trap the saw.
Larger pieces will need to be split up. A maul is the easiest and cheapest way to do that but you put in sweat equity.
Work carefully and safely.

David

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Making some progress at night. Every night.

[mrchipster]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Beautiful work. You are coming along nicely.