Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

[gugahulk]

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

Happy birthday! Now you are older than I used to be...

Thanks CHip!... LOL.....HAHAaaaa... can't wait to put you on a monster fish so I can see how you handle yourself. Sometimes makes me cry like a little GIRL... LOL...

[mrchipster]

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

Happy birthday! Now you are older than I used to be...

[gugahulk]

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

Making some good progress, but this weekend was my birthday so had to go spearfishing with my buddies at work. I was able to complete the Front arch, I not the way I envision but happy with the results. Here is my question!

I bought some insulating firebricks. I plan to use them in front of my arch making a larger arch separating the vault completely from the front part of the oven. My question is, if I do this some parts of the insulating bricks will be exposed to air. and my food will go under it on its way to the oven vault. I have read some crazy thing about these bricks dust. Will this poison my food in any way? Will this harm the food I will be cooking on as it will pass under it every time its going in and out of the oven? Should I use refractory mortar to cover the outer part of the bricks so its not exposed to the food?

[david s]

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

Does anyone knows how much expansion a wood oven has at its full peak, or the expansion of a single fire brick at its full heat peak? I other words I would like to know how much my oven will expand as its HOT.

I did take some measurements on my first oven because of the design I was able to measure the difference in the hot inner and cool outer shell height. There was around a 5mm difference when the oven reached pizza temp, which equates to about 1% expansion. I used castable refractory and while this material is not firebrick I should think it is about the same.

[gugahulk]

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

Does anyone knows how much expansion a wood oven has at its full peak, or the expansion of a single fire brick at its full heat peak? I other words I would like to know how much my oven will expand as its HOT.

[DavidApp]

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

Hello Gugahulk

Very neat brick work.

I had to use small spacers to keep my joints even. I know it is cheating but I am no brick mason.

Keep up the good work. You will be cooking in no time.

On the wood front have you contacted any local wood fired Barbecue places to see where they get their wood.

David

[mrchipster]

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

Beautiful work. You are coming along nicely.

[gugahulk]

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

Making some progress at night. Every night.

[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

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.

[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

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.

[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.

[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 .

[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.