Corner Build in South East PA

[Chris inPA]

Ope-dog I fired it up for the 1st time this year last weekend. It took much longer to get up to temp. I presume that was due to trapped moisture.

[Ope-dog]

Chris in PA.. your build looks great. Despite reading your threads several months ago, and all the planning I put into my hearth.. I did the exact same thing you did. Made the hearth wide enough for the diameter of the oven and totally fudged the length needed for the landing. The corner design looks great and saves space.. but compounds the math involved to make sure everything fits, apparently. lol. Anyway, I know you're into the chilly time of year back there.. just curious if you're using it this time of year and how it's holding up with freezing temps now in the picture? Are you taking any extra steps to winterize it at all?

Thanks!

[Chris inPA]

I just shot it with the IR scanner. The left (clear) side is 412, the right side is 390. My mind says that small of a difference is likely attributed to having the fire not center of the oven.

[Chris inPA]

The fires are now full sized. No longer little twigs.

[Chris inPA]

I finally got the bricks to start clearing. I've been doing curing fires almost daily since 10/03. There was a whole lot more moisture in the p-crete than I has imagined. With that said, the Wall is still jet black. The whole dome looked like this as of 2 days ago. UtahBeehiver do you think this is still too much moisture left over before I put on the outer render? If so, I'll do a few more days of cures.

[david s]

This is my solution, there are many others.
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...502#post431502

[Chris inPA]

I couldn't find a tile that I really liked for the face of the hearth. So, I cut down bricks and did a facade

[Chris inPA]

Curing fires continue

[Chris inPA]

I couldn't find a tile that I really liked. So, I'm covering the face of my slab with thin bricks.

[david s]

The insulated door is a very difficult problem. The first one you make may not be your final solution- Stainless, while being less conductive than mild steel still has its problems. It’s high relative conductivity and weight can be mitigated somewhat by using thin material. Unfortunately stainless has the characteristic of warping quite badly under heat, the thinner you go the worse it gets. The situation is also compounded because the inside face of the door will not be heated evenly. The centre of the door receiving more heat by radiation than the the perimeter especially as some of it will be hiding behind the door rebate. A warping door face can create sealing problems at the door mouth face. You might get lucky and strike a good compromise between stainless thickness, weight and conductivity to avoid this, but more likely to have to experiment with making more doors. Treat the first one as a prototype.

[Chris inPA]

Ope-dog I've been putting a lot of thought into that.

Door: I'm going to pay for this as I can't weld. I want a piece of insulation sandwiched between 2 pieces of stainless with the outermost being slightly larger to stop at the beginning edge of the inner arch. There will be stand off brackets going outward from that. To which a wooden face "door" will be attached.

Render: smooth stucco covered with bright white thoroseal.

[Ope-dog]

Congrats on getting to the point of curing, Chris! There is a lot of information here regarding curing, and I know it will most likely be the toughest part of the build for me... ie.. waiting to start curing.. and then waiting through the process of small fires for a week or two! Patience isn't really MY virtue.. so I'm hoping this build will help install some in me. :-)

Regardless, you've got a nice looking oven and a lot of effort went into it! Have you decided what you plan to do for a render or covering for the dome?

[UtahBeehiver]

There is a ton of water in vcrete so you really should let it air dry for a week or two before curing. This is the point where we see builders get impatient and fire too soon, too hot, too fast and crack their ovens.

[Chris inPA]

Here goes!!!!

[Chris inPA]

Curing fires are next.