Let the fun begin!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hey PJ..
Very nice so far,, And fast.. Keep up the good work,
Cheers
Mark

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Go PJ, Great looking work and it has to be the fastest build I've seen. You are motivated!

Drake

[pjchick]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Drake,

I am motivated by 'The Boss' a.k.a Senior Management, Head of Finance, My little Commandant or Head Foreman.

I refer to none other than my lovely wife.

Trust me, I have all the motivation I need...

(she's gonna kill me when she reads this!)

Peter

[shadowace]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Newbie here. My WFO project is probably a year off in the future. I am curious, what is a "storage heater brick?" What is a "storage heater"? Is this a British or European thing?

Tom

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi Ton - I think they are a UK thing. Although not so popular these days, some eletricity suppliers used to (still do?) have lower electricty off peak (at night), so storage heaters draw on this chaper electricity throgh the night and stored in the bricks, and then released through the day.

Heres what wiki says on the matter. That font of all accurate? knowledge!Storage heater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jon
Cardiff

[pjchick]

Edible Pizza oven!

This oven building lark is getting out of hand!

It was my birthday on Saturday, my wife and my daughter made me a fantastic birthday cake!

Peter

[pjchick]

Indispensible tools!

As promised some pics om my Indispensible tools!

As i mentioned previously, it was LOW tech, but worked well for me.

Some tools are more vital than others - However I couldn't do without any of them!

[pjchick]

Switched to a form

Gravity started to kick in so I switched to a form to begin the final phase of the dome build. I cut 8 sheets of MDF to match the curve of dome the secured the top of the forms with another scrap of wood. I did not secure the bottom of the forms, they were just left to stand free.

The compound angles of bricks were starting to get pretty severe by this point,
however I managed to maintain fairly tight cement joints.

At the start of each new course I would take 2 or 3 bricks and begin cutting and test fitting them until I got the angles right. Then I'd cut the rest for the course. I had a angle grinder on hand when cementing the bricks in just in case any needed tweeking as I went.

[pjchick]

Dome Complete!

The dome's done!

WooHoo!

Really pleased with how it turned out.

I was planning in laying one more course of bricks at least before I plugged the top however the compound angles for the bricks were getting abit extreme.
In the end I wedge cut some fire bricks and stuck them in to plug the dome.

In order to check the fit and seal the dome up I had to remove the form. I must have built it fairly well as nothing moved, and no cracks have appeared inside or out.

The next stage for me is to build the chimney and front arch, then insulate, render, then paint....

Hmmm, I think I still have a fair bit to do.

Finally no build log would be complete without the 'head in the oven' shot!

Photos!...

[DaveW]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Happy Birthday! That cake is da bomb! Your dome looks great! Looking at your time stamps I can't believe how fast you work. I spend three hours just thinking about thinking about my next step.
dave

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi Pete - happy belated birthday.

I can't believe how quickly its gone upi
Out of interest - has your supply of bricks now dried up?
Oxford isnt a million miles away from Cardiff, actually its 118 to be more precise.
Would your chap have enough for another full build?

Let me know

Regards

Jon
Cardiff

[pjchick]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Jon,

I should be able to check with him next week. If I can get any more I'll let you know. Be warned these bricks are REALLY heavy I can only get about 25/30 in the boot of my car before I run out of suspension.

I'll do a brick count tonight if I can and let you know how many I used.

Peter

[John K]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Congrats on closing the dome and at a great speed!

I think I should hang my head in shame!! (6 months and still going)

Look forward to the chimney landing

cheers

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Thanks Peter - really appreciated.

Not to worry on the car front. Here's my pajero boot! can also get a trailer too. Actually, a frient has asked me if I can drop him up to oxford to pick up his motorbike which is stored there. Maybe jumping the gun, but to combine both would be great.



Regards

Jon
Cardiff

[pjchick]

It's ALIVE!!!

Ok, I know is not complete yet but what can I say - i'm weak!

After a couple of test fires last week I went for it and gave the oven a road test.

It took about 3 hours to really get up to a usable temprature, I started off with some bread and Pizza. Then cooked my roast lamb for Sunday dinner, finally a large loaf of bread to round things off.

Tempratures!

I Initally heated the oven to 360c at the top of the dome, the oven floor was about 220c. Hot enough for the bread however the Pizza took about 6-7 minutes (reckon I'd need to get it hotter). The bread took about 20-25 minutes.
While cooking I had pushed all the coals to the perimeter of the oven. Once I was happily munching Pizza and warm bread and butter I pushed all the coals back to the centre and added more wood to re-fire the oven.

I was losing a fair bit of heat since I had no insulation but not as much as I thought. When the top of the dome was 360c in the inside, the outside only got to 90-100c. Still hot but cooler than I had expected.

I Purchased an IR thermometer from ebay (?14 quid) seems to do the job well even if the instruction manual was in chinese!

Again once the coals had died down I put a leg of lamb and potatoes in to roast. I sealed the door with some bricks to keep the heat in and left it.

We had Sunday dinner in the garden and I was really chuffed to serve roast lamb straight from the oven with my first fired bread! After another quick firing I put another large loaf in. this took about 25 minutes (although it could have done with another 5 minutes more in retrospect).

Looking at the oven this morning I was relieved to see no cracks - so I reckon I got away with firing it probably abit sooner than I should have.

HAPPY DAYS!