took the plunge!

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

nice night for a fire

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

It's been a week of small fires! is it ready? i have had at least 3 paper and now cedar shingles fires each day for a week. i am nervous to light a "real" fire.. is it time? and is it time to start the insulating blanket and vermicrete exterior? on the edge of cliff here, need a push

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

here is a few photos from a few minutes ago. During my fire i am getting interior dome top up to 300, and exterior is up to 106. some hairline cracks are starting to show around the dome, i am sure they will grow as the fires do.

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

Looks Great!

I was shocked at 23 bags until I saw the bag. I ordered ours online from McMaster-Carr

As I remember, our vermiculite slab was still spongy after a day. I think I waited almost a week to build on it, however, if yours is solid, I say go for it.

I've been on other building forums but as soon as my project was finished, I left the forum. Here there are quite a few members with finished ovens so who knows, Fornobravo could be a lasting addiction.

Dave

Dave i followed your lead!! mcmaster carr delivered to my door in 2 business days and i bought four huge bags for 1/4th of what i spent on all those little bags!! thanks again

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

big fire big cracks

[david s]

Re: took the plunge!

On using the sonotube to save sand, another way is to use some polystyrene boxes and pile the sand on top of them. They are light and easy to break but will be strong enough to support the sand.

[david s]

Re: took the plunge!

Lousdepot,
You can throw some plastic over the dome while it is firing to see if there is any condensation on the plastic. This will tell you if there is still moisture in the structure. You can also use the same technique after adding the vermiculite layer. Don't burn or melt the plastic though.

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

had fire going for 5 hours today. got one hot enough for pizza. had some store bought dough. cooked four pizza's one edible. floor temp was in 850 range. dome wasnt as hot due to lack of insulation on dome i believe. Lots of cracks but nothing alarming. going to insulate and start vermicrete tomorrow

[pizza_bob]

Re: took the plunge!

Lousdepot,

Nice build and I'm impressed/jealous as to how quickly you fired this thing up!
What size oven is it? What size flue di you go with? It looks like an 8" x 8". I'm doing my flue/vent area now. I ended up going with a 8" x 12" for a 42" oven. I can't quite make out in your photo how you mounted the flue. Is it just resting on an opening that is slightly smaller than the flue?

Thanks,
Bob

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

Lousdepot,

Nice build and I'm impressed/jealous as to how quickly you fired this thing up!
What size oven is it? What size flue di you go with? It looks like an 8" x 8". I'm doing my flue/vent area now. I ended up going with a 8" x 12" for a 42" oven. I can't quite make out in your photo how you mounted the flue. Is it just resting on an opening that is slightly smaller than the flue?

Thanks,
Bob

Bob, thanks!! that is awful nice coming from you. I tried when i started to make my dome like yours and realized after about 10 min that was not going to happen.no patience and not much skill. but it was a nice reference guide. I had a helper for a good 3 days so it went a lot faster than i expected. I built a 42" ended up with nearly 43" interior width, 21.5 inch high dome, and a 12.5 opening. And yes all i did was make a mount that was same interior dimensions as clay flue and just used heat stop to mount it. I used a 8x8 clay flue but that is exterior dimensions(thought i made a big mistake) interior dimensions were 6 1/4 x 6 1/8 i believe. Anyway i did a few days with a hot construction light and then almost a week of small fires and today had a huge fire and i cant believe that flue is still like the day i put it down. I plan on doing an igloo style finish and will probably cover the first 6 inches with vermiculite concrete mixture that i will be putting on top of blanket insulation. except for early fires and windy conditions the smoke is not a problem. once it gets going there was no smoke at all!! and i was going to add a piece to extend it up another foot or two(not sure how i was going to connect the two pieces) anyway i may skip it now.
I noticed you are from new england also! how do you plan on finishing your dome? i am going to try to stucco my igloo when done, not sure this will hold up in our neck of the woods.. cant wait to see yours finished. looks like one of the best on here! later, Lou

[pizza_bob]

Re: took the plunge!

[QUOTE=I noticed you are from new england also! how do you plan on finishing your dome? i am going to try to stucco my igloo when done, not sure this will hold up in our neck of the woods.. cant wait to see yours finished. looks like one of the best on here! later, Lou[/QUOTE]

Hello Lou,

Thanks for the compliments and flue information. My build has been one of the longest on this site which might be the reason it's coming out nice. I have no patience either and that's part of the reason this is taking so long - I basically walk away from it whenever I have some trouble. in the end - I'm sure mine will be cracking like the rest of them.

I plan on putting a cement board enclosure around the dome and then finishing it off with a thin stone. See the image below for the thin stone.

I want to se if I have time today to finish the arch. Not much left there as you can see in the image below.

Thanks again for your help an happy cooking!

Regards,
Bob

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

wrapped dome in blanket and chicken wire and started the vermiculite layer, will finish that tomorrow it was time to fire up and make pizza for the family. What a difference this oven was with the insulation! wow 1000 degrees in the dome and 85 on the outside! impressive. here are some pics of today one shows how clear the interior got when up to temp...

[Lousdepot]

Re: took the plunge!

finished the vermicrete layer and tried to keep a decent dome shape. This oven has approximately 3 layers of FB blanket, about 3" and then an average of 3" of vermicrete... cooked pizza's last night and with my makeshift door (2 pieces of metal with FB blanket wrapped in a piece of my welding blanket sandwiched in the middle) i had an inside temp of 313 degrees over 24 hours later!!
Now in a week i'll try stucco for the first time and then try and make this a little better on the eyes....

[brung99]

Re: took the plunge!

Hi Lousdepot,
I was reading your post with interest and found it ended just after you added the vermicrete layer around the dome. I was keen to see how has your oven has turned out. I would love to see finished photos of your project.
Regards,
Bruno

[Lburou]

Re: took the plunge!

Pool supply business is a good source for cheap vermiculite. Here it is about $19 for a HUGE bag of straight vermicultie, or $24 for same size bag premixed with cement. Had to talk to a couple pool stores and explain what I was doing before one would help me get the stuff, then I simply pulled a couple bags out of a tractor trailer load they had at their supply yard.

CB

This advice is on the "keeper" list

A clarification please, was this business 'pool building' or 'pool supply' (like floaties and water conditioners)?

Thanks for posting that!