Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Well, here we are with Christmas over, in a New Year, back from vacation and determined to get the stone exterior finished. This project has been d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g!
Santa bought Dave an infrared thermometre for Christmas - it was hard to track down one in Canada with a high range and that didn't cost the earth. (Shipping from the U.S. almost doubled the price due to customs and duty.) Any Canucks can PM me for more info on the purchase.

We built a few curing fires over the last couple of months and used the residual heat for some cooking; ribs and pork roasts were deliciously tender left overnight. We are short of wood and just have not had the time to locate a supply of well-seasoned wood as we were out of town alot.
Unfortunately, our temporary door (just a piece of plywood cut to size) caught fire so Dave has had to make a new one until we can get a real one made. We will look for a metal merchant to make it, probably with a thermo-coupler inset. I don't see alot of photos for inspiration on the site - any more out there?

So here are my men doing the stone. It is taking a few days since the weather has been colder than usual (below freezing at night); not good for the mortar and the site also faces north. The photo of the back shows the clean-out door installed.

Karen

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Okay, so this is what happened today. Only a few square feet of stone left to go as well. Honestly, what is up with the weather?! This is unusual for this time of year; go away already!

To top it off, we just got back from Costa Rica on the weekend so are pretty thin-skinned right now - brrrrr! If only my ruby slippers were working.......

Karen

[waynespizzaworld]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Nice look to your oven. Couple of things I can help you with from some of your earlier posts. I believe the fire brick you have is sold by Clayburn in Abotsford and they would be medium duty with skagit name and light duty if they say flame. I am not too far from you guys with the same species of wood to choose from. I have tried Arbutus as well as I thought the btu's it putts out would be good but like fir its not the best for cooking food. Arbutus is also a real pain to dry and split. I have found Alder and Maple is the best. I use small amounts of cedar at start up and then Maple or Alder for cooking pizza. If the Alder is split real small and you have a good storage for it with air flow and sunshine it will dry out pretty quick. Its also nice to cook without too much bark. The trick for this is big alder trees. After bucking them up before you split them you can almost knock all the bark off with a sledge hammer. Bark seems to smoke up the oven.
I noticed a familiar bucket of pre mix on one of your pictures.....was that Super 3000? I am using Super 3000 and molitX for my current project.

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Hi, Wayne. We cruise up around Garden Bay - lovely area.
Yep, that was Super 300 in the pics.
Thanks for the input on the wood; we'll keep that in mind and try and source some alder. Dave is going to go and chop some wood this weekend for next year. We've just been using the wood (mostly fir and arbutus) off our property for curing. Doesn't seem to be alot of choice locally......

Karen

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Finished the stone - TG for that!! I think there has been rain almost every day so it took waaaaay too long. And it was miserably cold.

Dave tried to polish-up the counter a bit, after dismantling the scaffold and cleaning-up. He likes to create a design where the concrete shows more 'speckles' (i.e. aggregate), at the edges graduating to less towards the centre. Sort of a 'weathered' or worn look but it was far too hard. Fine with me as there is enough visual texture with the stone.

Chimney hood and door next.

Karen

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Cap

We needed a cap of some sort for the chimney to ward off the worst of the rain. There were several options but Dave brought home a precast 'hooded cap' the other day, to see what I thought. I like it! I think it goes well with the greys and the concrete. Simple and cheap.

Karen

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

The door

Dave went to a local steel supplier and had them cut a flat piece of 3/8" rolled steel from the template he'd made for the door (cement board - our temporary fix). He then found a couple of old floats we had with identical handles, took them off and screwed them to the door. He put squares of that felt used for furniture feet between the steel and the handle to minimize the heat transference. He scalloped the edges of the steel with his grinder to make them less sharp and give a bit of character. He was going to make a pattern of flames as well but I'm not sold.

I scored a thermocoupler/thermometer from a very helpful man at HD; these aren't a stock item but he had a junk box of excess BBQ parts, offered to sort through them for one and gave it to me for nothing - kudos to 'Mo' at HD!
Eventually we will paint it with the high-temperature black but at least it is more functional. We thought we might need something to prevent it from tipping back but it probably won't be necessary; if you tilt the bottom of the door slightly, it stays put nicely.

Karen

[Jamie Ker]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Great Build, I am just starting to plan my own WFO Build here in Nanaimo, but am still quite aways from starting, as I have a few other backyard plans I have to start and finish first. I notice you mentioned you sourced your firebrick though Clayburn in Abbotsford, but where did you source the mortar, and insulation blankets. I have found the that Steels in Nanaimo carries the some standard size firebrick and I believe they also carry the mortar, but any info you have would be great. When I get closer to my build, I might have to see if you and Dave would be up for Drink or 2 at the Rocking Horse.

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Hi, Jamie.
We thought about our oven for close to a year before we finally started. By the time we did, we were overloaded with information from this site! In the end, you just had to start on it, even though we weren't sure of the finished design. The building of our WFO halted our deck reno and we still have that to finish this spring - will it stop raining long enough?! - so I can sympathise with getting other projects done. We are often the barefoot family of the shoe-maker!

We have an account with Steels but I can't remember the reason we didn't use their product. I'll have to ask Dave.
We got the Super 3000 and the ceramic blankets from OCL industries in Surrey. Hopet hat helps.

And we're always up for a drink at the Rocking Horse!

Karen

[stephenr]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Hi Karen,

Another WFO builder in the area ? am in the process of building a 42" in Qualicum Beach. Have also been using the Super 3000 Premix so far on the build. Was wondering if you guys had any cracks in the mortar from shrinkage (prior to curing)? Am about two thirds of the way through the dome but am beginning to worry about the mortar as it is shrinking quite a bit.

Your oven looks great, by the way. Good to see others in the area taking on the project!

Stephen

[peterlyn]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Hi, Stephen. How's it going in QB?!
We have not had any shrinking; Dave says, are you keeping the joints as small as possible? You should be using the 3000 straight-up, not with added water. In fact, he drains off any collected moisture in the can to maintain its thickness.
Regardless, Dave says that as long as the joint is full, you can always add another layer to cover cracking; just make sure you have no holes and have packed it in firm and you'll be good to go.
Let us know how you get on!

Karen

[waynespizzaworld]

Re: Pompeii in Nanoose Bay!

Thought I would chime in here to see what others may think of what I plan to do with the S3000 mix. I also am in Canada and on my last oven used mostly a product called Moldit-x for the dome build. I used the 3000 only for the floor and thin gaps. This time I did some testing in the garage with scrap pieces of brick and found the S3000 bonds better to the brick than the Moldit-x and the tech support 1 800 confirmed this for me. I will use both of them together for the wedge gaps in the dome build this time. The plan is to butter up 1/8th max on each surface of the bricks to be bonded together and then fill in with the castable Moldit-x before setting the brick. I have done a test piece and it has set up well and 1 800 tech support says it should work fine. My idea here is to make use of the better sticking abilities of the S3000 and it also will be kind of lumpier or more irregular in surface where it meets the castable to take care of the large gaps in the build. This should give it kind of a rough area for the castable to key into and also lets me use the castable for the wide gaps that are bigger than what is recomended for the s3000 alone if you are not tapering your bricks. Hope this makes sense and I am not saying this is the best way to do it but at this point I think its worth trying as it solves the problem of the castable not sticking so excellent to smooth surfaces and also the s3000 not really meant for big gaps.....................wayne