Home Slice

[redbricknick]

Re: Home Slice

So. I ripped down the last two courses. I first tried excavating the mortar from triangular joins and fitting pieces into the gaps, but realized that there is only one way to do it... The right way. I considered taking the last three courses out, but after fully checking the previous courses, I'm willing to concede defeat on asthetics, in full confidence of their structural integrity. So the last two courses are gone now, and I'm going to cut proper trapezoids and fit the bricks properly. Going to take some extra time, but hey. Dome wasn't built in one day... If I really wanted to do it properly, i would take the whole dome down all the way to the soldier level andre cut the trapezoids the right way... As much as i try to blame my ineptitude on a gorgeous, yet manic depressive, spoilt twenty year old distraction, my error lies in the misunderstanding of what a trapezoid actually looks like. If should was a part of my vocabulary, i would say i should have researched more, but being a pig headed Leo bastard, I went ahead and tried to fit my bricks into places in which they obviously did not fit. My "trapezoids" did not have angled sides.. They were squares with the edges cut off.. So my problem is not a masonry one, rather a mathematical one. I should have paid more attention in math class. That said, the oven is solid, up to where i ripped it down today. Tomorrow i will cut true trapezoids, and try to date girls who have more life experience..

[redbricknick]

Re: Home Slice

So I finished the dome finally. It's not as clean as i dreamed, but im convinced of its solidity.. Building it free standing wasnt as hard as i thought, but it was still way too hard to do again... If i were to build another, i would use forms.. I'm off to get drunk now.

[james]

Re: Home Slice

Way to go Nick,

It's been great watching your oven go up -- I think we all feel like god parents. The Wood-Fired Pizza e-book is out just in time. Great timing.

One question -- as the father of a teenage daughter, is 20 legal? :-)
James

[Archena]

Re: Home Slice

Legal, yes; sane, probably not....




Congrats on the oven!

[redbricknick]

Re: Home Slice

Yup.. she's young. But also smart and talented and beautiful, and aloof... Oh the aloof youth.. How they frustrate me. The girl is my poison and antidote, all in one.. I tell you what, it shouldnt' be legal, but it is, so.. Anyhoo.. the brick oven. I'm going to light the first curing fire in a week, and that fire is going to consist of whatever cigarettes i have left in my posession.. I do not plan on looking back. Fifteen solid years of smoking is about enough.. I'm going to make a batch of mud from all the firebrick dust, ground up firebrick scraps, and various odds and sods, and use it for a refractory layer.. should i do this after i get a good couple of fires in her to see if there is any cracks? I kind of want to tie my vent into the refractory layer with stainless rebar supports, so perhaps its best to wait.. I'm going with the cast vent with no walls.. The flue tile is going to sit on the opening arch on one side, and the cantilevered vent on the other.. Hope it works.. I also plan on building removable side walls which can stay in for firing, and be taken out for cooking..

[RTflorida]

Re: Home Slice

Nick, sounds like all is good in your world again. Nice work on the dome, shoulb be no worries this time around.
As for giving up smoking,(one day, hopefully sooner than later) you will be glad you did. Its tough at first, just hang in there.

[redbricknick]

Re: Home Slice

I'm going to light the first of the curing fires tomorrow.. No more smoking.. Any tips? I'm going to insulate after the oven is cured, as i think im going to have some cracks to fill after i get a super hot fire in there.. I have some fyrewrap blanket insulation i got from the calcium silicate place.. Its made by the same people who make insulfrax, its about three inches thick, and is white and fibrous.. Its wrapped in foil.. The guy didnt know too much about it, he got it as a sample..I also have a bunch of cal sil boards and offcuts. Should i grind them up and make a mortar batch out of them? I was thinking about cutting it into strips and laying it onto the oven as a possibility.. After that, its going to be perlite concrete.. still have to do that vent too..

[wlively]

Re: Home Slice

You might want to consider laying down your blanket before starting the curing fires. I have been thinking it is much less stress on the brick to fire after insulation, because you do not have such a wide difference in temperature across the brick and across the outside dome surface. You can always take a peek under the blanket afterward.

I went ahead and fully insulated mine before firing. After 7 fires I do not have any cracks visible inside the dome.

just a thought.

[dmun]

Re: Home Slice

Also, if you are doing vermiculite/perlite concrete, there is a TON of water introduced to the oven at that point. All that has to be dried out. I can see the water from the perlcrete soaking the bricks of the dome (I can see them turn dark) Which is presumabley wicking through the insulating blanket.

[redbricknick]

Re: Home Slice

cheers and thanks guys.. With that logic, i assume i should add my thermal mass first also... DMUN, i know you are a proponent of the low mass oven, but beind that i plan on doing a lot of baking, i think im going to add an inch of mass.. opinion? Should I cure the mass layer, and fix cracks before adding insulation? Should I cast my vent and cure that before doing any firing? I'd love love love an opinion on using the left over cal sil board.. How about makin ity into brick sized pieces and building it up around my chimney? It's light, and being that im cantilevering the vent, i can do to cut down on weight anywhere i can... I can also get my hands on some insulating firebricks from a special effects house near here.. Will the metal flue with a liner draw as well as a flue tile? Maybe both.. If i cant use the cal sil board, an L.A oven builder is welcome to it.. It's enough for another oven i believe.. I also have a bunch of left over firebricks..

[wlively]

Re: Home Slice

Nick

Ceramic board is great stuff. In my professional capacity we use alot of ceramic insulation in our furnaces. Because of the insulation properties, thin is OK, it is very effecient. What you don't want are seems, the fewer the better. That goes for blankets as well. That is why I used 2 blankets, a 1" and a 1/2" over that, specifically covering the seems. You can build a box around your chimney, the fewer the individual pieces the better. Then lay a blanket over that.

[maver]

Re: Home Slice

i plan on doing a lot of baking, i think im going to add an inch of mass.. opinion?

I added about 1/2 - 1 inch of thermal mass to my oven prior to insulation and now wish I had not. It just adds to heat up time and the oven stays hot plenty long. I have it in my mind that extra thermal mass makes sense for a commercial bake oven, but otherwise just delays your enjoyment of your oven for pizza. If you can reduce your heat time to an hour or less by not adding extra cladding I think it is worthwhile, and with half bricks I think you will not see a problem with baking lots of bread. If you plan to do several batches per firing then consider adding that inch of cladding, but then you might as well consider adding three inches.

Marc

[CanuckJim]

Re: Home Slice

Maver,

Agreed. One inch of mass won't add a great deal of heat retention for multiple bakes, but three inches will. It will add to heat up times, but it will cut down on firing times if the oven is used day after day.

Redbricknick,

You should cure any additional mass before insulating. Otherwise, it will take a long, long time to cure. If the additional mass is refractory, it should be kept damp for the first four or five days (wet burlap) to prevent shrinkage that can lead to cracking. Ditto the vent. If you're going to do a lot of baking, you could easily use some of that calsil to make an insulated bake door. This is a good idea anyway, because you can leave it in place after you're finished and retain much more heat for the next go. It's also good for equalizing the heat into any additional mass.

Jim

[Archena]

Re: Home Slice

Is this what you mean by calsil?



I missed something somewhere, didn't I?

[dmun]

Re: Home Slice

Calcium Silicate insulating board is the name of the stuff that FB sells as super-isol. It's the best insulating board for under your oven floor, but it's not the only one. I used insblok19 by Harbison Walker because I found a deal on it. They also used to make a vermiculite board, but that's pretty outdated.