Chip's 42 in Minnesota

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Working on exterior and finished the outer arch and wine/beer glass cubby.

Obviously not complete or cleaned up but glass of wine was required for completing another key stone.

Chip

[ggoose]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Looks great! Did you mortar your facade arch bricks to the arch fire bricks?

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Looks great! Did you mortar your facade arch bricks to the arch fire bricks?

No Mortar just touching contact of 1/2 inch of a brick spacer and a 1/4 inch air gap for the rest of the brick area filled with ceramic blanket.

In the photo you can see the 1/2 X 1/4 inch brick that has been mortared to the flue arch brick, the wide face of the brick was filled with ceramic blanket where indicated on the entire arch (difficult to draw entire area where blanket is) but I think you get the idea.

I will be filling the very thin seam that exists with High Temp Silicone, At that location it should never get to 700 degrees and that is the rating of the silicone I have.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Completed Brick work up to roof on oven area and began to enclose the prep table area.

BTW my daughter and her boyfriend completed the Twin Cities Marathon this last Sunday with a time of 4:37. WOW...

You know why a marathon is only 26.2 miles right... Because 26.3 miles would be Crazy!!!!!...

Chip

[david s]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

My outer arch is separated from the flue gallery by an 8 mm vermicrete layer and you can hold your hand on it when cooking pizzas, although if the oven has been firing for several hours it gets bait hotter. Apart from reducing heat conductivity, it also reduces any thermal expansion stresses on the outer arch which I believe to be the main culprit of outer decorative arch cracking.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Looking good, Chip. I really like the way your stand arch and keystone came out. Give a high five to your daughter and boyfriend. That is a totally crazy way to spend 4+ hhours of your free time. Maybe you can help them with Pizza Margherita carbo-loading for the next marathon.
John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

John,

When I talked to them about the next marathon Dave said "Next Marathon!!!!"

I think it will take a while till he warms up to the preparation for the next big thing. That does not mean I will not provide them with pizza in the mean time.

I know I will not be joining the thundering herd...

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

My outer arch is separated from the flue gallery by an 8 mm vermicrete layer and you can hold your hand on it when cooking pizzas, although if the oven has been firing for several hours it gets bait hotter. Apart from reducing heat conductivity, it also reduces any thermal expansion stresses on the outer arch which I believe to be the main culprit of outer decorative arch cracking.

I hope not to need a rebuild on the decorative arch. I have already re-built a dome and that was enough for a while.

I am using a space heater with a small fan to move the air around in the dome to keep it warm at this moment.

95 inside and 75 outside with a 65 degree outside temp.

I hope it is drying a little. Very gun shy on putting any wood in the oven due to my first dome cracking experience.

Chip

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Very gun shy on putting any wood in the oven due to my first dome cracking experience.

Well, Chip... think of it this way: You can be the first ever to take more time to officially cure your oven than it took to build it!
John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Well, Chip... think of it this way: You can be the first ever to take more time to officially cure your oven than it took to build it!
John

Took the leap of faith today and made a small fire. Put it in a Stainless ring so I could move it around the oven and avoid hot spots. Still saw temps in the 200 - 210 degree range with the IR gun. All of the low in the oven readings were below 165.

At one point the fire started to blaze and I moved it out of the ring and spread out the fire. not sure how high the spot temps got but after spreading out the fire could only detect one spot at 225. and that was just above where the fire ring was.

Outside never went over 115.

Crossing fingers and toes.

Chip

[Aegis]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Took the leap of faith today and made a small fire. Put it in a Stainless ring so I could move it around the oven and avoid hot spots. Still saw temps in the 200 - 210 degree range with the IR gun. All of the low in the oven readings were below 165.

At one point the fire started to blaze and I moved it out of the ring and spread out the fire. not sure how high the spot temps got but after spreading out the fire could only detect one spot at 225. and that was just above where the fire ring was.

Outside never went over 115.

Crossing fingers and toes.

Chip

The hearth could probably stand a lot higher temps than the dome. No mortar in the hearth and nothing to crack in the hearth. The dome on the other hand still has lots of moisture unless you were working at my snails pace. lol I still got a monster crack, but I know it was from leaving, forgetting, and having pieces of firebrick in my expansion joint around the edges. You are wise to go slow and easy, it takes a lot less time to do a long cure once than to patch cracks and re-cure!
btw- great looking build!

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

The hearth could probably stand a lot higher temps than the dome. No mortar in the hearth and nothing to crack in the hearth. The dome on the other hand still has lots of moisture unless you were working at my snails pace. lol I still got a monster crack, but I know it was from leaving, forgetting, and having pieces of firebrick in my expansion joint around the edges. You are wise to go slow and easy, it takes a lot less time to do a long cure once than to patch cracks and re-cure!
btw- great looking build!

I am not real worried about the floor as I have gone through a cure cycle of the floor already (second build of dome) and I believe it is quite dry. Did a couple of small fires today and the temp came up faster - it must be starting to dry out. moved the fire around in the stainless ring and kept checking temps, when the temp dome temp would get over 200 I would rake out the coals across the floor and let it sit. Outside of dome is getting to about 115 near the top so things are coming along.

Thanks for the complement, I just re-read your post and might consider putting more mass in my dome. You are getting great heat retention results.

Not sure if I want to stop curing and adding more water though. and restart the cure cycle. Winter is near even though it is 82 today.

Chip

[Aegis]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

I am not real worried about the floor as I have gone through a cure cycle of the floor already (second build of dome) and I believe it is quite dry. Did a couple of small fires today and the temp came up faster - it must be starting to dry out. moved the fire around in the stainless ring and kept checking temps, when the temp dome temp would get over 200 I would rake out the coals across the floor and let it sit. Outside of dome is getting to about 115 near the top so things are coming along.

Thanks for the complement, I just re-read your post and might consider putting more mass in my dome. You are getting great heat retention results.

Not sure if I want to stop curing and adding more water though. and restart the cure cycle. Winter is near even though it is 82 today.

Chip

I understand the winter thing coming sooner than we'd like. I am trying to close up the roof before snow flies! lol The extra mass is only worth it for baking bread and extending the cooking time a bit. Insulation, insulation, insulation cannot be stressed enough! Every penny I spent on insulation and or had been graciously given to me was well worth every cent!
Extra mass on top of the dome would not make you re-cure, but to cure longer. The bigger time set back is waiting for the mortar to harden. I waited 10 days before re-firing. I did it that soon, because the mortar/mass is not structual at all. So strength of mortar was not a big factor.
I am sure you were glad for the 80 degree day in Oct.
Good Luck!
John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Little more work done on the prep table wing. I am building a brick pillar to support the end of one wing of the roof; A single piece of re-bar down the center of the pillar. It started to rain so work is halted for the day.

Still doing curing fires. No cracks yet but there is still time.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Worked on cure fires today and Stainless entry floor and sealing door.

Stainless lays over vermicrete with 2 and a half bricks at the outside edge just in case it gets wet out there sometime. Stainless folds down 1/2 inch at the oven opening for minimal contact and I may reduce that to 1/4 inch, The sides fold down an inch and the outside edge folds down 2 inches.

This stainless entry floor is a trial balloon and if it works out great if not I will change it to traditional brick or soapstone.

Still going slow temp in dome reached 420 today. The dome is coming up in temp very quickly now and I decided to build a sealed door. No insulation but a glass rope seal and a stainless inside with a small handle. Not fancy but it puts the fire out real quick.

Final door will be insulated and much better built.

*** Help needed ***

Getting a few wiffs of smoke out the front when the wind blows but as you can see from the smoke pattern not much comes out the front. I have a 10 inch I.D. - 12 O.D. double wall Stainless Flue. and my thermal break between the inner arch and the flue arch smokes a little into the oven cavity. I think I will need to do some sort of sealing there.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can put there the gap was intended to be direct contact but at some points is less than 1/16 of an inch wide and a little irregular as there are spots where the mortar filled in the gap. It does not smoke when the flue is exhausting just when the door is closed forcing smoke directly into the gap area.

The temporary door is not build well and is leaking some air -- thus smoke.

BTW I love the 8 inch round tool for playing with the fire.

Chip