Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

[cnegrelli]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Russell - with the benefit of hindsight, do you recommend I remove my foil, or puncture it?

For the record, I'm not poking 5000 holes in it!

[Laurentius]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Utah,

Tell me it isn't so! You didn't actually count and punched 5,240 holes in that foil?

[mrchipster]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Dat dare is a heap load a damn holes....

Chip

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Mounted my pcrete template to a pivot point from above, cabbaged some old lumber and built a frame for the template pivot point. Also used an old flat head screwdriver that I ground the end to a point and puntured the foil (both layers). I used the 1" grid of the chicken wire as my guide. Useless info. based on my dome size there are 5240 square inches so this many holes in the foil

[deejayoh]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

DJ I am adding abt 3/4" concrete render over the perlcrete for my support base under the copper shingles. I probably could of skipped perlcrete but i wanted a little more insulation.

got it. I would go with Mortar + wire mesh vs. concrete render.

[silvfox]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Foil facing on duct work protects the insulation. If its perforated the holes may be so small that they are difficult to see with the naked eye. Moisture will escape thru very small holes. If the foil is not perforated an efficient means of doing so would be to use a pounce wheel. They are available at fabric or craft supply stores. Foil is a great insulation retarding radiant heat loss.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

The CF i found is used for high temp duct work and came with the reinforce foil mesh already intergrated. I did remove the foil for the first layer but found working with CF not pleasant so opted to install second layer out of the box.

DJ I am adding abt 3/4" concrete render over the perlcrete for my support base under the copper shingles. I probably could of skipped perlcrete but i wanted a little more insulation.

[david s]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Foil without holes is a barrier to both water and steam. Foil with holes is a barrier to water but not steam.
Given the choice I'd not use foil at all, but foil with holes is an improvement on foil with no holes as my previous post explains.

[Laurentius]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Whats the purpose of the foil? Foil=barrier, right? Foil with holes= not a true barrier, right?
Whats the point?

[david s]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Seems to me that putting holes in the foil will do more to let water into the dome than it will be a means of letting it escape. my $0.02. Take it fwiw.

Not really, the way I see it, with the foil in this position, is that the wet vermiculite will only lose a tiny bit of moisture from itself exactly where it is sitting against a hole. While moisture underneath the foil will be able to pass through the holes, as vapour, away from the heat source.

A far worse position for the foil is outside the vermicrete layer. This is how I did mine and fortunately I put lots of holes in two places, both about 5 sq ins. Now, if the oven gets a bit wet the outer shell gets hot in those two places, indicating that steam is finding its way out through the holes in the foil. The waterl tends to condense under the foil making removal more difficult.

[deejayoh]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Oh, and one more thought

Your foil is wrapping 1) a cured oven that is 2) covered by dry CF blanket. You are going to cover that with 3) wet vermicrete.

Seems to me that putting holes in the foil will do more to let water into the dome than it will be a means of letting it escape. my $0.02. Take it fwiw.

[deejayoh]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Didn't the build that you are modeling after use some sort of fiberglass or similar shell for attaching the copper? Seems like you will want a more substantial substrate than vermicrete to attach your copper. Lath and mortar seem like a minimum. Maybe you already thought of this and I should just read back a few posts

[mrchipster]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Although I believe a visual perfect form can be achieved by just "eyeballing it" you are doing something quite different with the metal skin. As in building anything a nice solid square foundation is much easier to build a house on and a nice uniform shape will be much easier to put the metal shingles on. I would elect for some type of fixed axis at the top it should not be hard to build something from a few 2x4's that will give you what you need.

Chip

[david s]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

It is not that difficult to get a perfect form just doing it free form. Just look at the profile with your eye and tap the vermicrete with the flat of a trowel.

[Gulf]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Looking great Russell,

Just an idea on what you have already done. (My situation was different, since I hat the "roof-over" to anchor to.) If you could form a perfect circle at the bottom of your hearth, maybe 1" thick, and pour it in concrete. Then drill a shallow hole TDC at the apex of your dome: You would have the means of keeping your vcrete true to form.

I don't think that you would have to totally destroy your foil. A simple ice pick placing holes on roughly 4" centers should do the job. But of course, most people on this site know that (my obnoxious belief) is a dome vent is the answer to relieving any moisture or pressures related to firing the oven .