Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

[V-wiz]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

You guys should move to california, its 74 right now, the birds are chirping and all is well........

[cloita]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Snow got me this week and weekend too! I'm out of town for work first week of April, then on vacation mid-april. Plans to finish before May are looking impossible now. Good luck, Russell

[Gulf]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Mother nature fooled me again, it snowed last night so weekend plans to work on oven down the drain. A little peaved at Mr. Groundhog. All is not lost, planted some San Marzano seedlings and worked on a rocker cutter made of scrap 316 SS plate. I am copying Niel the Aussies design. I have an old rough cut piece of oak I will rework for the handle.

Can hardly wait to get some "maters" started. Our growing season normally starts a little earlier than a lot of the US. I say normally but, we have 3 below freezing or near freezing nights forecast. A lot of people down here have already transferred tomato seedlings to the ground. They will have to be covered to survive. A lot of the fruit trees are in bloom. It will not be a good year for them.

I saw Neil's cutter. I've wanted one ever since. This weekend, I have been working on a young friend and coworker's kitchen counters. It is in a young couple's fix-er-upper starter home. They will have a very nice place to raise a family. My young friend has a plasma cutter and is a darn good welder. Our agreement (for payment) was for "labor" on some accessories for the MQ. You've just added one more accessory to the bill .

Also, They had eight oak trees cut down, that they felt were to close to the house. I'm getting all of the limb wood from those trees. I may have lost a weekend working on the oven, but I almost feel like I am taking advantage of my young coworker .................almost

[deejayoh]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Very nice. I'm sure you can't wait for spring thaw! I've been lucky enough to fire the oven every weekend for the past few weeks. Pizza last night, and I was going to try some baguette this morning but I didn't get going early enough - so it will be slow-cooked short ribs in a dutch oven this afternoon.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Mother nature fooled me again, it snowed last night so weekend plans to work on oven down the drain. A little peaved at Mr. Groundhog. All is not lost, planted some San Marzano seedlings and worked on a rocker cutter made of scrap 316 SS plate. I am copying Niel the Aussies design. I have an old rough cut piece of oak I will rework for the handle.

[V-wiz]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Good news. I cant wait to see some pictures once your oven is fired up.

[cnegrelli]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Be happy to come by soon and take some seeds off your hands for a fair price. I'm there every two weeks on average!

[Tscarborough]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

I don't think so.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Tscar,
Thanks for the tips will head to the concrete specialty supplier in the next little bit. Would an epoxy base repair concrete be worth looking at?

[Tscarborough]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

That is definitely harsh. You need to first, clean if off thoroughly of all loose material (tap it all over with a hammer to check for hollowness). Then you will probably have to give up on the idea of that kind of glass embedment. A skim coat of a polymer modified repair mortar (tintable) is probably your best bet. In addition, I would use a bonding agent painted on before application of the skim coat. Make sure it is a bonding agent designed to be able to be painted on and pay close attention to the directions for when the skim coat is to be applied.

[dvm]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

PS DVM,

Your weather in OC is not near as harsh and Utah or in Les's case Nevada so I think you have nothing to worry about.

I think we can safely say, by comparison, we don't have weather in So Cal. I wonder if some of this "siliceous gel" adhered to the hem of my jeans and burned the #$%?! out of my skin.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Thank for the info Guys,

I'm done with the pity party on my end. I think DJ is right, it is a combo of freezing/thawing cycles here in Utah, glass/concrete compability issues, and new concrete. I am going to do a slurry fill when the weather permits and see where it takes me. If I am not satisfied with the results or durability, I may clad the surface with copper like Larry of Chicago did with his build. I still am adding 3" of CF insulation with 3" of V-crete over the CF, that will reduce the area needing coverage by quite a bit. weather is breaking I think, we are a balmy 38 F today. Thanks for everyone's feedback. I am looking forward to seeing what the WFO class of 2013 comes up with!!!!

PS DVM,

Your weather in OC is not near as harsh and Utah or in Les's case Nevada so I think you have nothing to worry about.

[Amac]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Interesting post Denis - I haven't seen any problem so far - I do keep it covered so far with a tarp and this winter the lowest temp so far was about -4?C but it can get to -10 to -15 some years - so I will think anout a winter cover at least for the future. I have left the test slab I did exposed to the weather and it is fine also.
Sorry russell to see that after all the trouble

[deejayoh]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Interesting. I think DVM is on the right track. See this too: When Concrete Meets Glass

Unlike water and oil, glass and concrete do mix and can marry well under the right circumstances. On the other hand, the union may not remain solvent if the chemistry isn’t there to deter the main reason this coupling would meet its demise: alkali-silica reaction (ASR).

It’s a well-documented fact that combining glass aggregate with portland cement may trigger ASR. What happens is the silica in the glass reacts with calcium hydroxide (a powerful alkali with a pH of 12) in the portland cement and forms a siliceous gel.

This gel within the cement paste absorbs water and swells. If the swelling is sufficient, the pressure can cause microcracking, expansion and ultimately the deterioration of the surrounding concrete. Sometimes, this happens early on. Other times it can take years for the problem to surface.

The amount of damage inflicted by ASR on concrete depends upon the volume, the piece or particle size, and even the color of the glass.

According to a report issued by the Clean Washington Center (CWC), increasing the surface-area-to-volume ratio of glass (in other words, using smaller shards) will reduce the effects of the reaction. Using smaller pieces of glass tends to speed up ASR, which gives the gel time to swell before the concrete hardens, limiting potential damage. Powdered glass will be consumed by the process to the degree that it causes no ASR at all.

It sounds like this is all a bit more complex than any of us probably imagined as amateurs. I would guess some combination of freezing temps, glass + concrete, and relatively new pour all contributed.

If this is the problem you have, then the good news is that you may not need to cover your oven area. The bad news is that there may be a fundamental issue with the counters.

I'm feeling like I may have dodged a bullet by not adding glass to my pour. And the only reason I didn't was because I was tired of all the work!

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

Oh dear! All that work and now this. Maybe I should send you some flowers.

~Aaron