Wood Fired Beehive in Utah

[pocahontius]

Hello Russell,

I viewed this thread and viewed our whole set of pictures and have two question:

1.) My supplier said to me, I should use oilpaper between the blanket and the vermcrete. If I got it right, it is not advised, as steam will be trapped inside. You punched your foil with holes. After several years, is there an optimal way of constructing it? Should I use this paper? Should I forget it or should I put holes in it?

2.) The second thing I could not find in the thread: What is this hole on top for? It seems as if you put a nut in the vermicrete so that steam could escape through it and then some kind of garden hose adapter or something like that on top. Is this advised? It isn't mentioned in any instructions I could find.

Thanks for your help
Jens

[UtahBeehiver]

I would forget the oil paper. I punch holes (hundreds of them) in the foil covering of the second layer of ceramic blanket. I should of just stripped the coating off the blanket like I did on the first layer. The holes were places so any water that turns into steam would have a egress way out. The volume of free water turning to steam is somewhere are 1500 times more. In the pcrete layer I install a 1/2" PVC female bushing and the installed a breather cap that you can get at any car parts store for 5-10 bucks. The oversized copper cap is just for decorations and larger than needed for aesthetic scale. I now that Gulf placed a small square of weld wire mesh by the bushing to give better support for the bushing.

[pocahontius]

Ok, thanks a lot, that helped. I now have to find the description or pictures of Gulfs build...

[Gulf]

I will post a picture of one that I assembled for a member that built an oven near me when I get back to my lap top.

[pocahontius]

Ok that's nice, I just took a look at your pictures but I'am not totally sure how it is done.

It seems to me as if you have covered the firebricks with a layer of refractory castable. Then put a nut / bushing on top in the castable for having a guidance for this large round paddle. Then you put the blanket on, leaving the top free because auf the bushing, put the vermicrete on. On top you removed the paddle, filled the hole with blanket and vermirete an installed the breather cap in that. So there is a tunnel from the blanket up through the vermicrete right?

I could not find the small wire mesh that Russell talked about, I thought it was to cover the hole you used for the paddle. Where exactly in a car is this breather cap used? I haven't seen something like this before...

Thanks a lot
Jens

[pocahontius]

I found this. It is a vent for oil tanks in german houses. The diameter is 4 cm. The steam can only escape downwards in the top. What do you think about that? It seems more durable than the pvc piece to me?

[Gulf]

So there is a tunnel from the blanket up through the vermicrete right?

You are correct. There is a tunnel of hole that is filled with extra blanket insulation.

Here is a link to the vent bushing from another thread. The mesh is simple hardware cloth available at many buiding supply and harware stores. If my metric convesion is correct, the vent that you are showing is too large imo.

[pocahontius]

Hello Gulf,

now I understand what Russell meant with the wire mesh. You made this to fix the thing in the vermicrete? The piece in this message ist the same size, but has a removable cap. I could shorten the pipe, welder something to the sides of the pipe that the thing sits more stable in the vermicrete (or if I weld some sheet metal pieces to that, I could screw it to the keystone of the dome (with some distance of course, that that steam from the blanket can get into it.

What I do not understand is the size. You said it is too large. These pieces are 1,5" in diameter.Is this a problem? Or did you say this because it would not fit through the wire mesh? I thought that a slightly larger hole would help to let the steam escape easier. These pieces are absolutely weatherproof.

In the link you send above, there is one nut in the wire mesh and I think this will be layed on top of the blanked in the vermicrete right? But what is that nut in the keystone of the dome? Is it only for the large paddle helping you to create a perfect circle? Or has that something to do with this vent system?

Greetings
Jens

[david s]

Drill lots of holes in the pipe where it will be embedded in the vermicrete so steam can pass readily through them.

[pocahontius]

Yes that's obvious :-)

I would also shorten the pipe a lot and weld or screw some stripes of sheet metal to them. These I would bend in the form of "sunbeams" 360 degrees around it and embed this in the vermicrete.

[Gulf]

Jens,

I am afraid that there are some misconceptions about my design. It will take me a few more posts and some pics to explain. I think that it would be best for you to start a build thread so we don't continue to hijack Russel's. Or we could just continue the discussion on one of the Topics that you have already started .

I will wait for you to respond one of those threads.

[pocahontius]

Ok, that would be nice. I moved to an old thread of me, but wasn't able to add a link to that thread... I hope you find it :-)

[Geordy05]

Such detail and perfection. Kudos to you for taking the time to show pics and educate us newbies. Thank you for such detail and pics to help understand

[UtahBeehiver]

I was hoping to fire up the oven for a Spring pizza day but alas this is what mother nature delivered yesterday.

[david s]

You might just have to go skiing instead.