Hello,
I'm finally starting to build a WFO after thinking about it for a few years now. My problem is that I work all summer doing concrete work and don't have much time for extra projects until winter comes around. Winter around here is cold and obviously wet mortar would freeze in no time. But this winter I will be able to build one in a heated shop at my boss's place. He is about as much interested in it as I am so he helps out.
The idea is to build a semi-permanent oven that can be moved without too much trouble as my boss's place is about 5 miles away and there's a possibility that I might want to take it to another place some day. After playing around with ideas for the base we decided to make one out of concrete. I could have welded something together out of steel, but we're concrete contractors so we decided to try something different.
You can see in the photos we poured the whole thing at once, the bottom, the sides and the top (something that's not possible without a wall vibrator) and believe me it's one solid concrete box now!
We formed up the outside (59x70") with wood forms that we use in our trade and then built a box to fit inside with 2x4s and plywood siding scraps from a mini-barn shop nearby. The floor of the base is 6" thick on the edges and the side walls and ceiling are 4" thick.
We put 2" of foam insulation on top of the inner box mostly for the purpose of keeping the wood from getting jammed inside the box when the concrete was hard.
We put two pieces of steel C channel in the bottom to make slots for forks to be slid underneath to lift the oven. There is rebar bent all the way around and a couple of pieces on the bottom are welded to the C channel.
I'm finally starting to build a WFO after thinking about it for a few years now. My problem is that I work all summer doing concrete work and don't have much time for extra projects until winter comes around. Winter around here is cold and obviously wet mortar would freeze in no time. But this winter I will be able to build one in a heated shop at my boss's place. He is about as much interested in it as I am so he helps out.
The idea is to build a semi-permanent oven that can be moved without too much trouble as my boss's place is about 5 miles away and there's a possibility that I might want to take it to another place some day. After playing around with ideas for the base we decided to make one out of concrete. I could have welded something together out of steel, but we're concrete contractors so we decided to try something different.
You can see in the photos we poured the whole thing at once, the bottom, the sides and the top (something that's not possible without a wall vibrator) and believe me it's one solid concrete box now!
We formed up the outside (59x70") with wood forms that we use in our trade and then built a box to fit inside with 2x4s and plywood siding scraps from a mini-barn shop nearby. The floor of the base is 6" thick on the edges and the side walls and ceiling are 4" thick.
We put 2" of foam insulation on top of the inner box mostly for the purpose of keeping the wood from getting jammed inside the box when the concrete was hard.
We put two pieces of steel C channel in the bottom to make slots for forks to be slid underneath to lift the oven. There is rebar bent all the way around and a couple of pieces on the bottom are welded to the C channel.
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