Cracks in oven

[Rickaroonie]

Hello evderyone, pretty much finished firing off. Got the oven to 750 degrees 2 days ago, couldn't touch the dome! I've got some cracks in the dome. The picture is of the worst one and not worried at all about the ones in the dome. But I am a little worried about the one in the external arch. The picture below shows the crack and it opens up about twice that in the photo from firing. Should I be concerned about this crack? And if so, what would you do to rectify it?
In hindsight, I would build the outside arch seperately from the dome with insulation inbetween and tie it in with the external render. How wonderful is hindsight?!!!
Thanks everyone,

Rickaroonie

[stonecutter]

Re: Cracks in oven

No big deal, normal expansion cracks.

[boerwarrior]

Re: Cracks in oven

In your arch, that's not a big crack at all.

I found that after a few firings the crack that I had wasn't opening and closing as much (it stayed open). So I filled it with home-brew mortar and so far there is no visible exterior crack (I'm sure there is still expansion happening inside somewhere)

Neil

[V-wiz]

Re: Cracks in oven

Insulate and carry in

[david s]

Re: Cracks in oven

In hindsight, I would build the outside arch seperately from the dome with insulation inbetween and tie it in with the external render. How wonderful is hindsight?!!!
Thanks everyone,

Rickaroonie

I think you are quite correct. The inner dome needs to expand inside the outer shell and front decorative arch. I think there are two reasons cracks develop here. One is the expanding dome and entry putting pressure on the outer decorative arch and the other is the temperature difference between the inner and outer surfaces of the decorative arch itself. A gap, insulated or uninsulated, helps for both problems.
Attempts to repair cracks usually don't work too well, but give it a go.

[Rickaroonie]

Re: Cracks in oven

Thanks for the reply guys. Much appreciated from my end.

Rickaroonie

[CoyoteVB]

Re: Cracks in oven

Insulate and move on. I had much bigger cracks. I was concerned but thank to the advise of many on this forum I stopped worrying. My oven has produces many pizzas, turkey, bread, pulled pork , baked potatoes, beer can chicken, roasts, dried fruit and much more. Everything is now stable. My new problem is keeping up with dough and getting home in time for Friday night Pizza gatherings

[Rickaroonie]

Re: Cracks in oven

Well done Coyote and thanks, although if I ever make another oven I'm going to fire off very different than what I've done. I would finish the oven completely and then fire off in the one day bringing the heat up somewhat slowely with coals/briquttes over the entire floor, eventually bringing it up to 800 degrees f over about 6 or 8 hrs.
Cant wait!! lol

Rick

[Rickaroonie]

Re: Cracks in oven

Note: I think part of my problem apart from too small an area of heat was to have it in the middle of the floor. Needs to be over the entire floor area.