Mongo's 42" CT Build

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Been away for a bit, I'm back in the oven construction business for a few days.

After casting the arches, I let them cure for a few weeks. A couple of days ago I cast the lintels over the hearth doorways. It was raining when I did it, so no photos.

Yesterday I stood the arches up and mortared them in place.





Today is supposed to be fairly warm before more rain and cold arrive, so I'm going to try to form up and cast my hearth slab today. This pallet should be empty when I'm done. I calculated about 40 bags for the slab.



Gonna be a bit of a day with the wheelbarrow and mason's hoe.

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

This will be my last post for a while. I'll be on the road for a bit, plus I need the arches to cure before I move them.

Arch in the form:



Arch out of the form:



These were pretty hard to wire brush. Couldn't take off as much cream as I could with the pillars. But they are what they are.

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Kind of an "oh crap!" moment today.

I built the form for casting the arches that will surround my hearth doors. Got distracted by family life in the middle of it all. Then realized the sun was going down and if I'm going to mix the concrete I'd better get on it pronto.

I'm casting this with the form flat on the my pool patio. I'll strip the form tomorrow and let it cure/strengthen in place for a few weeks before I stand it up and set it against the hearth.

It was a 3-bag mix of Quikrete with one bottle of concrete colorant. All went well with the pour. I just finished cleaning up my tools and started to walk off when I saw my two 10-foot lengths of rebar laying on the ground.

Egads.

I don't think I've ever bent 1/2" rebar this quickly. Shaped the first while holding it over the form. Cut the excess length away. Then used the first piece as a pattern for the second.

I set the first piece on the still slightly loose mix and used my hammer and a piece of wood to pound it about 4" deep into the 6" thick mix. I then moved the concrete around with my trowel and pushed the second rebar about 2" deep into the mix. "Massaged" the concrete again, troweled it again, then walked away.

It all looked okay in the end, but things were hectic for about 10 minutes.

Just came in from giving it a hard once-over with my trowel. Looks good, at least what I can see. Fingers crossed tomorrow when I take the form apart. I think the rebar stayed pretty much centered in the form.

[stonecutter]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Matt, I'm in Essex.

The voids will certainly be filled. I'll just wait for all four posts and my two arches to be up and cured to their final color. Should end up around a medium gray or a light charcoal color depending on words used to describe it. Then I'll probably use a black-black portland/sand mixture applied with a grout float to pack and fill the voids. When that has set up, I'm thinking I'll lightly brush it with a bristle brush back down to the original texture so only the voids are filled, with maybe a trace of black shadowing left in some of the currently existing texture.

Ah who knows? I really can't describe what exact steps I'll do, nothing's set in concrete (ugh). I'll do whatever needs to be done to get to where I want it to be.

It's all a big experiment!

Essex is a nice town, how are the leaves this year? Good idea to fill those holes, It'd be a shame to have the columns get ruined from freeze thaw.

[Gulf]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

.............A question...you have a chimney damper (nice work!) and I see you have both an inner door for the dome arch as well as an outer door for the outer arch. Do you close the damper and use the outer door to cook (the sausage photo) in the arch transition area too?............

Mongo,
Thanks for the compliments. I actually have two doors for the inner arch. One is insulated and the other is just a single sheet of carbon steel. I have an unisulated blast door with a thermometer that can be used both inside the entry and outside. I do have what I call a storm door, also. But, it is only for closing the oven up from the weather.

The damper was fun to build. And I do use it some times, along with the blast door, to help regulate the temperature of the vent area. My thoughts were that, it would help me with that, and also for smoking meats. For the most part though, the damper stays wide open. I'm glad that I took the time to include the damper. I will keep playing with it, as it does help make the oven a little more versatile. But, I can't say that I would recommend for someone else to include one in theirs. In my yard alone, there are too many other smokers and grills for me too tie up the oven with that for very long .

PS: Some great progress going on there! I am a fairly patient man. Lets see if you are .

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Well, I sort of cheated my own schedule the other day, which made the previous day a bit more productive than I thought it'd be.

Because the bracing for my corner pillar forms wraps around my entire hearth, I figured after I took the forms off of my first two corner pillars I'd have to wait a few days for them to cure before I used the pillars themselves as support for the forms for casting the third and fourth pillars.

While I was cleaning up after that first pour I realized I had four 12" CMUs that, when stacked next to the just unformed pillars, would act as standoffs for the form bracing. So I cleaned up my pillar forms, screwed them back together, and cast the other two pillars.

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Mongo,
Great looking work! I'm looking forward to the finale .

Well, you're going to have to be a patient man! I'm doing the hearth this fall but I don't plan on doing the brick dome and stone igloo enclosure until spring.

I did something a little similar on some corbels and a decorative keystone.

I just went through your Picasa album. "Wow". "WOW!" The level of planning and detail, the skill of execution? I'm thoroughly impressed. I really like what you did with the cast concrete work and with the insets, etc. Very, very nice. Your finish materials, everything coordinates so well. I really like the wrapping of the scissor trusses. It's layer upon layer nicely executed detail.

I like how you isolated the dome from the vent area, that's the same idea I'm planning on using.

A question...you have a chimney damper (nice work!) and I see you have both an inner door for the dome arch as well as an outer door for the outer arch. Do you close the damper and use the outer door to cook (the sausage photo) in the arch transition area too?

Best, Mongo

[Gulf]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Mongo,
Great looking work! I'm looking forward to the finale .
I did something a little similar on some corbels and a decorative keystone. I did not fill the voids. I did like the weatherd look, but I did not like the final color. I thinned some liquid charcaol cement color and brushed it in to add a little more color. I wiped it back down with a wet cloth to clean the aggregate. Later, I sealed it all with a flat acrylic masonry sealer.

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Matt, I'm in Essex.

The voids will be filled with a slurry sometime down the road, I want to do the treatment at the same time to maintain a fairly even shade of charcoal across all treated surfaces. I'll just wait for all four posts and my two arches to be up and cured to their final color. Should end up around a medium gray/charcoal color.

I really can't describe what exact steps I'll do, I'll just do whatever needs to be done to get to where I want it to be.

It's all a big experiment!

[stonecutter]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Nice build! What part of CT are you in?

The pillars look cool, but you should fill those voids or you're going to see spalling after a few winters.

[leetheldc]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Those look fantastic if you putting that effort of craftsmanship in this early stage I bet your oven will turn out great! Looking forward to see how they dry keep the pics coming.

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Thank guys.

The mailman came by and yelled "It looks like you made them out of lava!". I had a good laugh at that.

Originally I was only going to wire brush the "recessed panel" and leave the rest smooth. My wife came out, liked the effect, and said I should wire brush the whole thing.

She spoke. I complied.

Maybe that's why I have a happy marriage! lol

[Tonyp]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Wooo those look really nice Mongo. I like the wire brushed texture as well.

[kbartman]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

"Awesome"

[mongota]

Re: Mongo's 42" CT Build

Day Six was a bit of a surprise. I had anticipated not working on the hearth for a few days because of work and weather, but with a couple of free hours and dry skies, I decided to form up a couple of the corner posts and have at it.

I had some leftover 3/4" melamine board that was already ripped into 12" by 8' sections, I had used them 5 or 6 years ago as concrete forms for raised planting beds. I dug those out of the basement and used them to build two corner forms.



With the posts being pigmented/colored, I wanted to mix all the concrete in one batch. Worked out to three 80-lb bags for each post. Thankfully my somewhat old and thoroughly abused wheelbarrow didn't collapse and dump the load while I was mixing with a masons hoe. I kid you not, that was a concern!

I vibrated the forms a bit, but not too much. I wanted some surface voids for a somewhat rustic look, and figured that I might fill the voids with a slightly contrasting color for visual texture.

When I took off the forms, I shifted gears. I ended up lightly wire brushing the concrete, enough to knock off the cream, for an exposed aggregate look. The left side is wire brushed, the right is not:



I think I like the look, but we'll see once it cures and the color lightens. If not I have a few ideas.





I'll let these cure for a few days before I form up the other two posts, as the form bracing and supports will actually wrap around these two posts.