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Mongo's 42" CT Build

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  • WarEagle90
    replied
    Anchor plate turned out quite nice, Mongo. I like the use of the form to lay all 12 bricks at once. I can see where that prevented a lot of headaches with other bricks moving around.

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  • mongota
    replied
    With the bricks still in the form, I dry fit the chimney anchor plate in place and marked and drilled holes for the anchor bolts that will secure the anchor plate to the brick.

    I unscrewed the form and removed the two sets of brick, then I mortared the top of the arch as well as the undersides and ends of the left and right sets of brick, and set them into place. A few taps with my persuader to assure all was level and aligned, and all was good.

    I then screwed the wood frame back around the 12 bricks to hold them secure while the mortar cured. I had to slip the form up a bit so it could clear the curve of the dome.

    I used a tube of RTV and slathered it on top of the 12 bricks, then pressed the anchor plate into the RTV. I set the four anchor bolts and called it good to go.

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  • mongota
    replied
    Installed the chimney anchor plate. Tried to keep it simple.

    I scribed one brick to the curve of the vent arch and used it as a guide to cut 11 more brick, for a total of 12.

    Due to these transition bricks being set on top of the curved arch, I wanted to avoid setting these twelve bricks one at a time, tap-tap-tapping each one into alignment, all without knocking any of those already set out of alignment, or to suffer mortar creep and have them slide down the arch.

    I built a small wood frame to hold all 12 bricks and then mortared the six left bricks together, and the right six bricks together. I let the mortar cure overnight.

    The next day I marked out and cut the hole for the chimney anchor plate. Used an angle grinder. Fast and painless.

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  • mongota
    replied
    I did have two cracks in the top front of my vent arch. I noticed them when I untarped the dome. Not sure how or why, if it was a winter weather, a moisture freeze thing? But after the drying was done, I figured I'd make repairs to that while doing the chimney transition.

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  • mongota
    replied
    Gulf, Russell, JR, thanks so much for the welcome back.

    I started the drying with halogen lights, 1000W worth, on 24/7. My goal was to drive the moisture out of the dome bricks, and if I lessened the moisture level in the floor, that'd be a bonus. After several days, the dome was indeed dry, but there was little to no change to the floor.

    I figured I'd run some drying fires, and I wasn't going to be shy about it because of the dry dome. If I messed up the dome, then so be it. I'd repair, or if required, I'd break it all down and start over.

    I broke all the rules and made some pretty good sized fires. Started the fire under the vent arch. When I had a good flame, I'd push the fire back a bit and remove the floor brick from the vent arch to expose the wet board insulation. Add more wood, push the fire back further, and remove a few more rows of floor brick from the front of the oven. Then I stacked a few brick in the arch to retain the heat. I kept the fire stoked, it was satisfying to see the moisture vapor being driven out of the board insulation.

    Thank goodness for welding gloves with gauntlets that cover the forearm, they made it safe to reach in and pull the floor brick. lol

    This worked like a champ. I kept the drying fires going for a few days until the insulation was quite dry. Then I finally pulled all the floor brick, reset the halogen lights, covered up the entry, and let them run 24/7 for several more days.
    Last edited by mongota; 08-03-2018, 08:21 PM.

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  • JRPizza
    replied
    I also got my board soaked. It happened early in my build and even though it was covered after that the water stayed until I drove it out with many long slow fires. The link below shows some of my pics, where I had water seeping out from under the oven floor during curing.

    https://community.fornobravo.com/for...019#post387019

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  • UtahBeehiver
    replied
    Plus one with Gulf. This is a great lesson for other builders wondering about water intrusion into the floor insulation and that wet/saturated CaSi can be restored again through curing again.

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  • Gulf
    replied
    Welcome back Mongo,

    Ouch! on the wet insulation. I'm sure that you will be able to dry it out, though. I'm looking forward to the pics of your progress.

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  • mongota
    replied
    Sadly, not the tasty kind you can use as a pizza topping!

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  • mongota
    replied
    Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages...

    I'm back!

    Had a couple of absolutely bizarre issues that came up with out-of-state extended family that 100% pulled me away from any home projects (as well as pulling me away from home) over the last year. The fire brick dome was plastic sheeted and double tarped for the past two winters, since October of '16. Amazing that it was for that long.

    About a month ago, I untarped the WFO. Unfortunately, the three layers of protection suffered abrasion during the winter winds and allowed some water intrusion. The 4" of ceramic fiberboard insulation under the dome was absolutely saturated. Press on it and water would weep out. A sad discovery indeed. I even had fungi growing out of the insulation on the exterior! lol The good news is that other than being wet, the board insulation seemed structurally sound. There was no thickness compression from the weight of the brick.

    After several weeks of drying, I've made some progress. More posts and progress pics to follow.

    It's good to be back on this forum as well as getting the oven back up to speed!
    Last edited by mongota; 07-13-2018, 03:25 PM.

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  • cnegrelli
    replied
    Hope to hear Mongota's updates soon as I wait for freezing temps to subside here in CO before I can start. Cool build. By the way, grew up just up the river in Haddam, where my family has lived since the 1600s and my Mom is from Deep River. Essex is one of the most beautiful spots in the world! Your build is up to the local standards!

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  • rand18m
    replied
    Very neat project, looks like a fun build.

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  • JRPizza
    replied
    The mock-ups will tell you a lot. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but when I started mocking up I had to change my plans a little to keep my mortar joints from aligning.

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  • mongota
    replied
    I could get away with those four plus a couple of shorties I have in my remnant pile to create the transition, but a concern has been the small footprint of that minimal transition.

    I plan on giving the vent arch a good look-see when the rain stops and then I'll do a couple of mock-ups for the chimney transition. I think by creating a cap with a larger footprint on top of the vent arch it'll better distribute the weight that the chimney transition puts on the arch toward the sides of the arch instead of it being more concentrated on the apex of the arch.

    I have to say the arch as is is pretty strong. When I buttered up the front and rear keystone bricks with mortar and set them in place, I was "tapping" them pretty good with my 2 lb hammer to squeeze out the excess mortar and to drive them home. I was surprised I didn't break the bond of one of the other mortar joints in the arch.
    Last edited by mongota; 10-22-2016, 10:19 AM.

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  • JRPizza
    replied
    Nice looking arch work! Do you think 4 bricks are all you are going to need? I ended up using more bricks than I thought for my arch to chimney transition.

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