George's Pompeii progress

[Ken524]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Has it warmed up down South? Hope those twisters stayed away from your oven.

When that mess went through here, it wasn't too bad at our house. We were really (really) lucky. There are trees down everywhere. Just down the street from us I saw about 100ft of 4-board horse fencing obliterated (like, turned into toothpicks). I was amazed that my tarps stayed on the oven. I was sure they would blow off.

I'm so glad I was in training that day and not out flying in it. I hope everyone else on the forum made it through ok!

Ken, Robert's out there in 20 degrees cutting bricks.

It's been either frigid & dry or warm & wet here in KY. I don't work in either of those conditions. Robert's got drive that I can't imagine. I'll leave the "adventure building" to the younger crowd .

My avatar, for the time being is the tongue twister, as demonstrated by my daughter.

The pic is priceless.

[RCLake]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

I love the new picture (avatar)

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Thanks for the positive avatar comments.

Glad to hear you got through the storms okay, Ken. You couldn't get me into the sky during really rough weather. I've almost messed myself a few times over the years on Navy flights. I'm definitely not the pilot type.

[Acoma]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

George, Navy Flight Similators can be rough

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

I'm watching the kids this morning while the wife's at school. Time to post a little.

The weather has been awesome for mid-Feburary. Low 60's three days in a row. (Sorry Sarah, I feel for you!) I actually mowed the lawn yesterday! A glimmer that Spring's just around the corner.

A couple of days ago, I donned my PPE and got inside the entryway with a ginder and widened the vent out. Much less smoke out the vent now. What a mess though! Dust everywhere!

As predicted, it took 3 tries to get good pizza results. The Caputo flour crust was awesome this time. I just needed a bigger fire burning on the side of the dome while I cooked. Didn't take any pizza pics, but Robert, you can see the crack right though a brick near the top of the photo. Despite my best efforts, somehow these mortar joints got a little too lined up. The alignment may not be the cause of the crack though. The other crack that I can visualize staggar steps it's way up the dome around fully alternating mortar joints. Cracks happen, huh?

My dough for Pain a l' Ancienne tripled in volume while I was messing around with the fire. The dough was incredibly wet, so I didn't mess with trying to score the loaves. Now that I look at them, the resulting shapes are strangely reminiscent of my dog's best efforts on the freshly mown lawn.
Anyway, the holes were absolutely cavernous, the bread - sweet and delicious.

I just love watching that fire burn in there! Had to post another pic! Though there's dust and ash on the hearth, you can see the reflection of the fire on the concrete. In Davespeak - Pretty cool me thinks!

Have a great day!
George

[asudavew]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Very nice George!

It is kind of amazing how the suckers will crack right through bricks.
As you said, cracks along the mortar .. sure!
But right through bricks... Never expected that.

The bread looks great, and the concrete----Magnifico! (that right?)
Anyways... you completely convinced me to do some polishing.

I might have missed a post or something, but have you started on the stucco for the exterior?
I'm fixing to be back out decorating and I've never tried my hand at stucco.
And since this part WILL be visible, I would like it to look pretty good.

One again nice work!
I thought these things were fun to build, but now I think that starting a fire, building it up, watching it burn, and then cooking in it ---- EVEN BETTER!

Dave

BTW - So is it now called PewPew Bread?

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Dave,
Yes, stucco. The base coat is done. I'm waiting for the finish coat until the concrete polishing is finished and the weather warms a bit. Probably a month or so. Here's the pic from a month ago.

I ran out and took a pic of it a minute ago. I followed dmun's advice and made my temporary shelter as ugly as possible. Don't tell anyone how ugly it is.

You can see the big red stain on the side of the oven from the concrete dust/water spraying on it. My last attempt to repair my boo boo on the stained concrete hearth is in place and ground down to approximately the final finish level. The concrete needs to cure about 4 more days before I grind it up to 400 grit. Then slurry into the voids. 10 more days of waiting...... then the final polish for the front and sides. Whew! After that, the first good stretch of weather and I'm going to put the finish coat of stucco on the behemouth.

Pew pew bread? Hmmmmmm

[asudavew]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Thanks for the pics George.

Did you use expanded metal (lathe) to stick your first coat to?

BTW - The first layer looks good.

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

No lath, just the chicken wire that was still exposed outside the vermiculite layer. The vermiculite is so rough that it easily grabs hold of the stucco if you just press it firmly against the dome as you apply it.

Get a 12" X 20"ish piece of plywood and dump some stucco on it. Starting at the bottom of the dome, hold the board against the dome and use any flat trowel to push the stucco from the board against the dome and spread it upward and outward. It goes pretty fast once you get the hang of it.

[dusty]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

That didn't look like pew pew bread to me. Looked fantastic!

How did you do that?

And next time, get a smaller dog


dusty

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Dusty,
a very simple recipe that takes about 18 hours of refridgerator time. NOt much else. I think the e-book on bread has Jim's recipe, but I've still yet to read past the ciabatta.

I've got the smaller dog too. He makes tootsie rolls!

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

The day finally came. Another good weather window to get some work done. Its been a heck of a nice winter in the NW. 64 degrees on Feb. 28th. Hard to beat, huh?

The wife went to school for the morning, I prepped for stucco while she was gone. I took one last pic of the oven with just the stucco base coat on it.

The finish coat of stucco requires the addition of an acrylic fortifier for additional water proofing, if you use Quikrete. Some products come with it already in the mix. I'm sure it is just a Quikrete ploy to get you to spend an extra 20 bucks. While I waited, I cut up a piece of old carpet and fit it to my trowel for finishing the stucco later.

The wife got home at 11:00 - I'm out the door and working. The stucco itself was a bitch to mix. The directions call for 2 gallons of water/fortifier per bag. It was like mixing dry dry mud. I was sweating buckets trying to get it mixed using both a hoe and a mixing paddle on a drill. I finally ended up using about another gallon to get the consistency correct, but I was dead tired after just mixing the stuff.

To make matters worse, the stain color was quite a bit different than I had envisioned, especially once I started getting it on dome. I'd been torn between an orange-yellow and this color. I was looking for something that would look cool in the late afternoon sun. Orange-yellow turned out not to be an option in the stains available, so this is the shade I chose.

45 minutes after I started to apply the stucco, my wife and my neighbor Walt came out within 2 minutes of each other and howeled - "Wow is that ever pink!" I just grit my teeth and keep working....

This was by far the hardest work I did on the oven. The two batches of stucco mixing was brutal. Trying to press the mix onto the dome, arms over head all afternoon long left me gasping at the end of the day. The back half of the oven, which is all raised above the yard by 20 inches or so, was done with a step ladder. Anyway, I managed to get it cleaned up and five hours later - I'm done. I think I'm liking the color in the afternoon sun, so for the time being, its staying pink. I think Lowes sells paint, if I ever change my mind.

Done? What a wierd feeling. Kind of bitter sweet. Very happy yet, a little sad too.

Now what do I do? It seemed for so long that I would never get this thing done. It was supposed to be my winter project. I guess winter is about over.

What to do.......Hmmm, cook I guess. I'll work on the BBQ and bar later. Time to give it a rest.

Certainly, its time to put this thread to bed. Thanks again for everyone's comments and help. Please excuse my random pics thrown into other spots on the forum.

[Frances]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Wow George, congratulations! Looks really good! I like the colour, too. Bright and warm - it'll probably weather down a bit with time though.

The brick doorway is really nice, too. Makes me want to redo mine

But, ehm, what do you mean you're finished???!! What about the stand? You're not intending on leaving it like that are you? The polished cement countertop is cool, but you need to do the edges all round the oven like that, too... (just trying to cheer you up a bit here).

Seriously, I can imagine that it must be a weird feeling being finished. Makes me glad I've got so many plans for the outside of mine. Should keep be busy for most of the Summer at least...

But look on the bright side - you'll have even more free time to spend on the Forum now

[RCLake]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

[QUOTE=gjbingham;25309]
What to do.......Hmmm, cook I guess. I'll work on the BBQ and bar later. Time to give it a rest.

QUOTE]

I'm certain you worked on the BAR last night. Congrats. We have a restaurant in the historic part of our town but there has been one delay after another so he finally paints the exterior bright pink to get back at city hall. I'm sure that won't help, but I like your pink much better.
I like the trick with the carpet, by the way I just got that B&D home masonry book. Looks like it may come in helpful.

[brokencookie]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Yeah George !!!!

I glad your finally done. Now you can come build mine

Bruce