Whats the best advice you recieved here?

[Kemo]

When I first started posting on the board, I was looking for answers to questions and basically tossing around the idea of building an oven. Now that my oven build is in full effect, I find myself looking back at all the information and support I got from the board members.

So what is the best advice you recieved and what advice would you give to a newbie?

Here my basic checklist, Im sure ill have more as I move on to finish out:

1. Get a box of latex examination gloves to handle the bricks, It will save your fingertips from all sorts of damage

2. Make sure you clean up real good after each day so you can start the next day fresh.

3. Be sure and pour your slab big enough to handle number of cinder blocks you will be using. make sure its a few inches bigger than the stand on each side.

4. Dont overbuild your forms, remember that you will have to take it all out once things cure.

5. Rome wasnt built in a day

6. Safety first (Dave!)

7. ?

[KCJones]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Always work to your abilities not someone else's.

Do your research. Building products are usually found locally if you spend a little time calling around.

ASK QUESTIONS.....FB forum is a great tool.

[asudavew]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

So much....it's hard to find one piece of advice.

I never really knew anything about outdoor ovens until I landed here.

But the best advice..not any ONE thing... but it is the just the overall idea of being able to do it your own way. The plans aren't set in stone.

"I did it my way"

[dusty]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Well said, as usual, about the plans Dave. There is no way I could build an oven without them - they are wonderful, but there are lots of places where a person could deviate to make their's unique. The one thing I threw out right away had to do with that piece of angle iron above the stand door. They suggest placeing it on the third course of blocks to support the fourth course (page 19).I put mine on top of the fourth course so my opening was exactly as tall as the storage area is high. This way I won't have to bend down so low to get to the back. The angle iron runs across the back of the arch, and the ceiling of the storage area is as tall as the bottom of the top arch brick.
Best advice I've gotten? I think I just got it - #2 in Steve's first post! I am horrible about cleaning up as you can see in my pics.

dusty

[Gentcpa]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

1. Finding this website and plans

2. Buying the 10" saw from HF and using seperate buckets for the pump and run-off.

3. Soaking the bricks.

4. The hinge on a swivel as a guide for the cutting and placement of the bricks. It also proved useful to hold the bricks in place while I messed around with other bricks or c-clamps.

[james]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Great thread.

Don't put too much time or effort into things that will never be seen, or that will be taken down. The forms come out; your concrete block stand will be covered with stucco or stone, and no one will ever see the top of your hearth. :-)

First time through I spent way too much time on those.
James

[Les]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

I think the best advice I have seen is when someone said "the next time I am going to buy the kit"

Les...

[Frances]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

I totally agree with Dave...

Who was it that said "there is no right way to build an oven"? Plenty of wrong ways of course, where the dome falls down, the chimney doesn't draw, the oven doesn't cook etc, but as long as it works once its finished...

That and the hinge swivel for getting the dome round. Brilliant idea.

My own personal advice would be to remember to have fun making your oven... I would be the first to admit that mine is far from perfect, but man I enjoyed building it! So build to the best of your ability, be proud of your oven, and (as I just read elsewhere) embrace your cracks!

[Archena]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Steel toed boots...

[asudavew]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

I must add....


Gloves...

[Frances]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Oh yeah, and earplugs...

[jahysea]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

It's hard to pick one thing. How about....

- Soaking bricks before placing them in mortar
- Curing concrete/mortar rather than the common concept of "drying." Could be considered counter intuitive that in high heat you actually want to wet it regularly and keep it covered.
- For those in damp climates, leaving firewood in your hot oven as a last step after cooking. That wood will be kiln dry and light the next fire beautifully.
- Dry stacking cinder blocks and backfilling. I built a wall with my father once mortaring each block. Took forever.

I could go on forever, the forum is an excellent resource.

[gjbingham]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Dave and I learned the same hard lesson.

Gloves, gloves, gloves! My cuts are still healing 3 weeks later, and there was some terrible suffering in the mean time.

[Archena]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Dave and I learned the same hard lesson.

Gloves, gloves, gloves! My cuts are still healing 3 weeks later, and there was some terrible suffering in the mean time.

So, you mean gloves, right?

[gjbingham]

Re: Whats the best advice you recieved here?

Yup! Gloves.

It's hard to think of any other specific items because this whole project has been a huge learing experience. I'd never laid one brick in my life before I started this.

Perhaps one other: try to decide on what you want your finished product to look like (by reviewing all the photos on this website) before you start working. I think doing this will minimize having to make changes or doing problem solving in the middle of the project.

This may not be entirely necessary for a stand-alone oven built to specs on the plans, but in the case of my corner installation where space for the oven was a consideration, things such as how you handle the oven landing and finding an attractive finish are more problematic.

You know, this thread should probably be over in the Tips and Techniques forum. Perhaps James can place a copy of it over there in the future.

George