First fire in Wisconsin

[Inishta]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I use scrap building timber for the initial heat build-up. It takes longer but it is a lot cheaper. When the temp is up we use better wood.

[james]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I've burned a ton of two by fours and construction garbage. Slow smokey fires are what cause creasote buildup, not high-heat fast fires.

I have to fight the urge to burn too much construction debris and off cuts (we have a lifetime supply). The sooty fires put out a lot of black smoke, which not only makes the vent area black -- but also really dirty to the touch.

Once the oven is cured, I'm going to grind my Artigiano opening to get back to the original brick color.
James

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I'm be real glad to burn them for curing fires, I hate to think they would only fill up more landfill

[CanuckJim]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

RC,

I wouldn't worry about scrap for kindling and cooking fires, although it can be smokey as James points out. Some time ago, there was a thread about pallets, and the concern was that they're treated with pesticides. Looked into it. Pallets meant for repeated use with heavy materials are sometimes treated, but it they are, they're stamped (at least here in Ontario). Anything without stamps--hardwood or softwood--is fine. A friend of mine works for a siding company and regularly drops off pallets meant for lighter loads and one time use. I burn them all them time to no ill effect. You're right, all that stuff will go into a landfill somewhere otherwise.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Jim
How is your curing process going? What are you doing with the fire at night and do you have insulation on the dome or not?

[jcg31]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Jim
How is your curing process going? What are you doing with the fire at night and do you have insulation on the dome or not?

So far so good, although I am traveling so I put all on hold until this coming weekend. In the meantime I have two halogens burning with the door closed. Those are keeping everything at 200 degree +.

When I was doing the fires, I used the recommended approach of simply closing the door at night leaving the remaining fire to survive as long as it could and then started with the next step in heat the next day.

First day was without insulation, the second day I cut the wool and am now kicking myself for not doing that weeks ago. It took all of 15 minutes (one 11.5' cut and two 42" cuts) with finding a tape measure taking the majority of that time. It simply makes everything you do with heat in the oven soooo much more efficient. Prior to the insulation going on the Halogens at night might keep the top of dome (they are pointing at the top of dome) near 130-140 degrees, the sides considerably lower and the floor even lower. With the blanket the dome is 240 the sides 175-200 and the floor 125. It takes one minute to take the wool off to check for cracks and one to place back in position. This is amazing stuff. I have another box but haven't put it on yet, for the temps I am using at this point and for the convenience of having to take off only one layer to inspect the dome I probably won't add it until the 800 fire.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I probably should cut my blanket to get ready for this, better than watching mortar dry

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Jim,
I'm going to take your advice and temporary install 2" of blanket during the curing fires. I've got two boxes of 25 sf (24" wide) and as I've thought this thru, each box will almost cover the dome. A sphere surface area is pie x diameter squared, so a 42" dome inside or 51" outside would have 57 sf of surface area. So top half of sphere would have 28 sf. So does that mean each box will almost cover the dome? If so, with these two boxes and a box of 1" 50 sf I have, I'll have over 5" of coverage.
That bending over the dome to finish it may have impacted my math.
From the get go, I thought 50 sf was needed to cover the dome, so is my thinking off?

[jcg31]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Yeah I probably wasn't too clear above. My oven is pretty close to your size and I am also using 2" x 2' x 25' wool. I took one strip 11.5 feet long and wrapped around the lower half of the dome, then two 42" strips and covered the top of the dome with overlap in the middle and with that first bottom piece placed on the bottom half. So after entire dome was covered I still had 6.5 feet remaining. But that was just the dome, I didn't touch the arch.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Yeah I probably wasn't too clear above. My oven is pretty close to your size and I am also using 2" x 2' x 25' wool. I took one strip 11.5 feet long and wrapped around the lower half of the dome, then two 42" strips and covered the top of the dome with overlap in the middle and with that first bottom piece placed on the bottom half. So after entire dome was covered I still had 6.5 feet remaining. But that was just the dome, I didn't touch the arch.

Jim

That's great news, I guess you can't have too much insulation. It seems like I'll have at least 4" everywhere. I'd had thought I would get some vermiculite in Dallas this weekend, now I don't think I'll need it.
I haven't given any thought to the arch and vent area. I need to do some research there.

[gjbingham]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Good question on the arch/vent insulation. Ken did it. I didn't. I was thinking that the area of the arch outside the vent wouldn't get nearly as hot and be a source of heat loss. As I mentioned in another post, I cracked my decorative arch last weekend with a really hot fire. I'm not sure if insulation would have helped or hurt that situation. I say, start a thread with a poll whether to insulate the arch or not.

[RTflorida]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I insulated mine, simply because I had it and was finishing the entire oven in the same material; also to give the extra width around the brick for the mosaic tile.
Not sure if it makes any difference - of the few hairline cracks I have had, 2 of them have been in the mortar of the entry bricks and have reoccured more than once.....no big deal, just scrape it out and put another fingerful of mortar in every few months.

RT

[RCLake]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

Jim,
What temperature are you monitoring during your cure fires?

[jcg31]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

RC, I am measuring dome (internal) all surfaces with IR thermometer and ambient with a thermocouple probe (12") held in tripod fashion just inside right of the door with a metal 3"clamp.

I am also measuring top, opposing sides (about halfway up on the dome) and floor with thermocouples that are planted 1.5" from internal surface. And two on the outside surface (top and one side). These are more for my curiosity than anything else. It is becoming quickly apparant that I am over thermocoupled and that (as has been mentioned so many times before in other member posts) the performance becomes very predictable. What is needed out there is a service that could plant these during curing fires and early bakes (with all insulation on) record how your oven responds, provide the data to the user of saturation over time and save us all the expense of inbedding thermocouples that will rarely be used.

Had I to do it over again I would have just gone with an IR and made note of the internal and external surfaces over time (by lifting the kaowool insulation for readings on the outer surface) before enclosing and saved myself a bunch o dough on electronics.

I am getting a curious reading from my floor, which is 2.5" firebrick on top of 4" of vermicucrete. The thermocouple near center of the floor and 1.5" down from the surface is consistently measuring temperatures 50-75 degrees warmer than the floor surface once temps have moderated. Haven't checked it (but will this weekend) the temperature of the 4" of concrete below the 4" of vermicucrete.

Jim

[gjbingham]

Re: First fire in Wisconsin

I am getting a curious reading from my floor, which is 2.5" firebrick on top of 4" of vermicucrete. The thermocouple near center of the floor and 1.5" down from the surface is consistently measuring temperatures 50-75 degrees warmer than the floor surface once temps have moderated. Haven't checked it (but will this weekend) the temperature of the 4" of concrete below the 4" of vermicucrete.

Jim

Interesting,
When you say 1.5 inches below the surface, I assume you mean the under surface of the floor. Is that correct?

Hard to imagine that the vermiculite is warmer than the oven floor. Did I read you right? If that is the case, I think it will even out and then become lower than the oven floor temps in the near future. Perhaps you're just boiling the water out of the vermiculite??? That stuff stays goopy for a long time.