39 inch Corner Build

[Larry P]

I saw the forecast for the PNW this morning. Strange inversion of our weather patterns!

Right now I have a 12x12 canopy over my oven. If I install my 3' chimney pipe, it won't clear, so that has to come down. So I was debating, forget the fire this weekend, leave the canopy up, and just start
insulating? Or leave the chimney off, canopy up, and figure that should be fine for the small fires for a few days? I'm leaning towards the latter. Maybe install a short pipe, 1-2 foot, from the hardware store.

Normally we'll get to the point where I can count on no rain for several months, but really good news we're not there yet.

I put a 500W halogen work light in there this morning. I'll stop by at lunch to see if that's managed to heat up the dome at all.

[JRPizza]

Russell, I have a partial bag of briquettes from before I got my gas grill that I might use, but with all the tall evergreens dropping branches this winter in my yard I have way more small fuel than I am going to need. I was able to keep the temps low - I think I might have spiked into the 350 range briefly, but my dome is pretty dry as I finished it last fall and kept the rain off it. Most of my moisture is in the floor bricks and CF board. I'm still going to go low and slow.
Larry, I am curing without chimney. I could put it on, but would need to remove it if the rains came. I pulled back the temp tarp over my structure, mainly because I could and the forecast is dry for the next few days, but the heat was low for the first fire. I have one more row of bricks to "cap" off the chimney bricks, then I need to work on building up my roof structure. I am struggling to figure out what kind of roof, how to flash the pipe, and how to make it as minimalist as possible but still be able to get up on it if needed to fix a leak or even to drive fasteners. Also need to work on my permanent door, and maybe a heat resistant temporary to use during curing, as it will take me a little time to make the good door and I don't want that to be a pacing item. Sorry to hear you are expecting rain - we are having a mini-heat wave and may hit 80 in Seattle today!

[Larry P]

Excellent! Did you install your chimney yet?

I'll probably burn first time on Saturday, but they are calling for rain for us all weekend. I was thinking just leave my canopy up and chimney off. Smoke or heat I think shouldn't be a problem under the canopy, for these early fires.

[UtahBeehiver]

JR,

You can use heat beads (Aussie) or charcoal briquettes as a part of the early cure. The heat is doesn't spike like a fire then you can cook the burgers too. Congrats of first fire, now is the time to be patient with the cure.

[JRPizza]

Definitely! Wasn't sure how the first fire was going to go, but now that I have one under my belt something is gonna get cooked the during the next curing fire. .

[david s]

Try roasting a chicken for a couple of hours. It's a pity to waste the heat.

[JRPizza]

Thanks to you both for the words of caution - I read a bunch of the curing threads and understand the need to resist temptation. We had burgers for dinner and I so very badly wanted to get a nice bed of coals to cook our first meal, but went real slow and plan to do the same for the next few fires. I pretty much just used sticks and twigs (nothing much bigger than 1/2 inch) and kept the fire 6-8 inch in diameter.

[SableSprings]

Looks terrific JR! I do remember how good it felt after all that hard work to finally have a fire going in the cooking chamber. Remember not to go too fast with the curing fires...sorry, didn't mean to sound like a nag, but still...

[david s]

Just repeat the same procedure each day if possible. You will notice the black carbon burning off the roof of the dome and each subsequent fire will see it clear further down. Don't make the flame too vicious at this stage because the temperature difference between the top and the bottom will still be quite large.

[JRPizza]

First fire! So much more work to do, but this sure felt good. After about 3 hours of slow burn the dome was ~300F and the first course was ~150F. Outside top of dome was about 115F. 4 hours after fire went out interior of dome is still @ 120F.

[Larry P]

Looks good JR. I'm probably a day behind you right now. Hope to burn this Saturday, you and me both!

[JRPizza]

I've been making some good progress on my chimney. Got it to the point where I needed to attach my supervent adapter plate. I debated using masonry anchors or just mortaring the adapter between two layers, but then I decided to go a different way - thru bolting. I worried that mortar alone might not be strong enough and putting anchors into firebrick might either pull out too easy or create too much (hoop) stress if in real tight and potentially crack the brick. I thought running a bolt all the way through the bricks would give me maximum strength and hopefully minimize the risk of cracking bricks due to thermal cycling. I made some "custom" bolts by sawing slots in the threaded ends, so I could tighten down my adapter plate without risk of the bolts spinning in their holes, and remove the nuts later if ever need to. I was worried about cracking the bricks while drilling but using a masonry bit and rotary hammer drill I didn't break a single one. I had a devil of a time keeping the holes on center though and that combined with difficulty mortaring the bricks in where the bolts would be in the right place means I will probably need to oversize or slot the holes in the adapter plate. I'll give the mortar a few days to set up then I will tackle mounting the plate. I'm really itching to get some curing fires going - maybe next weekend!

[JRPizza]

Thanks - that is exactly what I was asking. In the picture I linked, the bricks looks so much like they were on the same plane that I thought you mortared them together in a square, then placed the "assembly" onto the chimney.

[UtahBeehiver]

I not quite sure exactly what you are asking but let me take a stab. I build the chimney base brick by brick, then attached the anchor plate via masonry anchors. Then I installed another layer of brick as a cap (brick by brick) over the anchor plate. Here are some pics for the brick(s) on the cap looking at the bottom showing the recess I had to make in order for the bricks to fit over the anchor plate.

[JRPizza]

Question for Russell, in the photo from your album linked below, did you mortar these bricks together and attach the adapter as a sub-assembly and then mortar it on, or did you build it up directly on the chimney brick by brick.

http://www.fornobravo.com/community/...photoid=291177