39 inch Corner Build

[JRPizza]

Yes the heat break is between the dome structure (arch part) and the rear vent arch. I went with L shaped bricks for the rear vent arch so that they had a gap between the vertical face of the dome arch and the top surfaces of those same bricks. If you go to post #143 you can see a picture someone posted and I copied the design. With my heat break I was just trying to decouple my vent from the dome in terms of thermal conductivity. I was not trying to use the gasket to insulate the dome from the vent, only to prevent hot gasses from trying to exit via the gap instead of going up the chimney. Putting the gasket on top of the inner arch (along the horizontal surface) seemed like it would prevent the gasket or pieces of it from falling down onto my landing and getting in my food. I added the high temperature caulk just to make a final seal along the joint. I believe I have read suggestions that with a similar design you could apply some insulating concrete along where I put my caulk and achieve at least as good of isolation that I did, and even if it cracks it won't be falling into your food.

[danhem]

My rope was fairly flexible/compressible as I stuffed it in conformed to the gap. So my round rope became elliptical to fill the gap. I would think 3/8" or maybe 1/2" would be fine. I think my gap was about 1/2" and I used 3/4" or 1" braided rope. 61A Ceramic Rope 8.25.12.JPG

Reading here that quite a lot of the better builds have used a heat break of some kind. It hadn’t crossed my mind to use one but the more reading I do on the vent and outer arch I do the more I see the heat break as being a best practice.

knowing that supplies of such material is limited here in Thailand, I wonder what kind of material can be used for the heat break. Could I use some of the left over ceramic fiber board for this? And I’m guessing that the heat break is positioned in between the inner dome and vent tunnel as displayed in your picture?

[JRPizza]

Well, I kind of made it up as I went. I later added an additional 4X4 on the South and West sides. I might have added them all the way around but didn't want to have posts in the middle of the open sides to get in the way. I might add more if I ever start worrying about stability. If I could do it over I'd definitely use stainless steel bolts. After I built I saw somewhere that galvanized steel bolts are susceptible to accelerated corrosion when installed in treated wood. I plan on swapping out the mild steel fasteners soon but need to come up with a jacking plan so nothing collapses while I am doing the mod. I also learned that the way I have the main cross members fastened in a shear joint is not the preferred method, where experienced builders will notch out their vertical supports and carry the roof load in compression. This is not something I can change without redoing the entire structure so I'm banking on the switch to stainless being sufficient. We occasionally get a big snow and anything over 6" or more try to clear as much off as I can.
As far as size goes - I'd say build as big as you can! My Wife and I had lots of discussions on how big to build, where she didn't want a large structure. In retrospect we could have gone bigger. Unless you live in a very dry climate with little wind you will appreciate a sheltered space to cook/dine in, and in the winter you can keep your yard furniture dry.
Check out SableSprings build to see another shelter design that is fully enclosed (and very nicely built!)

[Yokosuka dweller]

The product I used is in post 349 above . I bought it at home depot and attached a link. I would go with bolts again, but you have to remember I'm a retired Aerospace fastener engineer. Anchors are probably fine but I didn't want to crack a brick when expanding them, didn't want to worry about keeping a tight tolerance hole size, and was just comfortable with through bolting. Like most things in a build - you go with what you are comfortable with. I free drilled my bolt holes and had a little "wander", but Yokosuka dweller used a drill press which is a much better idea. Whatever way you go you need some masonry drill bits.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-10-1-...-136/100390499

That's right, I used my father in law's drill press. The max distance of the press wasn't deep enough to get through the entire brick in one go. Way to get around that was to drill to max depth, release the press, and increase the height of the press 'table' while the drill was in the hole, and then restart. A mason probably wouldn't approve of that, but it worked well enough to drill straight holes through the bricks. Then setting the bolts to fit with the holes in the anchor plate was quite easy. Only issue I had then was that the bricks were not 100% level, so when tightening the anchor plate it pulled one corner brick up. So had to redo that brick with a bit more mortar and let that set for 2 days before fastening the anchor plate. Then, no problem.

And I also used high temp sealant for the anchor plate, in addition to the slotted stainless nuts. There I copied JR's method, because stainless nuts were easier (and much cheaper) to get around here than stainless anchor bolts. So the trick about cutting slots in the bolts to be able to tighten them from above was golden. Also - this is maybe too much information, but I also took a larger masonry bit and drilled depressions where the bolt heads would sit (at bottom end of the brick), so the bolt heads were flush with the brick and no risk of protruding and making the mortaring difficult/wobbly.

By the way @ JR - I like the structure you built around the oven. Has it held up well since then, or any things you would have done differently? I am thinking about what do to protect my oven from the weather. It will probably be something similar to what you did with a single slope/shed type (2:12) rise. I'm also mulling on whether to build a larger structure to accommodate a patio, or even an enclosure so we have a small 'play room', given we're living in a tiny house and don't have much space as is. This is a bigger project though, so if you have any plans handy from your build it would help me understand what is necessary at least for the main structure. Thanks!

[JRPizza]

The product I used is in post 349 above . I bought it at home depot and attached a link. I would go with bolts again, but you have to remember I'm a retired Aerospace fastener engineer. Anchors are probably fine but I didn't want to crack a brick when expanding them, didn't want to worry about keeping a tight tolerance hole size, and was just comfortable with through bolting. Like most things in a build - you go with what you are comfortable with. I free drilled my bolt holes and had a little "wander", but Yokosuka dweller used a drill press which is a much better idea. Whatever way you go you need some masonry drill bits.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-10-1-...-136/100390499

[Mongo]

Can I ask if you used any high temp sealant when you mounted the base plate for your stove pipe? Couldn't tell by reading through the thread.
If you had a do-over would you go with the bolts again or stainless anchors?
Thanks in advance.

[SableSprings]

Looking forward to hearing how this winter goes with the corner walls in place. They look great and it looks plenty bright enough with the lighting to keep you from smearing wasabi on the pizza instead of pesto . I've added my solar powered arrow/rope light and internal rope light "night shot" below for your amusement. The second photo is from this fall when I put up a set of color dragonfly lights under the front eve (solar powered string lights). Kinda fun to always have something flashing and glowing out there.

It's interesting how similar our party pits have turned out. I have considered putting something like your polycarbonate sheets over our screens during the colder months. Even mounting shower curtains over the screens would cut the wind and make folks more comfortable in the den. Just hasn't been a job that's percolated to the top of the list. I have put some firebricks (wrapped in foil) at the mouth of the oven to warm up and then wrapped them in towels for foot and lap warmers. Beats a second and third blanket while being a much better conversation starter

[Gulf]

Great! night shot JR,

I think that you now have a usable year round oven. It is sort of funny how different folks, from different parts, have different needs, to make that all possible .

[JRPizza]

Here's a night shot showing how the lights reflect off the panels.

[JRPizza]

We ended up using Twinwall polycarbonate panels for the walls. They let in plenty of light, and in our opinions have a “classier” appearance. I put in some horizontal boards along the floor and at hearth height, with the plan of attaching the panels along the top, bottom, and close to the midpoint. Here are some pictures of how it turned out. We finished the wiring before the walls went up and added 2 always on outlets for TV, cooking etc, a switched outlet for our ambience lights, and ran wire out to the middle of the shelter (switched) for a future fan, oven spot light or whatever else we decide to install. With the walls up we finished the gutters and downspout. I came up with an idea to use the carriage bolts that hold the structure together to help hold the panels up and even attach the downspout.

[JRPizza]

Well, It has been just over a year since my last build related post. My need list at that point was wiring my enclosure, getting up the gutters, installing walls on South and West ends, and doing the decorative work on the dome and stand. I didn’t want to do the gutters and wiring until I figured out my walls, and didn’t want to do the walls till I finished the decorative work on the dome.
The summer just flew by and as all know you can cook just fine without any of the above being completed. The decorative work is not done and we have not even finalized how we want it to look, but with the Northwest winter coming the walls, power, and, stopping the water pouring off the back of the roof took priority.
First up was deciding what kind of walls to use. We were considering using solid lower walls with transparent/translucent uppers, but our son said we should consider using a product that would let light in the full height. This could have some advantages in simplicity and keeping the wind and water out with minimum upkeep (no yearly painting/staining). We got some corregated FG panels, and placed them to see how they looked. We decided to use them to fix the greenhouse and looked for a different product.

[patjer1]

I used Uni-Extreme made by McGill Airseal it is good to 2400 F and environmentally friendly. I is NOT silicon based and sets up firm. Used it to seal in my CF rope on my arch heat break. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n383234[/ATTACH]

I've found something flexible resistant to 1000°C, a product from Förch.Think I am going to use it between the inner and outer arch.
Greetings

[RandyJ]

For my heat break I used something I beleave was called Fiberex. I think it was rated to 2700F. I think most any of these should work though.

Randy

[JRPizza]

The product I used was 3M fire=block sealant FB 136. It was supposed to be good up to 2000 degrees, but the way I designed my arch I probably could have used homebrew. My rope sits on my inner arch and the vent arch kind of wraps around it so I probably didn't need anything. I sealed it on the "outside" but if I got a piece of wire up along my heat break I could probably touch my rope from the inside of my arch. If it does crack It won't matter.

[UtahBeehiver]

The main purpose of the sealant for me was just to seal the ceramic rope from exposure. It is on the outside of the dome and cover with other material so is it needed in my case, probably not. So other builders have used other materials but I do not know if there is flex to these products or not. It also depends of the type of heat break you use and temperature exposure.