West jordan Ut new build.

[Roland Deschain]

I worked a couple hours doing the finished brick arch and some firebrick arch behind it. Ill figure out the rest tomorrow.

[Roland Deschain]

Im going to build walls around my oven. My question is ...is it ok to build them out of 2 by 4s and plywood? Or is that not acceptable for fire reasons? The plans from fb say in !!! Not to build them with wood and plywood. Why?

[dakzaag]

Better safe than sorry, Metal studs and fire proof sheathing like steel or Cement board. What is your preferred finish? Metal studs are easy peasy.

[Roland Deschain]

More pictures of the front arch and flue smoke chamber up to this point. I still need to clean up a bit etc. Its still a work in progress.

[Roland Deschain]

The last of my brick work. And flue adaptor work.

[Roland Deschain]

I went to a metal fabricator yesterday to ask about the cost on them building a insulated door for me out of aluminum. Two inches thick ( not two inch thick aluminum), so i could fill it in with insulation, with a simple piece of metal on the ouside to seal it up. I even brought in my templates from my oven so he could see the actual size. They quoted me $1,000. One thousand dollars!

What the heck? I said a small insulated door, not a smart refrigerator. I have no idea what he was picturing in his mind.

[Gulf]

It's not very pretty but, the only cost I have in my door is for the ss sheet metal screws used for assembly. I got the drops from my brother and bent the 26 guage steel myself on his brake. I assembled it at home with metal snips and a drill to pilot the holes for the screws. The oven side is a 16th" steel plate that I cut out with a jigsaw. The handle side is covered in 26 guage with 1/2" plywood insert. I piloted the holes for the sheet metal screws on the oven side into the metal plate. The screws on the handle side go through the 26 guage into the plywood backing. The handles are also secured to the plywood. 2 layres of CalSil are the filler. There are only 2 pieces of this assembley which are done on a metal brake. The rest is done at home with no welding.

Link to my insulated door pics.

[JRPizza]

There is a good thread "show us your doors" that has lots of ideas. I am trying to teach myself to weld (in addition to learning how to lay bricks) so I built my door out of steel. I might have about $80 in materials, but have enough left over to build at least one more door. Below is a link to the door thread and a post showing mine.
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...442#post393442

[Roland Deschain]

Those are some great ideas on doors. Thanks for the links.

[Roland Deschain]

Almost done with everything. Just need to go slow on the curing process.

[Roland Deschain]

Curing is a fickle thing. My dome temp is pretty steady at 275 f but spikes up to 325 everytime i add a small piece of wood. Ive been at it all day trying not to go above 300. Yesterday i had it at 200 for four hours. The day before around 110 but not too long.

[Gulf]

You are probably beyond this point by now. But, using charcoal or lump charcoal for the lower temp fires will help maintain more stable temps with no flame impingement on the dome.

[Roland Deschain]

Im was doing my 450 f cure today and it totally wanted to go higher on its own. With barely any wood it would rise above 500 with no effort. I had to spread out the wood to keep it below. The first course of bricks and the floor are at 300f and going up the wall course by course until 450.

One more "day" min to go. 500 f.

My schedule went like this.

Day one 4 hours at 200f charcoal and small twigs
day two 11 hours at 300 charcoal and 1 inch pine from scraps of 2 by 4
day three 6 hours at 350 charcoal and same as above
day four 10 hours at 400 2 eco bricks and 1 inch pine like above
day five 6 hours at 450 plus at times same wood as above.
All basically the same amount of wood each day to maintain temps.

i drilled some holes up from below to get to my perlcrete layer. Its still wet after one month. Hope the holes help drain any water in it. Fingers crossed.

[david s]

This is precisely the point at which you need to go more slowly. The temp rising rapidly is because you have driven the water from the dome in the top half. If you have an IR thermometer you will find a huge difference in temp between the top and bottom of the dome. This is because the bottom half is still damp. With such a large difference in temp also comes a huge difference in thermal expansion and the stresses here can cause cracking. Allowing the whole structure to cool back down again helps and probably if left for a few days some of the moisture will migrate back up into the drier areas. All this takes more time of course. If you see any visible steam then you are going at it too hard, back off. You may see a persistent black ring around the base of the dome which indicates it's colder and more moist, so just keep the fire going gently.
the water in the underfloor insulation is the last to be eliminated. Holding your hand to both the underside of the supporting slab and the top and sides of the dome will tell you lots. If it's hot there's moisture present, cosy warm even after hours of fire indicates dry insulation.

[Roland Deschain]

Ive got at least two days that i will let it sit with no fires in it. Thanks for the advise.

I just looked at the inside and i have a black rink going up starting at the top of the second course. The first two courses are still clean looking.