Oven Build in Spring

[cbailey]

Jay, thanks for the compliment!

Attached are the photos of the doors. As I mentioned before, I will use the oven door when in use, and cooling down. I'll use the wooden door to keep the critters out.

I copied the handle design from another WFO builder on this site. The handles also work as door supports by keeping the door from falling forward.

As far as useable heat, I expect 2 days, but hoping for 3. However, my experience in this area is exactly zero. I'll find out this weekend.

Cory

[UtahBeehiver]

There is a thread the focus on doors only, do a search and you should be able to find it.

[terratree]

Thanks for sharing Cory - good info which I will no doubt use.

Door(s) look great, and I was lovin' your landing even before you put the bricks on top of the mini slab...

You got a pic of your door from behind ?

Pizza soon, then roasts, stews, bread, jerky. How may days of usable heat do you expect from one fire ?

Cheers

Jay

[cbailey]

I was also able to mount the chimney mounting plate. I used high temp flue caulk and cement between the plate and the brick. It is held down with 4 Tapcon screws. Each set with a little high temp cement.

I picked up oven door from the fabricator today. He did a great job. He used 1/8th inch carbon steel and 2 inches of left over CaSi floor insulation. I painted it with hi temp paint. In hind sight I probably should have gone with SS, but frugality got the better of me. I thought it came out pretty good.

I live in Houston where everything rusts. I've lived in Utah, So Cal and Scottsdale. My tools never rusted. Now everything rusts. My climate complaint has a point. I don't want to leave my beautiful oven door out in the weather when the oven is not in use. It will rust. The only point in keeping the door in place is to keep the various critters out of the oven. So, I made a Critter Door out of wood. I like the way it looks in conjunction with the used brick landing.

[cbailey]

I finished applying 2 coats of Masterseal this weekend. I chose MasterSeal 581.

Mainly because it comes in grey. I could only find 583 in white

I found a distributor in Houston. It was $35/50 lb. bag.

The first coat was a challenge! I was applying over stucco/render. The instructions say to simply spray a little water on the substrate if the Masterseal starts to grab and "ball". After thoroughly wetting the dome, and the area I was starting with, the Masterseal started grabbing right away. The take away is you have to keep spraying the stucco to get the material to flow on properly. Also, keep the material you just applied moist if you wish to feather one section with the next.

The second coat went much more smoothly. The first coat hadn't fully cured, so there was still some absorption of water allowing the material to flow better.

I would have uploaded a photo, but it looks exactly the same as it did before. 2 mm of grey MasterSeal waterproofing doesn't really change the dimensions or look of the dome!

I used 12.5 lbs. for each coat, or about half the bag for 2 coats. I also found that the paddle mixer doesn't mix well with that small amount mixed in a 5 gallon bucket. I used a mixer that I've used in the past to mix joint compound. I'll edit with a photo later.

All I have left, for now, is to attach the chimney pieces and secure to the pergola I have covering the outdoor kitchen area.

Pizza soon, very soon!

[cbailey]

Thanks JayI

I'm pretty close. I still need to seal the dome, install the chimney and lay the finish brick around the chimney mounting plate. I plan on finishing the dome with used brick look using thin brick. Similar to the way Gulf finished his dome. Basically ending up recreating the original outward look of the dome before covering it all up with ceramic blanket and render.

Cory

[terratree]

Jeez Cory - looking good !!

I reckon you'd be pretty happy with that.

[cbailey]

Beautiful weather in Houston this weekend. I was able to apply the final coat of render and install the dome vent. I found that I had to add another course of brick on the chimney before mounting the anchor plate. The firebrick I want to install on top of the plate simply would not line up properly with the previous courses of brick.

I'm at a point where I'm reconsidering choices of product to seal the dome. Somewhere on this forum I had read a few months ago a good discussion of Thoroseal/Masterseal vs Seal-Krete and other waterproofing options. I'm still partial to masterseal, but considering options. I welcome the opinions of the cumulative brain trust of the forum

[cbailey]

Thanks Chach! Very glad to see that the weather is finally cooperating and you're back at it. I'm looking forward to following your build.

Cory

[Chach]

Very nice work!

[cbailey]

Thank you Denamontini for the compliment.

Made some progress over the weekend. Saturday was raining, but Sunday was perfect weather.

I was able to complete the decorative arch and to apply the first coat of render on the dome. I hope to apply a second render coat this week after work so I can apply Thoro-Seal (Master-Seal) this weekend. Perhaps install the chimney as well.

[Denamontini]

I love this idea! It is beautiful!

[cbailey]

I'm getting close.

I reasoned that I needed to complete the decorative landing area and arch so that I could pour a monolithic rendering of the dome and vent. The attached photos show my progress. I found some used brick (called Willer?) with a little more red in it than traditional old Chicago. I was hoping to find thin brick of the same look and color, but was unsuccessful. The result, I cut my own thin brick from the used brick. It wasn't that bad. Cutting approximately 1/2 inch slices I could get 4 thin bricks from a full size brick.

I made a form for a small pour to raise the landing area and completed with used brick. I am dry fitting the decorative arch bricks in hopes of completing the arch by this weekend and applying render to the dome. As luck has it (Murphy's Law) it's going to rain this weekend after a spectacular work week, weather wise.

[JRPizza]

I used 16 gage (0.051) for the outer part and went down to 20 gage (.032) for the inner parts. Welded up it is a pretty stout assembly.
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...442#post393442

[david s]

SS is preferred due to the lower Thermal Conductivity factor (K), SS= 14, Carbon Steel - 54, Aluminum = 237, Wood < 1 (but you are limited to lower temperatures with this material). Heavier the gauge, the heavier the oven. I would chose the lightest gauge that can be welded without warping.

Whilst SS is less thermally conductive it has a greater tendency to warp. Unfortunately a warping surface against the oven mouth interferes with decent sealing. This characteristic decreases the thicker it is, so if you if you increase thickness in an effort to decrease warping, you are also increasing a higher proportion of conductive thermal mass. Back to square one as well as increasing cost and weight. Having said that, if you want to go ahead with stainless I think you need to go to at least 0.90 or maybe 1.2 mm thick.