John's 42inch Aussie WFO

[MikeyMann]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Great job mate. Looks nice and tidy. I finished my formwork today and will pour the hearth tomorrow. Let's hope the rain doesn't do a repeat performance...

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Thanks guys. Am definitely enjoying myself.


The weather was atrocious in Sydney today but managed to complete the soldiers to 90%. Will start on the arch bricks tomorrow.

I am aiming for an internal dome height of around 20-21 inches so i think my arch will need to be approximately 12-13inches at the highest point. This would be equivalent to around 63% of the dome height (Please correct me if I am wrong).

[MikeyMann]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Great work John. Really like how you've used the saw to cut the first soldier course. I should probably do the same.

Good idea with the car cover. I got absolutely trashed with rain on the weekend. I found it hard to keep the rain from the mortar. Enjoy your week off.

[jmhepworth]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Figuring out the mortar takes a couple of courses if you haven't worked with it before. As you have discovered, keep the firebricks wet. They soak up a lot of water if they are dry. And only mix enough mortar that you can use in 15-20 minutes. ANd mix the mortar with cold water.

Looking great so far. This part is really fun.

Joe

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Began setting the soldiers over the weekend. It wasn't as easy as I anticipated and am only a third of the way through!!

I found that the High Temp mortar dried out too quickly due to the bricks sucking the moister out. It took me a while to figure out the correct mortar mix and found that by placing the bricks in water before hand also helped.

I purchase a very cheap car enclosure (Kmart $89.00) last week that I was planning on using to help with the heatstroke I was probably going to suffer working on the WFO!! Expecting a hot summer down under this year.
Instead it absolutely poured with rain and wind today but I stayed relatively dry.

Have the week off so hopefully will make some progress.

Cheers John

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Paul,

I preferred the standard fire bricks over the floor tiles as the fire bricks are thicker therefore have more mass 75mm bricks & 50mm Floor tiles.

The floor tiles would have been much easier to lay but went for greater mass instead.

Yes the arch brick is a standard fire brick cut and shaped but I think I will play around with that a bit more as I am not entirely happy with it. I might take a Angle off the corner and have the Soldier sit right up against it. I am The external arch will be bricked up in a standard Bowral Blue Brick (solid).


Look forward to seeing your pics!!

John

[Alter ego]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

How are you going with your base?

John,

I poured the hearth slab on Sunday and I am looking forward to getting on with starting on the dome.

I have managed to find a Newcastle transport company who will deliver 1,000kg of bricks from Sydney for $100 so for that price I won't even attempt to drag a trailer behing the car with a tone of bricks on it.

Are you using the the tapered arch and transition bricks that Field Force sell? From the look of the fancy cutting on your 1st arch brick it look like a normal rectangular brick? Also did you go for the brick herringbone floor rather than the larger tiles just because it looks better?

I am currently leaning towards a herringbone brick floor and cutting my own arch/transition bricks rather than the using the Field Force tapered bricks so that I can change the style of the oven entry.

Paul

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

I guess if there is no reason why not to bed it in I might just wip up a slury of high temp mortar and just place it on top. Better more tham less I say!!

I absolutlely agree,, there is no such thing as being overbuilt !!!

Cheers
Mark

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

It's looking good John!

I hope that the rain showers stayed away for you on the weekend so you could build without interuption. In Newcastle It looked threatening all Sunday morning with a few light showers.

Hi Paul

It was great weather over Sat/Sun but only worked on the Sat.

The Wife had me doing gardening on Sunday!!

How are you going with your base?

John

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Hi Mark/Joe,

Thanks for the advice. I guess if there is no reason why not to bed it in I might just wip up a slury of high temp mortar and just place it on top. Better more tham less I say!!

I will set this this Saturday unless someone can tell me otherwise

Thanks for the info again guys.

[Alter ego]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

It's looking good John!

I hope that the rain showers stayed away for you on the weekend so you could build without interuption. In Newcastle It looked threatening all Sunday morning with a few light showers.

[jmhepworth]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Great start. Things look really nice.

I have a question around the whether to glue down the Soldier coarse to the insulation bricks. What are the pros and cons of doing this? I do not have an issue of leveling it out with hight temp mortar but rather what is best practice?

I just set mine on the insulation board. Gravity holds it in place. Mortaring it to the insulation won't help anything.

Joe

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

I have a question around the whether to glue down the Soldier coarse to the insulation bricks. What are the pros and cons of doing this?

I built my dome on top of the firebrick floor, I used a very slight layer of mortar under the brick, My joints werent as tight as yours though,

My thought, All bricks in the oven will move due to heat and expansion, some evenly, some not. Im sure I have cracks inside the oven I cant see,, It is unavoidable, as I see on many builds we have put a fefmix or heat stop render over the dome.. so what im sayin, is its all good whether you do it or not is more a matter of personal choice....I Think either way would be fine, and dont forget that the dome also holds bricks in place by compression as well as render/refmix.. As well when you vermicrete the dome you are basically cementing the bricks in place even further,, Hope I have cleared this up some, rather than confused you
Cheers
Mark

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

It's been a while since I have had a chance to work on the oven but made some progress over the weekend

I bedded down the floor in the end as I had to much of a height variance between bricks and that helped with getting the floor as flat as possible.

I also placed a slight angle towards the front of the chimney landing in case any rain ever came in so this would not enter into the oven. The actual dome cooking surface is perfectly level

after placing the soldier coarse in place I was not to happy with the size of the external gap between bricks so I tapered every second soldier by 7mm total of around 15mm off each brick. This has halved the external gap.

I also shaped the 1st arch brick which was not as hard as I expected so I will try to cut some more next weekend.

I have a question around whether to glue down the Soldier coarse to the insulation bricks. What are the pros and cons of doing this? I do not have an issue of leveling it out with hight temp mortar but rather what is best practice?

[John K]

Re: John's 42inch Aussie WFO

Cuts like butter!!!