sand under firebricks?

[Poetryart]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Holidays, 28 people for thanksgiving dinner, impending deadline for big sculpture, rain, too much to do....yet... I did manage to mortar in the entry bricks, and figured out my archway! It's s'posed to rain, with possible snow, for the next couple days. It's covered with a tarp at the moment and when I get to uncover it, I'll take photos...in the meantime, I'm studying all the pizza making posts and drooling profusely...
I'm frustrated that it's not done yet, I'm not a delayed gratification type of girl, sigh...I used to wonder why it took so many people so long to complete their ovens... Now I know. Life gets in the way.
Even in it's unfinished state, it impresses my friends.... Lets hope the pizzas do too! Lol.

[cobblerdave]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Gudday Poetryart

Hows progress???
Would love to see some Pics too!!!

Regards Dave

[angel123]

Re: sand under firebricks?

I agree with using the fire clay..And in the beginning i was as doubtful as you..And finally i took up my friends suggestions and put fire clay..From past one year it is quite fine..

[cobblerdave]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Gudday poetryart
You have got to keep it in mind that as long as the oven inners are built of good materials and correctly it will work....no one sees the inside mainly the outer of your oven. They have no idea the wheather the bricks are individually
cut to each angle or not. Now I'm not saying I dont admire the workmanship but not for me. I can't wait to see the outer of yours!
If you want to see the thread of my oven it's dave's build in the Australian section of the forum. I have tried to get an earthy look... plenty of different colours and textures to the brick and matt finishes to the stucco. Worked for me and covered my less than perfect briclaying skills! Let me use a lot of recyled materials as well most of the stand and oven outer is recyled.
Heatstop not sure what that is from my perspective you cant beat the hombrew mortar from the forno plans its cheap, simple to use and above all a proven product.

Regards dave
hand on the mend...plenty o little tingles and pains looks like the nerves are connecting up again.Signed up next Feb to complete my full qualifications as a Bespoke Shoemaker they have recognised my previous work and experience and I have very little to complete to finish

[Poetryart]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Great minds think alike...I brought in the inside diameter by about a half an inch, cut some of the corners of fb board that weren't under the floor and placed them where I had firebrick. It's not perfect, but i think it will work. There's only one place where I had to put a firebrick for support under the floor which is under the half soldier course and it's only a couple inches. I cut the half soldiers, as well as the next round then mortered the soldiers in place. The brick store here swore that I needed stuff called Heat Stop for the mortar, it's pretty thin stuff, hope I did it right, I'll know in the morning...
I made the mistake of researching the forums and found Les' photos of his build. Geez, he set the bar way above my head. No chance mines going to be so gorgeous. Sigh... Oh well.

[cobblerdave]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Gudday Poetryart
In a perfect world you should have oven dome and dome insulation sitting on your slab insulation...but sometimes the world less than perfect.You can operate with the dome insulation outside of the slab insulation I'm sure
If it was me I would first consider taking the oven down in size by 2 ins you'll lose a little oven entrance height but this would be only ay 3/4 of an inch.
Secound perhaps you could use some of the FB board from the entrance area outside the oven dome itself to fill in the gapes.
Lastly be patient and obtain some more FB to extend what you have got.
What ever you come up with try not to have the firebrick hearth in contact with your slab you lose a great amount of insulation value in those few ins

Regards Dave

[Poetryart]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Sorry about your hand, Dave, makes me a little more cautious for sure! Also, am really curious to see those shoes..!
So, I figured out the wet saw thing, cut a handful of bricks and now have a question for ya'll. When I laid the bricks out, there were a few places where the fb board was a little shy of the edge of the soldier course. To help balance them out, would it be a problem if I put a fire brick under the edge of the cooking floor to fill out the gap? This means that potentially there would be no insulation for about two or three inches in probably four different areas. I'm putting the soldiers on top of the cooking floor. Would the heat migrate down to the concrete base layer? I even took photos,but lol, no memory stick in the camera...sigh. I'll post photos tomorrow. I am doing a 36" oven, and really don't want to waste space by bringing in the diameter if I can help it. Thanks!

[cobblerdave]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Gudday Poetryart
You don't have to explain the girl thing about shoes.. I run a repair shop so I spend my days talking to girls about there 2 favourite things ...shoes and handbags. Recon its the best job in the world. Get to go to parties with accountants and computer jocks next min I'm being asked questions about shoes by all these ladies...drives my wife nuts!
Yes I do make shoes I'm a bespoke maker so one offs only and I only make the ones I like for my favourite girl ...my wife.
My hands damaged at the moment so it will be a few months but the latest is a pr of electic blue converse, kitten heel and tin sheriff stars in place of converse patches...might be silver piping. Anyway paterns drafted so we'll just have o see how it goes.
Anyway like davids said best to have a wet saw as dry there is a lot of dust. Good you use a respirator not those silly masks.I did my oven with angle grinder and brick buslter and yes its do.able , you will not see the cuts anyway only the faces.

Regards Dave

[david s]

Re: sand under firebricks?

You can rig up a system to dribble water onto the blade with a tap, tank and tube. It works, others have done it.

[Poetryart]

Re: sand under firebricks?

I'm glad you all like the flue idea! It's going to be fun! Yes, the slope for the concrete is exactly what I was thinking, and in that order. Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, I didn't get to start on the dome today, as I had bought the wrong saw blade, so I worked on a big sculpture instead. What would happen if I purchase a diamond blade for my chop saw and/ or the miter saw instead of using the wet saw my friend loaned me? The problem with their saw is that I have no manual for it and am afraid of breaking it when I change out the blade, etc. And it's only a 7 inch blade, which means I'll have to rotate bricks to cut all the way thru. My husband is concerned about the dust from a dry saw, but... We have respirators with filters so I'm really not too worried. He'd appreciate some reassurance and I guess I need confirmation that i'm not risking my health on this. I also have an angle grinder. What would you recommend? Thanks! -Shelley
Okay, so a creature crawling out of the dome, what other ideas do y'all have? Could be anything, I normally do portraits and catholic church sculptures...something smoke related...
Cobblerdave, do you really make shoes? How cool is that! serious dream of mine!! Not to mention how much I could save if I didn't give all my extra cash to shoe collecting...sorry, ....girl thing...

[david s]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Excellent! I'll get to work.
Next question: What happens if, after the dome is in, we surround the outside of the dome hearth with concrete to make the concrete under the hearth level with the dome floor? We haven't removed the wood form from pouring the hearth yet and could easily add to it. This would make everything nice and neat and easier for the decorative stone application. We're planning to stucco the dome after the fb blanket. There's a layer of concrete between the fb blanket and the stucco, too? Right? Hope this makes sense. :

You can do this, but you should insulate between the edges of your floor and the concrete you pour up to it. While you are about it ,slope the concrete away from the dome slightly to discourage water penetrating under the dome.

[cobblerdave]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Gudday
Slope away from the oven sounds like good sense to me. Do your final top to the slab after you have finished the insulation and stucco on the dome.
You had better post some photo on that chimney that does sound great!
Perhaps a piece of ceramic insulation around a lenght of stainless pipe will provide the expandtion you'll need. Its simple and you'll have the ceramic blanket, it wouldn't need to be a fullpiece off cuts would do
Regards Dave

[mrchipster]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Makes sense, thanks! Hadn't thought of having something " crawling" out of the oven, that could be a hoot! Thanks for the inspiration.

You must post a photo when you decide, I need to see this...

Again Great idea.

Chip

[Poetryart]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Makes sense, thanks! Hadn't thought of having something " crawling" out of the oven, that could be a hoot! Thanks for the inspiration.

[mrchipster]

Re: sand under firebricks?

Excellent! I'll get to work.
Next question: What happens if, after the dome is in, we surround the outside of the dome hearth with concrete to make the concrete under the hearth level with the dome floor?

If you are doing an Igloo style you might be creating a swimming pool for water to pond in thus wetting your insulation, and making it hard to dry out after each rain.

If you are building a House over the oven it is not a problem. but you will need to have the entry slope away from the oven so water does not get into the insulation layer, You will need to do this with either style enclosure.

Chip