From oz. First time user. Please help.

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

cobblerdave, no dramas. After camp ovens, open fires and hungi's, pizza ovens are a breeze

[cobblerdave]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

worb
Drink, hungry drunks, and a wood fired oven well....... that sounds dangerous
Ok no one to badly burnt.... bet ya theres a few burnt arm hairs though and red ruddy faces

regards dave

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Just spent the morning sponging on a coloured render coat. Was originaly just going to cover the base, but I had to see what the whole thing looked like. After the resounding failure of the sponge I think I'll go hunt a fence brush down for the final render coat.

Had a bit of a cookup last night with a couple of mates. The plan was to light the WFO, then cook some steaks on the BBQ. Had to try a quick pizza in the oven. After the first pizza, the BBQ was abandoned and we spent the night making pizza. Basic pizza with what was in the fridge - tomato, ham, parsley, spring onion, cheddar cheese and olives. Tell you what, a basic pizza in the WFO made by a pack of drunks beats the arse off any of the gourmet pizzas I've ever eaten before. Can't wait to see what we can do with some good ingredients and a bit of practice.

[cobblerdave]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Hi
posting the reply yesterday spured me on to complete the final coats. My old paint brushes are nearly hadit so I went to buy some more. told the hardware man what I was doing and he said to buy a Fence Brush. Add this one to the best yet toil saver tools... its longer thicher bristle take the hard yakka out of painting rough surfaces holds heaps of paint and fills in all of those fine holes as you go.
Regards
Dave

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Thanks Cobblerdave, have been reading up on acrylic renders and they sound like the go. I will cover the oven to protect from rain, and it'll get used pretty well in the next month, that should dry it out enough then I'll paint an acrylic render on.

And I like the tip on the matt effect, as it's pretty lumpy.

[cobblerdave]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Worb
My oven suffered for weeks of rain till i sealed it.
The render is not fully water proof so you best to paint it there are heaps of product for painting render you can get some realy nice effects. If the minister for war and finance steps in and you can only paint it heresome tips Leave the render for 3 weeks to mature properly
Scrub down with a week solution of vinegar and water to kill the lime left
Use a matt paint it will give you a soft effect where a full gloss showns up the lumps and bumps
Go well
Regards Dave

[brickie in oz]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

It's cracked quite a bit, but nothing I'm too concerned about.

You have to keep painting on a slurry of clay into the cracks as the fire heats up, this will seal the cracks in the open fired position.

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

aaaand in the end I went clay. It was either go clay, or end up not going at all (issues with having the revised budget approved through the finance department. Bugger, accountants are ruining the world!). I have lit a few fires (slowly slowly catch the monkey) culminating in a decent fire last weekend. I have not put the insulation on yet, I wanted to see how bad the oven would rack before I covered it up. It's cracked quite a bit, but nothing I'm too concerned about.

Hopefully the weather holds out this weekend, I'll put the blanket on, might throw some vermicement on for good measure, and render it.

I've been rendering with a 6 sand, 1 cement, 1 good lime and had no dramas so far. Is this mix suitable for a finish render over the dome? Is it waterproof?

[Aussie Alex]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Hi there,
I am from adelaide. I have just sources all of my materials an I am ready to go. If you want any details of what I got and where then please let me know.
Alex

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

thanks all for your comments. My local supplier (who is a distributor with not a lot of knowledge about bricks) wants over $1 for a solid red clay brick. But they got the shifty eyes and mumbled a fair bit when I asked if they were sure these were clay and not a cement brick. Not confidence inspiring. (And, I may just be a knucklehead, but I don't have a lot of faith in someone that doesn't have eftpos in this day and age).

I spotted someone on the forum who said they got firebricks from claypave for a bit over $2. It might be cheap peace of mind to go back to the finance department (missus), ask to extend the budget and go the firebrick.

I will definitely go the homebrew fireclay mortar. It sounds too good to be true, but all the fb forum members can't be wrong.

Am considering taking a spin to brissie this friday to get the clay and bricks. I need to finish this bloody oven, It's all I think about lately!!

[nissanneill]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Hi Worb and welcome aboard,
check out the pics of Russell Jeavon's oven in his restaurant which is over 6 years old and used 3 days a week cooking pizzas at:

https://www.fornobravo.com/forum/27/russell-jeavons-pizza-restaurant-south-australia-1930-2.html

See permalink #16
Also, a brick company in the Adelaide hills who also make and sell firebricks ($5 ea) sells more solid fired clay pavers for ovens than firebricks.
The next oven I build will be with pavers and not firebricks.

Cheers.

Neill

PS Don't even think of using normal mortar as the high Portland concentration WILL NOT stand up to the heat. Use the poor man's mortar which is great

[cobblerdave]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Go the firebrick
Expensive yep, hold the heat in yep, after all the time and effort I spent on the base etc I was not going the easy option. The Forno Bravo instructions call up up to 200 bricks for a 42 inch or 110cm oven so was very tempted to complete my build with White bricks as I had read they resist the heat better. Silica content gives them the white colour. After checking out the Firebricks and remembering this is your heat bank I went for the firebricks there were so much heavier.
Like I said 200 bricks I brought 175 in 2 lots, used for the floor and dome but not the entrance and carfully finish up with 18 to spare so I used 157 in total.
There is a fireproof cement mix in the instructions containing fine sand, lime portland cement and fireclay. Fireclay is the only ingredient that is uncommon its basically ground up brick. You could use the slurry from the brick saw but you would probable need to grind up a bit? anyway a 20 kg bag cost $25 and whatever brick you could use a fireproof cement.
Regards
dave

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

I am leaning towards firebrick. The missus will not like the news (What, another $500???) but I only want to do this once. Also I'm concerned that any brick that's a few hundred degrees C on one end and room temp on the other is going to have some serious stresses on it. I'm sure if I fire it slowly and give it time to get to temp I'll reduce the risk of cracking, but really, I am confident that after a couple of drinks and the boys braying for "PIZZAAAAAA" I wont be so conscientious.

[brickie in oz]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

Ive built many a fire place with red bricks and they seem to stand up to constant firing.

Although, a pizza oven has more extreme temps so Im not sure if theyll go the distance.

I think they fire bricks at around 1200c which is nowhere near the temp your oven (maybe 600c) will get too.

The skirt in my oven is made from 50mm thick red clay pavers and they are still as good as I laid them after nearly 2 years, and we have a few parties too.

[Worb]

Re: From oz. First time user. Please help.

I'm fairly new to the forum, have just completed the base and insulating layer for the floor. My problem - do I fork out big $ for refractory bricks, or go with clay bricks? I got on to some solid clay bricks (enough paver thickness ones to do the base, and about 50 standard height) they are big heavy solid suckers. I have read Russel Jeavon's book where he reckons use solid red clay bricks and normal mortar and she'll still be right. He seems a bit too casual about the whole affair to me, but even in the FB downloadable instructions they state if it's red bricks or nothing, go red. Has anyone used red clay,and how do they stand the test of time?