Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven
That is a very interesting question to me, mainly because I do dry stonework in addition to using mortar. The biggest problem I see is that the brick would degrade relatively quickly (to a masonry structure) due to the movement created by thermal cycling. Mortar serves not only as a binder, but as a protective 'gasket' to stone and brick in masonry structures. And an oven has more movement in it than ordinary structures because of the continuous heating and cooling.
There are a couple factors that may add to the durability of a mortar-less oven though. One would be keeping the oven at a fairly even temperature or allow very little fluctuation in the oven temp, to keep movement to a bare minimum. Another would be using brick that is harder, like a high duty firebrick, which would hold up better to movement than the softer low-med duty brick. But then you are changing the performance of the oven using high duty. As is often the case with masonry, it's difficult to not give something up when you are trying to gain something else.
BTW Les, as many have told you, the dome you built is super...excellent work.
Karangi....apologies, I'm not trying or going to highjack your thread!
Originally posted by Les
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There are a couple factors that may add to the durability of a mortar-less oven though. One would be keeping the oven at a fairly even temperature or allow very little fluctuation in the oven temp, to keep movement to a bare minimum. Another would be using brick that is harder, like a high duty firebrick, which would hold up better to movement than the softer low-med duty brick. But then you are changing the performance of the oven using high duty. As is often the case with masonry, it's difficult to not give something up when you are trying to gain something else.
BTW Les, as many have told you, the dome you built is super...excellent work.
Karangi....apologies, I'm not trying or going to highjack your thread!
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