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And guess what --------- I RAN OUT.... 1 bag short.
Guess I'll be seeing you again Mark.......
I did the same at the top as Liteceeper 2 short pieces of 40mm pipe except I just sat them there moving them around as required,, worked ok.
Fired up the curing device and am finding the Hebel panel to be a great temp door, 65c on inside and ambient temperature 14c on the outside seems to be a great insulator might make a temp door from it and follow cobblerdave lead.
Will crank up the curing temps tomorrow, getting it too 150 ish then 200 ish Friday. Shiralite should dry quick as it is next to the dome. I shouldn't have the water issues doing it this way - as others have reported - at all. I'm guessing the curing will go more quickly. Will put plastic on, on Friday night to check for condensation.
Weekend get the blanket on 4 layers of 25mm, then crank it up.
Make a temp door, maybe some tools. Keep it fired throughout next week, Then some wood fires and maybe Pizza by end of next week or earlier if there is no water before that.
Hi Colin
I copied this from Harriotts build thread so we don't hijack his build.
Anthony
my confusion was around the refractory mortar and HE cement. Is the Refractory mortar actually fire clay? because in the description of your mix there was no fire clay just 2 lots of cement.
I thought about mortaring the floor in place but having spoken to a number of forno experts went the floating route as most others have. Be interested how yours goes over time.
Colin
Not sure of composition of refactory mortar (grey in colour), it was supplied with kit and homebrew mortar is Ben's recipe. The HE cement is a off white portland cement I have been using for my stand brickwork, it is finer ground and hydrates quicker to give a (H) High (E) Early strength.
I keep you posted on floor movements.
Anthony [Liteceeper]
Found this in my emails when talking with Ben " The refractory mortar that we sell is what’s called ‘Airset Refractory Mortar’, it is a combination of powdered fireclay and sodium silicate, designed for use in furnaces and kilns. As such we don’t use it by itself, we combine it with GP cement, lime and fine washed sand in a similar mixture to that used by Forno Bravo – we use different ratios after significant experimentation. The alternative to this would be using our refractory castable asmortar, which you can quite easily do as the castable we sell has a very fine grain structure which allows for tight mortar joints. "
Gulf
If your out there and see this I need to build big draws would love to know more about the construction of yours.
Out of interest how much water did you have to add to the Shiralite to get a good workable mix?
Half bucket of each. Although I i'm not completely sure as I mixed half a bag a time in a wheel barrow but a bloody lot of water. If it was too runny 3 handfuls of shiralite stiffened it up.
I pretty much used a flat square finishing trowel as a hawk and small brickies trowel to apply, sped it up subsantially. Ended up being able to apply a whole bag in less than 15 minutes.
Only problem I kept running out of the stuff. I used 125mw [medium weight]. It is really solid stuff. Curing has begun.
I don't know what kind of cement is in Shiralite, but if it's Portland you should let the stuff cure before adding any heat as you only finished the layer yesterday.k If it uses calcium aluminate cement then it only requires 24 hrs. Either way all that water is still there and it's easier to allow the sun and wind do some of the work in removing it rather than internal heat. Don't rush it now, you've been at it for over year. If the water in the Shiralite turns suddenly to steam it will expand and you'll get cracks in it.
Looking good Colin,
I agree with david s on letting the shiralite dry a bit before big fires.
My bottom layers of perlite are fine but the top was still damp when I did first big clearing fire and thats where I have some cracks and around around flue gallery.
Maybe too late but I would place some aluminium foil to stop shiralite sticking to flue area and act as a expansion / crack joint.
Thanks for the info on Ben's refactory mortar I was wondering what it consisted off.
a year hmmmmm shit where did the time go. Actually only started the dome 1 April I don't count the stand but guess you are right.
I'm guilty too. I just fired my kiln up tonight for the second time. I took it to 700 C on Tuesday with the kiln furniture only and to 1020 C today with a few wares. It goes like a champ, used almost a full 9Kg bottle and took 14 hrs.(must take biscuit firings slow.)
I started this kiln over two years ago, got a little lost in priorities. Will post some pics on my "pizza oven becomes a kiln" thread. Still have to give it a hard outer shell, that might take another year.
I weighed the wood that my oven consumed once and it only took 4Kg of wood to get the thing to clear completely. There are all sorts of factors though, total oven mass, dryness of wood, quality of wood, dryness of oven and presumably air humidity. I also presume the fuel consumption would be in line with chamber volume (although a bigger oven should be more efficient) eg A 5 litre V8 will not use 5 times the fuel of a one litre engine. My oven is only 21" internal diam so it's volume is way less than a 42" In fact it is only 50% of the diameter, but 12.5% of the volume of a 42"I think you'd do better than having to burn 40 kg in a 42" but I'd guess about a bit more than half that.
Hey Colin,
You should check out ebay and gumtree for free firewood.You may be surprised by the offerings.
I was able to pick up a cubic metre of quality redgum hardwood for free via ebay.
Just something to think about.
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