house brick for stand, quick quetsion

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

sorry about the bad pics, i think you are right about that divider wall
and then center point at the back

dome reached around 700F today but floor still stays around 300-350 so i suspect freezing night and prolong heat exposure did the damage yesterday
do i keep going with my fires or should i back off till the floor jumps higher and start matching dome in temperature?

[stonecutter]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

I looked back on your thread to see your slab pre-pour. You have plenty of reinforcement, it's not going anywhere. Impossible to tell from the pictures, but I'm thinking those cracks are located above the divider wall in your storage area..is that correct?

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

like my cracks were not bad enough it looks like my dog is on her last leg
some good news about my cracks would be great before i drink myself to sleep

[CrocAu]

here we go with the cracks, went also on the other side that is little harder to access and sure enough there is same crack so as it stands only front doesn't have it but seem now it is only matter of time, hope not because that will travel up in my bricks mortar that seals off calsil boards....

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

did walk around today and noticed 2 cracks in structural slab
they less than 0.5mm and considering the rebar inside of my slab and almost 120mm thickness i would hope they only cosmetic but sadly they follow my perlite/cement further up about 2/3.
was expecting some perlite cracking but had hopped supporting slab would survive.
bottom never went past 45C so i don't think i over done the fires but last few nights were very cold here with cars getting ice on them in the morning so i guess that difference could be why?
need some cheering up and tips on how to tackle repairs before final render goes on top
should i should patch the perlite/cement cracks before i put normal render or just go over it? also what should i do with the slab cracks, other then trying to hide them i would imagine they should be sealed somehow so the water doesn't travel inside?

will post pics shortly

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

so it sounds like i been doing things right way so far and can crank it up fair bit
it is too late today but should i tomorrow do 4 logs at the same time? or even more?

[david s]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

Sounds like you need to build the fire up more.

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

i sort of lost count, could be 6-7 days maybe even 8
3-4 hours at the start and last 3 fires fair bit longer, 5hours plus and also noticed there be retained heat the next day and today i had it going since about 11am so around 10hours nonstop, started little for an hour and then added 2 logs and kept adding as they died.
used about 20KG redgum today alone

[david s]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

I don't know how many fires you've had or how long for, but those low temps would indicate to me that you can crank the fire up a bit. Yes move the fire around. The hardest parts to dry are the base of the dome and under the floor.

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

here is couple of photos

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

i'm still going slow with no more than 2 or 3 logs inside at the time, or is this too big?
i'm keeping fire mostly in the center is this the best way or should i move it around ?

yes positive it is reading in F, if the black build up is gone other than the black ring would this be considered clearing or is this is something else that is happening and proper clearing is yet to come.

[david s]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

Those are really low, nowhere near clearing the carbon off. Are you sure that reading is F ? If it is C then it is more normal. Be careful the big difference in top and bottom temps leads to uneven expansion, take it slow until all the black has gone.

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

that is few great tips guys, thanks a lot.
the black ring around the bottom of the wall on the inside where wall meets the floor seem to be gone as of today, yesterday it started changing and today it is totally gone.

i was wrong about the black ring, today i clicked in my head that what i'm saying today is the real black ring that was mentioned before, i have about brick and a half worth of black ring showing all the way around about one course from the bottom of the oven and it is getting smaller every hour.
am i guessing right that top of the dome has "cleared" and this is lower part still got some water in it? should i stick to my now mid size fires or is this sign to make them little smaller?
also the bottom course of bricks that never turned black is this bad/good or does it have any other meanings?

temperature read about 500F at the very top, and then it goes down a little bit down the sides till it goes near the black ring where it drops off fair bit more.
floor seem to read same as the bottom course of the bricks but fair bit lower than the top of the dome

so to sum it up
500F at the very peak
490F-450F as i go down from the peak down to just above black ring (so 5th course is at 450F)
300F below black ring
270F at the bottom course
250-270 floor (reading from spots where there was no fire burning and near the walls)

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

this is the size of my fires, only peaking little bigger when i move things around or add fresh one on top, but this is what i'm burning at most.
should i try to keep it even smaller or i'm being to weak with it and should make it bigger already

[CrocAu]

Re: house brick for stand, quick quetsion

that is few great tips guys, thanks a lot.
the black ring around the bottom of the wall on the inside where wall meets the floor seem to be gone as of today, yesterday it started changing and today it is totally gone.

i had no sign of any steam coming anywhere and this is with very low ambient temperatures so from what i'm reading i'm on the right path

once again thanks everyone for putting my silly mind at ease