New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Better get some industrial strength DencoRub ready.

And 2 slabs of Corona, is it raining this weekend? Prob doesnt matter if youre not after a perfect finish if youre tiling over later.

Mitre 10 at Five Dock sells metal reo chairs for suspended slabs separately, i.e. you dont have to buy 50 or 100. They are metal and are perfect for suspended slabs like yours. Bunnings dont sell these type of chairs FYI.

They may do you a good price on the cement and reo while your there as well!

[Greenman]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

The big flexible tubs are good for this stuff. Big mouth to fill, handles held together are easier to lift and when held together create a pouring spout for core filling blocks.

When the hard work is done then you can fill it with ice and beer!!

This is also a good opportunity for the young blokes around the place to show off how strong they are.

[david s]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Looks the goods Wozza, remember to wet the formwork thoroughly before pouring concrete, helps to pull out the timber later, and fill over any gaps with a robust tape and it stops the concrete seeping through the formwork joins, it wont mess up your retaining wall etc. About .3 of a cube?? You going to mix yourself?

I find oiling the form work is a better solution as a release agent, but to prevent a lot of oil left on the surface of the concrete I thin it 50/50 with kero. I also find clay, in a plastic state the simplest and quickest way to fill any cracks or gaps in the form work.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Got a door...which, as I screwed up somewhere, you'll be able to see in the next post.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

And here it is. Off an old wood burner that we've had in the house for quite a few years. It was well past it's use-by date - or at least the flue was, and new rules and regs meant big bucks to get another one fitted (plus SWMBO wanted a bigger sofa and the burner took up too much room). So, and it broke my heart doing it, I dismantled the whole thing a few months back.

Gee, it used to throw out some heat. And all free fuel as well. Someone was always knocking down a fence or cutting down a tree. Spent many a happy evening gazing into the flames with a couple of potatoes cooking in foil and a glass of whisky in hand. Hence the wfo, really. Can't live without some sort of fire and that chiminchera I bought is more decorative than anything else.

So just got out the grinder earlier and took it off the fire box. It would fit a recess about 420 x 270, which I think is about the right size of the entrance for the size oven. May look at replacing the one handle with a couple of fixed ones either side. And I'm assuming that it will be man enough but not exactly super efficient. Maybe need another well insulated door to keep heat in overnight, but I'm thinking this would keep most of the heat in if I was cooking bread or a roast and it would be easy to check progress.

Plus I think it looks cool and I can't bring myself to throw it away anyway.

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

If you dont want to get rid of it all together cast it into the slab, it'll be there for ever, you may not see it, but hey.

I was thinking of a door like that for the front decorative arch. would look different having a glass insulated door to gaze through.

[Greenman]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

That door shows promise and it has the right kind of glass for the job. I hadn't thought of those kinds of doors but have been thinking of a 'cooking door'.

Kinda brings out the best in a hoarder when something loaded with fond memories comes around for consideration for the dump.

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Wozza, these bricks seem cheap, don't know the quality maybe ask the supplier, they have a sale on now if you haven't bought your bricks already.

Firebrick 230x115

Just got my insulation from fire furnace at Wetherill Park, got 2 boxes of 38mm ceramic blanket for $136, they had a sale on. Stoked with the price.

[david s]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

And here it is. Off an old wood burner that we've had in the house for quite a few years. It was well past it's use-by date - or at least the flue was, and new rules and regs meant big bucks to get another one fitted (plus SWMBO wanted a bigger sofa and the burner took up too much room). So, and it broke my heart doing it, I dismantled the whole thing a few months back.

Gee, it used to throw out some heat. And all free fuel as well. Someone was always knocking down a fence or cutting down a tree. Spent many a happy evening gazing into the flames with a couple of potatoes cooking in foil and a glass of whisky in hand. Hence the wfo, really. Can't live without some sort of fire and that chiminchera I bought is more decorative than anything else.

So just got out the grinder earlier and took it off the fire box. It would fit a recess about 420 x 270, which I think is about the right size of the entrance for the size oven. May look at replacing the one handle with a couple of fixed ones either side. And I'm assuming that it will be man enough but not exactly super efficient. Maybe need another well insulated door to keep heat in overnight, but I'm thinking this would keep most of the heat in if I was cooking bread or a roast and it would be easy to check progress.

Plus I think it looks cool and I can't bring myself to throw it away anyway.

Be careful of using a door with a steel frame. If you set it into refractory material (bricks) the steel, being way more conductive, expands well before the refractory and will crack the bricks or mortar joints that surround it. You need to work out a way for the steel to expand so this won't happen.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Wozza, these bricks seem cheap, don't know the quality maybe ask the supplier, they have a sale on now if you haven't bought your bricks already.

Thanks for that, Bren. I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

With all the rain we've been having, it's delayed my hearth concrete pour, but the weather looks ok next weekend so I've booked the lad in for a couple of hours on the Saturday. Then the following week I'm away on holiday, so maybe I can chase up those bricks and get an offer in before I go with a delivery in mid June.

Looking foward to starting the dome.

Be careful of using a door with a steel frame. If you set it into refractory material (bricks) the steel, being way more conductive, expands well before the refractory and will crack the bricks or mortar joints that surround it. You need to work out a way for the steel to expand so this won't happen.

There won't be a metal frame, Dave. I was just thinking of using it as a stand alone door resting in the opening. Haven't worked out how to keep in place yet (other than resting a brick up against it - which is a bit low tech).

There's a latch on one side which I could make longer and perhaps could slot into a groove cut into the brickwork. Or maybe a recess on both sides..? I'll work something out.

It maybe have been on this forum I read of one guy who used a metal door and it expanded into the brickwork when he tried it and it jammed. Had to wait over a day for the temp to drop to get it out again.
Hope he didn't have a roast in there...

[david s]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Thanks for that, Bren. I'll give them a ring tomorrow.
There won't be a metal frame, Dave. I was just thinking of using it as a stand alone door resting in the opening. Haven't worked out how to keep in place yet (other than resting a brick up against it - which is a bit low tech).

Ah, good. Go with your plan to see how it works, then maybe add an insulated handle on each side. I presume the door is double glazed. I think it is an excellent solution, please report how it works.

The first oven door I made, for the first oven I built, was like a tapered plug. The door was wood (around two inches thick with a cast insulating panel facing the oven). If I wasn't careful and left the door in place overnight the oven would cool and lock the door in so tight it was really hard to remove, because of the taper thing.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

And finished the hearth at last. That's my boy just adding the last load.

I thought it might have been hard work lifting 750 kg of wet concrete up and into the formwork. But the we thought: why not get the mixer up high enough so we can pour it straight in. The wooden walls at the back of the garden were just at the right height, so we screwed the legs of the mixer down just in case and it was all go.

Having it at that height meant we had to lift the dry mix more than we had to, but we discovered it was pretty easy cutting the bags in two, so it went pretty smoothly. The base took the exact amount plus 10% so the hearth was 28 bags plus 3 plus an extra 2 spare just in case and we used exactly 31.

With luck I may be able to get the Hebel blocks laid next Saturday, then it's off on holidays, so no more work on it until mid June.

[Greenman]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Well done Wazza! It is a toss up about which to lift but lifting is a part of the job with this in a home situation. Good to get that part of the job done though.

Enjoy your holiday. Working in the cooler months is much more pleasant and the weather is usually more friendly as well.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Finally managed to get my iPhone piccies onto my office PC so I added a couple to the post above showing the support for the hearth and the steelwork in place.

Incidentally, the weather being crap the weekend before last I thought I'd try making a tandoori oven that I'd seen being built on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXXamj8lV4

SWMBO is o'seas at the moment and as they say - it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so I drove over to the local garden centre and bought the pots: $70 for a large one and $30 for two smaller ones and $30 for a large bag of perlite. No point in me explaining the process as it's all in the video.

The only difference was that I thought the drainage hole in the smaller pot which sits at the bottom of the larger one was OK it was and I didn't need any more, but the large pot only had two smallish holes off centre, so I cut a square one with the angle grinder and a diamond disc as per the piccie.

Cut the bottom off the other smaller pot, assembled it all and poured in the perlite. I had some old bits of a Barbie lying around so I cut up some griddle off that sized that it rested just above the bottom of the lower pot - that's for the charcoal to sit on, and job done. Took about an hour.

I put the whole thing on some wooden blocks to get the airflow through to the charcoal and fired it up.

Wasn't sure if the air holes were large enough but one beer down and it was burning nicely. In another two beers time the thing was going critical! Very hot indeed. I haven't got a temp sensor, so I don't know what the temperature was, but there was no way to get a hand inside to slap my recently made naan breads onto the sides (well, I did try wearing a garden glove, but the first attempt ended up in the bottom of the oven and I lost most of the hairs on my arm.

Only problem was that my skewers were too short so I had to improvise with a bit of reo. On went the marinated chicken and into the oven for 10 minutes and the naan bread was dangled near the bottom of the oven for about a minute rather than slapped onto the side.

Dee-luscious. Every home should have one. And not much more than a hundred bucks.

Although my daughter, impressed as she was (and I think I may have to make one for her place) rolled her eyes (just like her mum) and asked if I wasn't overdoing it. We now have a gas cooker, a gas Barbie, a charcoal Barbie, a chiminchera and a partly built pizza oven.

What am I missing..?

[Steady]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

What am I missing..?

You need a cold smoke house and a full sized spit roaster