When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

[edjc]

Hi I used a wooden frame to shape my brick dome.

Once my fire bricks and mortar are set, built and in place when may I burn away the inner skeleton frame?

Do I need to wait the full 28-30 days for cure or may I burn it away sooner?

Tks
Ed

[boerwarrior]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

Ed

I didn't use a form for my dome, but I did use one for my arches. I removed mine about one hour after mortaring the arch bricks in place. My theory is that a properly constructed dome should be structurally sound by itself and not "glued" together with mortar.

So I think you will be fine taking it out now.

Can you not cut it out? do you have to burn it out?

[stonecutter]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

Hi I used a wooden frame to shape my brick dome.

Once my fire bricks and mortar are set, built and in place when may I burn away the inner skeleton frame?

Do I need to wait the full 28-30 days for cure or may I burn it away sooner?

Tks
Ed

28 days is accepted industry standard for curing concrete slabs,form-work, etc, etc, and it doesn't apply to brick oven building. Dry time will vary depending on how much water was used in the mortar, exposure, temperature and other variables. So, the cure time for oven mortar will vary build to build.

A slow cure will always benefit mortar or concrete in the form of higher strength and better bond.

With burning out a wooden form, you are going to create a lot of heat all at once...and you are risking damage to your dome. You would be better off removing it and do some small drying fires, instead of burning the form all at once. If you go that route, you can start small fires immediately.

[Mitchamus]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

If you a prepared to wait 28 days then yes.

If not, you probably should remove the frame, and start off by lighting small fires.

There are a lot of posts about curing your oven and lighting your first fires located in the forum.

This is the regime I am about to follow for my 2nd build.
1) Allow the oven to cure for 1 week.
2) Put a 100w lamp inside the oven for 3 days.
3) Light 1 bag (5kg) of charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter, and then spread these over the entire floor area of the oven and leave them to burn out. Make sure they are well spread and not in one clump. There should not be any flames.
4) Repeat the above with another bag
5) Light a very small fire in the oven in the afternoon, consisting of some newspaper and a few handfuls of sticks, and allow to burn out.
6) Repeat the above over the next 3-4 days gradually increasing the duration and intensity of the fires.
7) light a sustained fire and bring the oven up to temp SLOWLY.

Some people will definitely disagree with what I have written - but each to their own.
Your oven still may crack. It will still work fine anyway.

HTH.

[edjc]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

Thanks
My Wooden dome frame Cannot be removed for the pieces are larger than my doorframe
It sounds that I am best to wait and then provide some heating source and then fire

The wooden frame is made out of thin Louan plywood

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

Can't you use a Sawzall with a 8 or 10 inch blade and reach in and cut the form down? With Luan ply a Sawzall should cut thru it in short order.

[Gulf]

Re: When to burn away inner wood dome frame ?

All, very great advice. If you can't remove all of the form, how about just enough to get a charcoal (heat beads) cure going! Start small, and keep the temp around 200 to 225 for as long as you can. You will notice that it takes less and less charcoal to keep the temp in range.

At some point during, say (a 12 to 18 hour period) it will become too irresistible, and you will then light a fire in her . Just don?t over do it with extra fuel .