Curing, Cracks & Other Kentucky Conundrums

[Langy3366]

Great threads !

I stayed up late to read them and now I'm gonna be in a bad mood all day tomorrow.... Oh well.

Instead of ceraboard, could I use these second hand blocks from storage heaters ? I'd have them under the firebrick base.

They are on ebay (UK) at the moment search on "electric storage heater bricks blocks".

[aureole]

Not a good idea: they are not insulating material, they're more refractory. That is, they soak up and store heat and let it out. The firebricks in the base of your oven do this. The job of the insulation is to stop the heat conducting away from your oven floor and into the concrete slab below. If you want the low-cost alternative, make the mica/vermiculite mix up instead. The storage blocks *may* be okay for an oven floor, but I don't know what temperatures they are happy at.

[bolex16mm]

I have been slowly curing the oven, really slow, over a period of one month. Yesterday, I finally got the nerve to get the oven up to a temperature where the ash burned off. I did not see any cracks in the oven. However, I did see a hairline crack running up the side of the terra cotta flue pipe. Do I need to replace the flue or can I just do a small repair and live with it. I really want to start cooking.

[dmun]

Christo had this problem, and he just fixed the crack with some refractory mortar. Remember, your whole oven is separate items mortared together: another mortared joint in the flue tile should not be a problem.

[james]

Agreed. I heard a good one from a friend in the refractory business. When they have large items they know are going to crack, they build a failure spot into the design so that it cracks where they want it to crack and won't do any harm.

I guess that's the same theory behind seams in sidewalks.
James

[bolex16mm]

Thanks everybody for all of your help. On Saturday, I did a test run and made some pizzas. I was a little too impatient and did not let the oven get hot enough or let the dough rise enough or a combination of both but they weren't bad. Not as good as my relatives in Italy but not bad. On Sunday, I roasted a chicken and it turned out great. I do have photos of the process and when I get enough courage, I will post them. Thanks again everybody.