getting started! Brick Oven Photos Discuss getting started! in the Good Background Information forums; Originally Posted by tony715 quick question. should i get a few low burns in or burn it in completely before ...

[Ken524]

Originally Posted by tony715

quick question. should i get a few low burns in or burn it in completely before i seal everything up?

Your choice. I would at least get some insulation on it before curing.

It sure wouldn't hurt to do 5 or 6 fires to make sure everything is fine before buttoning up. That's what I did; make some pizza then seal it up.

[tony715]

Insulation is on, we decided to do a 2" fireclay and portland mix as the vault was constructed. then i did another 3-4" of perlite/concrete mix. the firebrick were cut 4 1/4 thick for the walls. i have left enough room to get at least a 5-6" thickness of the pour in perlite/vermiculite before we seal it up. the next step is to pour another 3" insulated slab of concrete over the oven chamber and then we are going to install pieces of limestone on top to cap everything off. i really wanted 1 solid piece of stone on top but the cost to get a crane in here or type of machinery to set the 1 piece would be around $1K. so we decided against that.

just did my first burn. kept it around 200 degrees up and down for a few times. looks like the chimney draws well. i could see the cloud of smoke hovering as the cool air came in under. so cool!!!

tomorrow night i'll do another burn with a piece of 2x4 and some more newspaper. may we can do a pizza this weekend!!

[carloswlkr]

Beautiful project! Careful on the burns... how long has the oven been curing?

[tony715]

the oven cured for a week or so before i put the insulated concrete on. that's been on for nearly a week.

[tony715]

wrapped up the brickwork today. going to let things cure a bit before we install the perlite and concrete slab on top.

i should have some pictures to view tomorrow.

if anyone wants to see start to finish photos i have them posted on my face book page. just put a note on the friend request.

[tony715]

washed down 2 sides of trhe brick so that we can complete the steps for the deck tomorrow.

poured the concrete cap on top and started the next part which wil be a firepit/grill.

should have some pics in the next few days

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Looking good !!!!

[tony715]

OK,did most of the curing. the dome sat there for at least 2 weeks prior to the first small burn. the dome is very black inside and i noticed this morning that there looks to be white aroud the edges of the fire brick in the back of the oven. i am concerned that these may be hairline cracks. is this typical? should i worry?

i have run through the schedule curing and tonight would be up to cooking temp.

should i cancel that and let this thing sit? i am hoping i didn't screw up.

opinions would be greatly appreciated.

tony

[dmun]

I think you're seeing the start of the burning off of the carbon, which doesn't happen uniformly. As you get hotter all the carbon will burn off. It's hard to tell without a picture.

If it were me, I'd proceed. Cracks are pretty obvious, pretty common, and mostly nothing to be alarmed about.

[tony715]

thanks,

i'll go ahead and cook some pizza tonight.

i tried to take a fw pics but i couldn't get a good one of what i needed you guys to see. to much or to little flash and i'm no photographer. i'll check it tomorrow morning again and see what it looks like.

thanks again.

p.s: deck steps are on and everything is coming together. i will try to get some pix up later today.