Michigan WFO Brick Oven Photos Discuss Michigan WFO in the Good Background Information forums; Back to basics for me. How is this flue liner/chimney supposed to work? If a gap is left around the ...

[mfiore]

Back to basics for me. How is this flue liner/chimney supposed to work? If a gap is left around the flue liner, does it remain unsupported all the way up the chimney? What about insulation around the flue liner? To steal a photo from Cypress's build, does anything fill this gap?

[Les]

Mike - I filled the gap with a portland/vermiculite mix. I figured it would give it a little strength and insulate as well.

Les...

[mfiore]

Is that mix compressible (flexible? elastic? compliant? I'm sure one of these is the proper engineering term!)

If the flue heats up and expands, will this be transmitted to the brick surround and cause strain?

[Les]

Mike, it's the same blend thats recommended for the hearth. If it does expand, it won't be enough to cause harm. The stuff is so loose there is plenty of room for movement.

[mfiore]

Makes sense, Les.

I cut a notch out of that steel framing piece that was abutting the flue tile. I then reinforced with a doubled up stud flipped up on it's side. I'm sure this will be more than stable.

[mfiore]

Some steel trusses I've put together for the framing. Nothing original in their design. All ideas taken from this forum.

[Dino_Pizza]

Wow, Mike, that looks great. I stacked my trusses this morning too to see if they all lined up. You also had the same problem with the vent being so close to the opening. I had to trim a crescent moon arc out of my top track to go around my 8" vent and then similar to you, added strength but with 2.5" track within the cut up 3.5" track and attaching to the vertical studs. Is this your 1st time with steel studs? If it wasn't for Kens pics and Bills and Joes too, I wouldn't have known what to do. Take care, Dino

[mfiore]

Dino, yep, my first time working with steel studs. It was fun (in a hand cutting, arm scraping sort of way). I don't have a chop saw, and couldn't really justify another purchase at this time, so had to cut them all by hand with tin snips. This is very doable, but likely less precise than a saw.

Here's the progress I made yesterday.

[dbhansen]

That's some quick progress, Mike. Looks great.

[smuth10]

Mike,

What are you going to use for roofing materials? I am having a heck of a time finding anything besides asphalt shingles or cedar shake. I would really love to use metal roofing and just screw it to the metal studs. If you have a good source, please pass it my way.

Thanks, Scott...