Work so far

[toddj]

wow congrads! looks great!

[aureole]

The last course was crazy- I cut a full set of wedges and realised I'd cut the wrong angle - you really need two cuts to make a nice final course on the vertical and horizontal, but experimentation showed me that ain't going to happen on witha 7" tile saw! The lucky thing was I still had enough muck in the bucket to set the keystone and about a dozen offcuts to make a perfect fit to close the gap. Better still, I have an offer from a builder friend to do a "proper" render on the outside of the oven with a terracotta scratch coat.

Got some horrible grazes on my arms where the lime worked into the cuts though - back to work tomorrow and going to heal up for a little while.

[sarah h]

Congratulations! It looks great! Feels good to reach that milestone, doesn't it?
You say now that you're going to heal for a while but I bet it won't be too long ...

[aureole]

Big progress this week/end.

In the week I cast my vent - I'd made the mould a long time back and hadn't got around to doing anything with it. I went for ~12" tall and the size of my landing (12" x 19"). It cast alright, though the castable concrete is weird to mix (the "ball in hand" test is quite hard to get right). It popped out of the forms without a hitch at all though. Bloody heavy at 50kg (~110lb).

I made the front arch - then realised that the front arch was about 3" shy of the vent, so I had to hastily run another set of firebricks to make up the gap above the arch - these will be concreted over so no-one will ever see them though! The front arch is the height of the inner dome entrance (12"), and the vent is about 3" taller, so the smoke will have to dip down quite some distance (and that vent is pretty big), so I'm hopeful no smoke will escape.

I put the blankets on and struggled with chicken wire for some considerable time: it's got a mind of its own, and if it wants to bulge out, I couldn't stop it. 2" of blanket all around, then I added about 3" of vermulcrete. There seems to be some weird bubbles and wrinkles in the finish - not sure there's much I can do about that apart from hope it stays down!

So, huge progress, only thing left is the chimney, final render and firing!

[egalecki]

I know it's too late now, but I used a pair of needlenose pliers to twist the chicken wire. Just grab a spot that's sticking up and twist a bit and it sucks it right down! I got a reasonably smooth finish on mine that way.

your oven's looking great. I think your render will hide anything you're not happy with...

[aureole]

Great tip, though, thanks!

[aureole]

Finally, had a professional builder friend round to render the dome: he did a much, much better job than I'd manage: it's looking incredibly smooth, and the final coat goes on next weekend (I'm going to get a bit of colour in it for a terracotta finish). So, firings will be starting up soon -the goal is to be cooking by the wife's birthday!

The cats seem to like it too!

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by aureole

Keystone in- just!

Isn't that a great feeling!!?

Originally Posted by aureole

Now I get to leave it for a week, then try a few test fires. Got a vent to cast in the meantime too!

That's the hard part..........but don't rush the curing fires. RESIST!

Congrats, it came out great.

You will be cooking in no time!


Dave

[dbhansen]

Looks great, and it seems the cats like it too!

[aureole]

Some pictures of the finished product, complete with chimney. Also - how to fix your oven from the inside!

Finally pulled the forms on the inside too (fibreboard tears more easily than it burns I found out). Inner brickwork is quite messy -that's the downside of using a wooden form. Hopefully it'll work just fine - started curing fires now