Last brick (well almost)

[Gentcpa]

I pulled the Duratech anchor of last night. I used some tin snips to cut the collar so it can expand freely. I will see what happens now.

There isn't much I can do about the cracks, but it will be interesting to see if they open up again.

[gjbingham]

Julian,
Do you have any pictures of the failure that you experienced due to expansion and your modification to the anchor? I'm having trouble visualizing your solution to the Duratech anchor (never having seen one before)
Thanks
George

[Gentcpa]

No sorry, I should have taken some pictures so everyone could see and hopefully learn from what happened. I thought about it but didn't feel like recording it.

The Duratech anchor has a four bolt flange and a round collar that is supposed to fit into something else. The collar is just flat thin guaged metal that was easy to cut with tin snips. As was previously mentioned I don't think the anchor was designed with this application in mind. It was probably designed as a pass through for ceilings so it was designed for a metal to metal contact. In my situation I built the arch so that the collar was a tight fit which in retrospect was a bit dumb. It had no where to expand and cracked the arch pretty early during the last hot firing. I had flue temps over 600 degrees.

I hopefully fixed it by cutting the collar so that it is more of an individual tab arrangement. We will see if it works.

The crack could have nothing to do with the anchor but I doubt it. The dome has no cracks "yet".

Kind of begs the question of what happens with the angle iron support that is often used in the entrance. It seems to me that dissimilar materials should be avoided if possible. I was originally going to go with a clay flue but after reading about trouble others had with cracking and the clearance that needs to be built around them for a structure I went with the Duratech.

The Duratech from a chimney point of view my flue temp was over 600F while the outside never went over 80F. Just need to rethink clearances for attachment.

Sorry for the book but hopefully someone else learns from this and doesn't make the same mistake.

PS. the crack was big enough to see right through it.

Julian

[sarah h]

Sorry to hear about your arch and vent woes. I think perhaps I'm experiencing something similar as my chimney pipe has cracked in a straight line from top to bottom - I can't help wondering if it's due to the metal vent on which it's mounted. I have no advice to offer but I'm sure we'll both get past these problems.

Sarah

PS - don't think I ever posted to say I love your granite 'brick'!

[Gentcpa]

Thanks for the encouragement Sarah. Glad to see you are cooking pizza. I am planning on pizza over the next two days.

Good luck with your flue as well. I guess we are all going through some growing/ design pains.

[gjbingham]

Thanks Julian,
Good update on the Duratech situation. Keep us up to date on your (hopefully successful) progress.
George

[Gentcpa]

Hi:

I seemed to have resolved my arch issues. The cracks are still there but not much I can do about them at this point, they aren't opening up as badly now.

Yesterday we did pizza and today there will be more.

Yesterday:

1. Rosemary, olive oil and salt - one of my favourites (pictured)

2. Pepperoni (pictured with a happy customer)

3. Pineapple salsa (homemade) with smoked ham

4. Mussels and garlic

5. Pears, oil and brown sugar (perfect with ice cream)

Didn't stretch the dough enough on the first one so it bubbled like crazy as you can see in the picture.


Today is Thanksgiving and more pizza.


It is even more satisfying to bite into these creations. Way better than any restaurant.


Have a happy and safe holiday to those state side (everyone else too)



Julian

[sarah h]

Those look like great pizzas ... and one happy customer! Happy Thanksgiving!

[gjbingham]

Great looking Pizza! Looks like your son enjoyed it.
Happy Thanksgiving.
George

[Gentcpa]

Day two of pizza didn't go as well. Ninety second pizza? I ended up with 10 second pizza and ended up cooking most of the pizzas in the entry way. I had one very hot oven. Still nobody complained and we all stuffed ourselves.

My wife suggested more today but I am done for now, I will fire this thing up again on Sunday. Hopefully, a little less aggressively this time. It was pretty cool though I had spontanious combustion inside the oven and wood placed in the entry way was even catching fire...