Mississippi 44"

[Gulf]

That lloonngg aassss shutdown is over . Finally, I got to work on the MQ a little today. I needed to insulate between the firebox and the face brick with 6 to 1 vermicrete (a Tscar recomendation which I do appreciate). If I could have done this before the outage it would have had whole month of drying time. Oh well! I began by sealing the gap between the outside firebrick arch and the facebrick arch. I did not have the ceramic fiber rope on hand so I plugged the hole with a scrap piece of 3/8" cord rope.

I will remove it later and replace with it ceramic fiber or tuck point it with a fine blend of vcrete. Not sure yet.
The back of the firebox has an open vertical slope which seemed to me would be a little too difficult to manage with the VCrete so I built a slip form which allowed me to add a 1X4" as I progressed packing the firebox enclosure from the bottom to the top.

[Gulf]

The back of the form all packed.

There is a 3 and 1/2" section in the middle above the dome which will have to be packed after the forms are removed. Most of this section would be inside the 7" ceramic fiber and Vcrete area for the dome, though.

I cut and dry stacked 5 rows of facebrick to get a head start on next weekend.

Weather permitting .

[Gulf]

Did not get much done due to the weather. I did wreck the vertical form on the back of the oven.


That SS tube sticking up on the right is a conduit for the control for the damper. If you look real close to the bottom right of the right hand corbel you can see where (what I call) the choke will be.

[Gulf]

Got some speed poles set before it started raining. This will be the visible width (34"X24") of the facebrick until it clears the underside of the A-Frame. It will then be inset to the final width to continue through the roof.

Went back into the shed, layed and cut some more face brick for what will enclose the chimney.

The OD of the firebrick liner of the chimney is about 12"X12". The 20"X20" face brick shell will enclose about 2" of V-Crete for insulation.

[Laurentius]

Wow, is that an illusion or am I seeing 4 arches in your oven?

[Gulf]

Originally Posted by Laurentius

Wow, is that an illusion or am I seeing 4 arches in your oven?

Yep, If you count the facebrick arch. It is structural so I guess it does count. If you go back to page 5 of this thread it will explain a little .

[Gulf]

Had a change of plan. I decided to step in on each side 1/2 brick to 25 and 1/4" before entering into the underside of the A-Frame.

That will leave a little more ventilation area for the moisture from the V-Crete to escape and will also use a heck of a lot less of it as well.

[Gulf]

I had a 48" of piece of 2" angle iron which I cut to fit the depth of the chimney minus 3/4".

I can set the 2"X2" facebrick like shown or slightly bevel cut a full brick to set mortar over the V-Crete or both.

Anyone's ideas are welcomed, but I have a question for Tscarborough.
I have used angle iron in fireplaces, BBQ pitts, and windows. I have never had a problem with them. I was thinking about adding them to help give strength until the V-Crete cured. It will be a week before I lay any brick on top of this course. What do you think?

[Tscarborough]

I think the compressive strength of the vcrete is fine without the addition of the angle.

[Gulf]

Originally Posted by Tscarborough

I think the compressive strength of the vcrete is fine without the addition of the angle.

Thank's, I'll save the angle iron for the Cajun Microwave .
I will however, use a slightly beveled hole brick for that run just to give it a bigger foot print.

Thank's again.