New Door

[christo]

When I read Neill's post about the blower - I got just a bit excited.

I thought he was going to use the blower to convert the oven to use as a forge also.

Are you thinking of a door that pivots horizontally on a center axis? Could you share a sketch?

Christo

[nissanneill]

Hey Christo,
Gee, you are easy to get excited! It makes me wonder what a determined woman could do.
the only thing that I'm interested in melting in my oven is cheese!!!!!!
I tend to let a fire run down and a blower (not a hurricane but a simple low volume fan) will help the initial fire and restoring a low fire. The leaf blower is a lot over the top and I have to crank it up. stand back and hold it.
I am currently drawing up the plans for the new cupboards and the framework for the kitchen.

Neill

[david s]

Neill,
Try an old hair dryer. It will blow about the right volume and rate and makes the temp rocket up very quickly. I've tried it quite successfully a couple of times, but find it really too much bother, a length of 1/2" copper pipe is far more convenient.

[nissanneill]

David,
I have plans for a 12v car heater blower running through a controller to vary the speed and hence efficiency.
What I envisage are 2 semi circular metal pipes with holes aimed parallel to the hearth and directed to the bottom of the fire running around the inner perimeter of the oven fed from a Y piece at the end of the blower. A variable rheostat to control the air flow.
However, I need to use the oven more, but with the new venture seem to be working up to 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Neill

[david s]

I understand your idea and I'm sure it will work, but there is an additional problem in that forcing oxygen in will give your oven too fast a rate of temp increase which will cause much more stress on your refractory materials, expect some cracking. The industry standard for rate of increase is 100/Hr for safety. We exceed this by heaps already. The thick walls need time forth heat to soak through. If you want to use forced air only use it near the top ofvthe firing where the heat loss is greater and the rate of temp climb is naturally lower.
Dave

[nissanneill]

I understand and appreciate what you are saying David.
I don't plan on using it all the time to accelerate the fire/hence oven temperature, but I got some dried redgum from over in the NSW Riverina district and although it seemed very dry and dead,(no bark on it and very dry), it didn't want to burn without assistance. I burn green gum without problems when I can't get or run out of seasoned wood.

Cheers.

Neill

[Evets]

I just built a door for my new oven as well. I made a sandwich of 18 gauge steel and vermicrete.