Pompei oven progress from Carlo

[gjbingham]

Nice pour! Did you rent a mixer or mix all that by hand?

I feel sorry for all of you who had to lift that much concrete up to the hearth. Indeed, a long day. A tractor/front end loader made it simple.

So, God willing and the creek don't rise, you're off and running. Looking forward to more pics. Go get 'em biondoli!

[biondoli]

George, unfortunately I did all by hand, (24 bags of concrete...) I choose to do in this way as here in Rochester the concrete companies have only big trucks so you need to wheel barrel the concrete on site from the front of the house and then pour on the heart. It would have been easier than by hand but still a big job then I should have worked in a hurry as they do not like keep waiting long...well I decided to do on my own time. Again big work but I feel better, took me and my wife 4 hours. Ciao Carlo

[Kemo]

looking good! im subscribing now. You can leave the wood supports and everything in place for as long as you like. I ended up leaving my inner supports in place for almost a month!

[gjbingham]

Steve - welcome back! I left my supports in for 6 wks to two months - just being lazy!

[biondoli]

Total curing time for concrete is 28 days...hope I can wait so long! I think I'll start building the gazebo in the mean time so I don't get temptation to remove the stands earlier! ciao Carlo

[biondoli]

Hei gang...based on your experience how much refractory mortar I would need for the dome? thanks ciao Carlo

[asudavew]

If you are mixing your own...

I used:
1 - 50 lb bag of lime
2 - 94 lb bags cement
2 - 25 lb bags of fireclay
1 - 50 lb bag of sand
&
7 - 5 cu ft bags of sand (probably about 25lb bags)

Hope this helps.

Dave

[gjbingham]

Concur with Dave on the homemade mortar. I used about the same, though my oven is smaller.

I forget how much refmix people are using. 9 bags? Less?

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Concur with Dave on the homemade mortar. I used about the same, though my oven is smaller.

I forget how much refmix people are using. 9 bags? Less?

I used 3 bags of Heat Stop 50 (150lbs total) for my 42" Tuscan oven. I beveled cut the dome so that save a little.

[james]

Refmix comes in 22lb (10kg) bags, so that's about 7. Not too bad.
James