Sarah's Progress Photos

[asudavew]

Outstanding!

Take your time, and have fun!

Congrats Sarah

[gjbingham]

Sarah,
Congrats.! Great looking fire. The oven looks clean and awesome. I think you'll be really proud of the finished product. Can't wait to see that first pizza or bread. I feel like mine is a long way off.

Originally Posted by Acoma

GB, your not using that quote of yours as the answer to the condensation concerns? Kidding.

Acoma, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Actually, I'm experiencing the exact same phenomenon. The lower mortar in the oven is wetter than the upper, for obvious reasons. I started partially blocking the oven off during the curing fires to try to bring the heat down to the floor of the oven.

It appears that the fire gets it's O2 from the floor. If I block the bottom, the flames diminish quickly.
G.

[dusty]

Sarah, I am excited to see the oven fires. Very cool! I like that one that you put next to your name. Looks kinda scary in there. Oooo! Midevil, sort of. Dungeonesque. Maybe I'm still in the halloween frame, but I like it!
Congrads and have fun with the pizzas. Hope to be sharing receipes soon.

dusty

[Frances]

I cured my oven without a thermometer, just building continually bigger fires for a week. The lower courses didn't really seem to heat up much at all (on the outside) and they seemed to get wetter if anything, until the last fire, when the whole dome got heated up and dried out all the way through. It didn't glow like dave's did, but it did heat really well without cracking.

I think curing must be a bit of both, drying and heat attained. As long as you continue slowly and surely it doesn't matter much which is taking place at any given moment. Does it?

It'll all work out in the end... Cool isn't it?

[sarah h]

Thanks all, and Dusty, glad you like the avatar!

Had the 3rd fire tonight - I don't know if it has something to do with the outside temp but it seems to take more wood than recommended to get the inside heat up. In the end, the temperature in the middle of the chamber was almost 300F, the top of the dome itself was likely hotter, I was able to put my hand on the floor (where there weren't coals!) at all times and the only heat on the outside of dome came after the fire was out. I don't know if I'm doing this right but there don't seem to be any cracks yet ... from what I can tell in the dark - I'll check again tomorrow in the light of day.

Working in the dark is a pain - I narrowly avoided a face-plant tripping over a stray cinderblock but still managed to wrench my back, bruise a knee and take a chunk out of my shin - if I'm not more careful I'll be catching up to Dave in no time!

Here are a few more pics.

Sarah

[Acoma]

Sarah, only a few more fires to go. It's great to see you so close to complete. Have you already aquired your wood for the oven?

[Acoma]

Hey, I just noticed that I am now a Journeyman.....James.

[gjbingham]

Hey Sarah,
As you get farther into your curing fires, I'm curious if you could check to see how long it takes the exterior of the dome to warm up (to the touch).

I felt it wasn't really noticeable at all on the first couple of fires, then by the 3rd or 4th, the dome would be warm about an hour after lighting the fire, after the fire was nothing but smoldering coals.
After my 600 degree burn, I'm still seeing the same pattern, though more now the entire dome gets warm on the outside, not just the top. Still about an hour or so.
Thanks
George

[sarah h]

Curing fire number 6 was done this afternoon - see the second pic below (first is from fire 5) - Acoma, you can see the wood we already had on hand but I get the feeling I'll go through it pretty quick as it only fills about half the storage area!

George, I got to 600F today (top of the dome likely a bit hotter, no way to know) and the heat pattern is almost identical to yours - the dome warms as the coals die and, yes, at least an hour before I can feel it on the outside. I'm operating these days in temps that are just above freezing. More of it gets warm now, more of the way down the dome, but only very faintly at the bottom (barely detectable) and - I find this a bit worrisome - I can still put my hand on the floor, even when the temp higher up is at 600F! My door is often in place due to wing and cold, but raised up about 2 inches at the bottom for air flow, so maybe the draw of the cold air along the floor has something to do with it. It's starting to make me wonder if winter cooking might have its own special challenges (like no pizza till spring ).

I was silently gloating to myself about not having sustained any cracks, when what to my wondering eyes should appear (yes, hard to avoid noticing that season is coming, what with the non-stop ads) but a crack , fairly long, in behind the chimney - not wide, maybe 1/16th of an inch at its widest, but there's no smoke or light emanating from it so hopefully it's OK.

Super-big fire planned for tomorrow ...

Sarah

[oventhusiast]

Hey Sarah,
Congrats on the curing fires! The dome looks great and don't worry if it starts to crack. It HAS to expand! My dome cracked like throwing a cold egg into boiling water! But I'm not really worried about it. It's still very solid and strong. I tried to clad it with a bag of Heat Stop 50, personally I think I should have left it alone. All I did was added a bit more (unneeded) mass to the dome and it still cracked after that AND it cost me another $50. or so. Big waste of time and money Anyway, Enjoy!
Rick