Whats the best advice you recieved here?

[Frances]

Oh yeah, and earplugs...

[jahysea]

It's hard to pick one thing. How about....

- Soaking bricks before placing them in mortar
- Curing concrete/mortar rather than the common concept of "drying." Could be considered counter intuitive that in high heat you actually want to wet it regularly and keep it covered.
- For those in damp climates, leaving firewood in your hot oven as a last step after cooking. That wood will be kiln dry and light the next fire beautifully.
- Dry stacking cinder blocks and backfilling. I built a wall with my father once mortaring each block. Took forever.

I could go on forever, the forum is an excellent resource.

[gjbingham]

Dave and I learned the same hard lesson.

Gloves, gloves, gloves! My cuts are still healing 3 weeks later, and there was some terrible suffering in the mean time.

[Archena]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Dave and I learned the same hard lesson.

Gloves, gloves, gloves! My cuts are still healing 3 weeks later, and there was some terrible suffering in the mean time.

So, you mean gloves, right?

[gjbingham]

Yup! Gloves.

It's hard to think of any other specific items because this whole project has been a huge learing experience. I'd never laid one brick in my life before I started this.

Perhaps one other: try to decide on what you want your finished product to look like (by reviewing all the photos on this website) before you start working. I think doing this will minimize having to make changes or doing problem solving in the middle of the project.

This may not be entirely necessary for a stand-alone oven built to specs on the plans, but in the case of my corner installation where space for the oven was a consideration, things such as how you handle the oven landing and finding an attractive finish are more problematic.

You know, this thread should probably be over in the Tips and Techniques forum. Perhaps James can place a copy of it over there in the future.

George