Firing Oven before insulating?

[fornoa]

I am almost finished building my vaulted brick dome and vent (walls to be added tomorrow) and was thinking of leaving it for a week then fire curing the oven prior to adding the insulation blanket and final renders.

I thought this would be more efficient as any residual moisure in the mortars would not be trapped under the insulating and render layers and escape more easily and possibly reduce the potential for cracking of the oven in the first place and the render layers that will be added later.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Do you think it makes sense or is there something I am overlooking. "

[cobblerdave]

Gudday fornoa
I did....burn't the plywood form out. Accidently made a pizza at the same time.
Nothing fell down and the pizza was great

Regards Dave

[fornoa]

Hi Clobberdave,

Sounds like it works fine. Interesting that your first firing was burning the plywood form and generating enough heat to cook a pizza. Did that intensity of heat at the first firing cause any cracking?

[oven1stimer]

Hi Cobblerdave, and Fornoa. I like the Aussie sense of humor. Apparently, you accidently ate it too. In my limited experience, the masonry needs to season gradually. In my build, I used a propane burner to fire the interior to 350F, then500F and 750F, each on different days. When I did the full temp burn with wood, There was still lots of moisture leaching out to the exterior. Good luck with the rest of your build. The forno bravo site has lots of good info on this subject. look up the specs for the ovens they sell thru the site.

[cobblerdave]

I hadn't planed to cook so early but we had a good fire from the ply we had to add more wood and it was a slow cooked pizza so definitly not as hot as i cook now.... but tasted pretty good. The oven had been allowed to sit for a few weeks so the mortar lost it "greeness". Was I nervous that it had cracked....YEP you bet I was...checked it out next morning no cracks. I do have a few hairline ones at the entance /chimney connection but that ws not built at that stage


First pizza on tray handmade ply peel made on the spot.

I did my insulation with ceramic and rockwool ...dry... no moisture to trap in the pealite layer. Only struck water problems later in the big floods early this year. My build called Cobblerdaves build in the Australian section of the forum

Regards Dave

[cobblerdave]

Well????
What happened ? Got gusty? or what? Pizza now ....or final finish till you taste the fruits of you labour?

Regards dave

[fornoa]

Hi Cobbler Dave,

The Xmas break has held things up for a while. Tomorrow I will finish side walls and then wait 2 weeks before starting to fire cure.
See image without side walls : PhotoPlog - Vent and Chimney

Will let you know how it goes.

Also, love your idea about using aerated cement for the door. As for using silastic, could it be that the temperature on the face of the Hebel sheet that glues to the wood is less than 200C ?

cheers Fornoa

[cobblerdave]

thanks for the photo .....interesting oven. One thing I did real well was to leave a larger smoke chamber above the door before the chimney proper. It leaves somewere for the smoke to gather before exiting the chimney and not in your face. thanks for the point on the hebel insulating the silastic

Regards Cobblerdave