Curing question about measuring temps

[pzachef]

I'm finally going to cure my oven after building it for the last 15 months here in south Florida.
The 7 day cure described by James does not mention where the temps are measured from in the process. The surface of the brick inside the dome or floor. The air temp inside the oven. Please tell me where to measure from, I don't want to mess up after all this time.

Thanks, Bob

[fxpose]

I did not follow a specific curing/temp schedule. I started out with small and long charcoal (briquettes) burns for the first few days, then on to small wood fires, and by the second week, larger fires. Temp readings should equalize for the most part after a long burn period, whether you take readings from the floor or dome wall. I think I kept temps under 300F the first few days, then increased incrementally on following successive burns.
I think the trick initially is to maintain a warm chamber temp continuously for several hours or days at a time, if possible. Some initially use heat lamps to do this.

[nissanneill]

Bob, I believe that when you 'cure' the oven, you are merely driving the water and moisture out of the bricks before it is turned to steam and does alot of damage to the construction. It doesn't matter where you measure your temps just increase the size if your fires each day to dry out the oven.

Cheers.

Neill

[ThermoJax]

I have an electric skillet in my oven set for 200 and the hole is plugged up with household insulation to keep the heat inside. I did turn it up to 300 last night, but this morning chickened out and turned it back down to 200. There seems to be quasi wet spots here and there showing up thru my cladding. It has been 4 days now. The top of the exterior of the dome is warm, and this morning the sides of the dome exterior were finally warm to the touch ( but again, that was at 300) Somehow, I think that the oven is so large that I probably could go up to 300 or so, because the oven itself is not going to get up to 300.

Tom

[dmun]

212 is the magic number at which water boils. Keeping it at 200 should be well below that point, where steam could break things apart. If you have time, I thinking keeping the heater in it until it feels dry is a safe way to proceed.

[nissanneill]

Come on Mr Mun,
that's the old system, didn't the US go through the metrication system some years ago?
Pure water at sea level now boils at 100˚C.

Neill

[lwood]

Everything in the US is Fahrenheit.

[nissanneill]

Australia went through the metrication process in the 70's and it was "illegal" whilst working in the government to print anything (as I was in the government printing industry) on any 'non metric' sized paper. You could actually go to jail if you ignored the law!
ALL imperial rulers were withdrawn from sale and were not available for purchase for many years, (around 15 in fact) so you had to get used to the 'new system'.
It really is great and so much easier to work within.
Working with metres rather than inches, feet, yards, chains, furlongs etc etc makes life so much easier.

Neill

[lwood]

Yes, we went through that in the '70 also, just about the time I was in engineering school. My unit ops professor gave us problems in units such as furlongs/fortnight squared. His point was that you should be able to work in any units you are given. Then went to work for aerospace mfg company where all government contract dwgs were required to be in English units, even after the supposed mandate.

Most US Americans don't know how long a meter is or how much a kilo weighs. Agreed, metric units are so much easier, but the fact remains that most units are reported in English units, in the USA. Water still boils at 212F and freezes at 32F. It's only important to specify which you are talking about. There are lots of conversion tables on the internet. Tell me why the USA is the only country in the world that uses 110v electricity. I guess parts of Canada also use 110v.

[Schotz]

Amanda at Forno Bravo informed me recently that you measure the DOME with your infrared gun. Obviously, you build your fire in the middle also. But I believe once cured, you want to build fires towards the back so heat is pulled across the entire dome before it escapes up the chimney.