oven clean

[crwdtb]

Hey everyone I was just wondering what happens to the inside of oven once you start fires in it? ie is it worth cleaning all the cement off all the bricks or does it just turn black in the end anyway? dont really want to squeeze inside oven and spend hours cleaning it if is never going to be seen anyway?
any thoughts would be good?
Also are the first curing fires with paper kept going or do you just light it and let it burn out without refueling?
cheers
Dave

[Archena]

The cooking fire will eventually consume the carbon - one of the indicators that the oven is hot enough is when the interior becomes white.

I think curing fires are allowed to burn a little longer than that but I'll leave that one to someone who knows for sure.

[Les]

Dave, if the cement looks like it might pop off, I would clean it. If it is just smeared mortar - there probably is no harm in leaving it. Can't help you with the curing fires - I bypassed that step. Good luck!

Les...

[crwdtb]

Really Les I thought that was one of the most important parts!
I would prefer just to fire the puppy right up if possible rather than all those burns. Surely there must must be something in the curing process though for people to be doing it.
cheers
Dave

[Les]

Dave, I had very little mortar and left it for about a week in the Nevada summer sun - I don't think there was any moisture to be driven out. If you can live with the look of mortar "stains", I don't see what harm it will do.

Les...

[crwdtb]

thanks Les,
I have used refractory mortar which has seemed to take a real long time to dry over a week but is as hard as diamond when it does so I cant see how a week of slow burning will alter that? Maybe I will do a few and se if any moisture comes out?
thanks for your reply

[Archena]

You asked about mortar. I really should learn to read someday...

[david s]

Don't skip or hurry the curing process unless you want to live with some serious cracks.

[crwdtb]

ok david S I guess its just not worth it , whats another week or so! I will take your advice.

[david s]

Dave,
When you reach this stage of the build it gets exciting and you want to fire it up. Can't stress enough- take your time and progress slowly. Once you start the small fires you can use the oven heat to cook something- maybe biscuits, scones , bread. Just resist the temptation (it's really hard) to make the fire too big at first. Try going through the threads on oven curing.