Upper Valley Of NH 42" Oven Build

[pduany]

Well it has begun. Got the hole dug for the pad, concrete arrives on Monday, first load of blocks for the stand are here, got a chance to mock up the stand to see how the height, and placement is going to work. Now the next big thing to figure out is where I am going to source fire bricks from the local dealer only seems to have low duty bricks.

Site Prep


Breaking Ground


Stand Mock up


Masons in training

[dmun]

Low duty firebricks, the standard fireplace firebrick, will work fine. It's what most of us used. Higher duty firebricks are made for furnaces, kilns and the like, where there is continuous high temperature use.

Looking great so far.

[pduany]

Pad got poured today. Looks like I could have done a little better on the surface finish of the pad. Oh well most of it will be covered anyway. It is surprising how fast it has set up.

The driver thought I did a good job on the prep work, so I just need to learn a little more before I pour the hearth.

Next up is the stand, how have people taken off the 3/8" angle iron over the opening of the stand? I have a saws all but that seems a little rough for that. My other thought was to morter in the top row of the stand.

Dmun thanks for the comments, I now see where it has been stated that low duty will be okay. However I didn't see a really good explination of the trades off for going with low duty, what are the implications of going with the low duty bricks?

Thanks in advance

[dmun]

As you go up the firebrick duty scale, the bricks have a higher alumina/silica ratio are harder, and slightly heavier. The biggest difference most builders would recognize is that the higher duty bricks are harder to cut on the wet saw. Low duty bricks cut like butter.

I've not seen any reliable data on durability / cooking properties. Anyone?

[maxfischer]

Do you have an update? Thanks

[pduany]

Well the day after I pored the foundation, I got laid off. So my available labor went way up, but my materials budget took a hit. So far I got the stand built and the cores filled, next up is the form for the hearth and then the hearth pour. I have been dithering back and forth (read procrastinating on a decision) over having a commercial company come in and pour the hearth, and just mixing the concrete myself. The only pro for doing it myself is I save about 100 bucks, however the cons are that it will probably take me most of the day to mix it by hand so the first bags poured will have already set by the time I pour the last bags. So my guess is that it will be difficult to get a good surface finish to the hearth, and I think that may lead to problems as I start to build the rest of the oven.

Thanks for asking about this, I will get so photos of the stand up later this week.

[Neil2]

"Next up is the stand, how have people taken off the 3/8" angle iron over the opening of the stand? "

Skip the angle iron. Just put a couple of extra rebar in the front edge of your suspended slab.