Casting?

[Kosmo's Q]

Has anyone made there own casting of an oven?

[gjbingham]

What do you mean Kosmo? Casted an oven dome?

[SpringJim]

Yes, do some searches...castable refractory....Ed schmidt built his dome from pieces cast....and some of the ovens James sells are also cast I believe.

[david s]

I cast mine. I get away with it because my oven is small. Trouble is with a larger oven you will have uneven heat rise and therefore uneven expansion. So you then need to cast the dome in multiple pieces. This can be tricky for a one off design. The castable refractory is hard like concrete but never truly fired unless you fire it in a kiln and you need to go to 573 C to make the material change.

[Kosmo's Q]

David what size is yours?

[david s]

535mm diam interior.

[dmun]

Most builders in the US make their domes from firebrick because it's cheap, and widely available, and castible refractory is an expensive specialty item. This is oddly reversed in some other countries.

[Kosmo's Q]

I talk to 2 different places selling brick 1 told me $1 per brick (1600deg) adn the other told me not to use that because it could chip and flake. O the brick they wanted me to buy was $2 and rated at 3700 deg. I really don't see it getting up to more than 1200 deg on any given day.

[dmun]

The low duty firebrick are fine. They don't "spall", or chip. There is a world of trouble and expense with using castable. Even using it for the vent top has caused trouble for builders.

Just my opinion, others may disagree.

[DrakeRemoray]

Originally Posted by dmun

Even using it for the vent top has caused trouble for builders.

I love my cast vent...but it cause me some heartburn when it broke in casting...