Moving an Oven

[nixie]

A thread I wasn't expecting to post any time soon. Seems that we are going to be moving soon. Wasn't expecting it for a good few years yet otherwise I would of held off building our oven. Having put some much effort into it I now keen to take it with us. This thread might turn into a 'how I moved our oven' in the future , but for the minute I wanted to throw some ideas about.

The oven I want to move is clay, I'm intending to move everything above the insulation blocks (will build a new base at the new house). Currently I can see 2 was of doings this.

1/ Remove outer skin, remove insulation, collapse dome, remove floor and thermal mass Bag all clay ingredients and then wet these in their bags at new house. Rebuild oven from scratch.

2/ Remove and back outer skin and insulation. Using the drying cracks separate the inner dome into 3/4/5 segments (like a prefab oven). Move these to new site and 'glue' them back together with clay like I was fixing cracks. Leave to air out then do curing fires.

Any thoughts?

[bookemdanno]

Blimey Nixie, this sounds a tough one!

I'd love the chance to build another oven, so i'd be leaving mine if i were in the same situation!

Is asking for a small additonal fee from the new owners to leave the oven an option?
You know, to cover cost of materials for a new one.

Otherwise, i'll have a think to see if i can brainstorm a plan...

[nixie]

Yeah asking for an additional fee is definitely an option. Though it didn't cost silly money to build its still money I'd rather not spend again if I can avoid it. What I'd hate is to leave it and it then be destroyed as the new owner remodelled. Would be a waste!

[brennanpincardiff]

I'm with bookemdano, Nixie. I can't imagine it's really going to be worth the effort.
Your next oven will be quicker and easier to build than this one and will be appropriate to your new place.
My brother built his second oven in a week...

Still if you really want to, I think the weakest part is surely just under the fire bricks in the base. Do you have a solid layer under this? Will moving the oven damage them? Do you have a site in mind or will you be placing it somewhere interm while you build a new base. Will you end up moving it twice? Do you have picture for the building people her to look at and comment on?

Good luck

[spinal]

Depending on access, can you slide some metal bars (like a forklifts teeth) underneath?

[cannyfradock]

Hey Nixie

What a shame, but I'm with Danno on this one. I don't think you could salvage much if you tried to dismantle it (...although I've been know to wrong on many occasions) If it was a Pompeii or Vault oven the fire-bricks would be worth reclaiming, bit chances are that any insulating layers would be damaged when dismantling and your clay will (if you have really give your oven a good thrashing with constant use) will already be too hard to bring back to life. Maybe you should bite the bullet and look forward to building a new oven and hope the oven will help as a selling point.

Terry

p.s.....If you build another one you can become an experienced oven builder.....we haven't got many of those on the forum.

[nixie]

Thanks for the comments. I'm coming to the same conclusion unfortunately.

We did a long burn for a party a month ago (10am - midnight, took 3-4 days to cool down!) so I think there is a fair chance the clay has become sintered. I certainly got readings over 700deg that day. I have noticed the floor is loose though so might be able to reclaim that without damaging the rest of the oven (and expose the heater bricks to leave the oven usable). We've got the house advertised as oven not included so hopefully can either use it as a bargaining tool, or get some extra cash for it. Guess it depends on the type of buyer really.

If its does get left then I think I'll either go for a brick pompeii oven next time, or perhaps get lazy and buy a cast one (looks like unfortunately the next house will be another stepping stone house not a last purchase so cast could be moved when we left that).