Clay ????

[cec]

I'm gona be starting my oven soon and I would like to know if ,

Instead of using powdered clay in my homebrew mix would it be possible to use dug up clay out the garden ( I've got loads ) ,

How would it be mixed ?
Would it need drying some how ?

Cheers

[cannyfradock]

cec

Hope you get some more response to your question. In all honesty ...I don't know. On my last build I used 1 1/2 bags of the powdered fire-clay....it wasn't that expensive.....£20 per bag??.......I ordered it the same time as I ordered my fire-bricks so the carriage was already paid. Many pottery suppliers also sell it, so maybe you wouldn't have to order it from a refractory supplier.

In theory it should be the same as the blue/grey clay with the water removed......not sure if they add anything to make it perfect for refractory building.

Terry

[cec]

I guess i will try it to find out if it works or not , I will post results if it stops raining .

I think I will try 2 lots ,
1 with it straight out the garden But made into small lumps
2 with it dried into small lumps

But I think when it's wet it will just stick at the back of the mixer and be jut a blob going round and round

[cannyfradock]

.....unless you get yourself a large jumbo bucket and mulch the stuff up with lots of water. If you can make it into a slurry and add it first to the cement mixer first....that may work???

Terry

[turkey]

welcome to the forum

Clay from the garden can be used to make an adobe oven, so I am not sure why it would not work for the homebrew mix, it might not be as good but pretty sure it will be perfectly functional.

For adobe builds I have read in many places about first checking the composition of your own garden "clay" using jam jars, fill with some clay (not too much or it takes ages to settle) and then top up with water, shake it to bits and leave to settle, this will show you the % clay to sand. Floating is clay, sinking is sand I believe. Will take a few days most likly.

from this you can work out the new ratio for your clay in the homebrew ?

Terry: cement mixer? how much homrebrew mortar did you use? sounds the easiest way tho but it should be a wet mix so with some elbow grease it should all mix eventually.

I am with Terry, powedered clay is alot easier to use, if you cant get fireclay powdered ball clay would be nearly as good.

[surfingspider]

For adobe clay ovens a good trick to know quickly if the clay is any good is to work it a bit I. Your hands then roll it into a snake. If you can wrap it around your finger with out it cracking and falling off you have got enough clay in your soil to build with. As for ratios it is harder to say. All soils contain diffrent levels of clay. A good idea is to make some test bricks with diffrent ratios and see what works best. I used 1pt clay 2part builders sand for mine.

Mine is a adobe / cob oven. I don't know anything about homebrew? Might be completly diffrent but if I can build a whole oven out of it it can't be that bad. Plus it is free!

[Fat Bob]

Just work it and add add water to taste and straw or grass/hair. Slap it on.

[bookemdanno]

Just wondering....

OPC, is just a dried clay, right?
Fireclay, is just another dried clay, right?
OPC supposedly degrades during the firings of WFO's, which i again suppose leaves the Fireclay to do the work?

Why use both? Where does that come from?