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Post by khylen on Nov 18, 2017 23:30:12 GMT
Grinder arrived and is working a treat! Managed to cut all the floor bricks, it took a bit of getting used to as it has quite a kick back when it caught the brick the wrong way! I didn't fancy cutting 120 odd bricks with the grinder so went with the hammer and bolster route, and I'm so glad I did! Managed to get a real clean cut in half by giving each side a few heavy hits. Did about 100 bricks in an hour. I can honestly recommend this to anyone who is in two minds about how to cut bricks in half!
So tomorrow I will begin the dome building! Is there a specific amount of dome brick layers/courses I should do before stopping to let them dry for a few days?
Cheers
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Post by Thomobigands on Nov 19, 2017 6:40:03 GMT
Pleased to hear you got on with the bolster and chisel ok. When you get into it, you can literally hammer through them. See what I did there In terms of progress, unless you are an expert brick layer it takes time to set each brick to the correct angle so this governed things with me. If I got to a tricky bit, I may only have managed a handful of bricks whereas other times I got maybe two rows done, especially with the lower courses. See how you go, you will probably find the first few courses can be done quickly but after that, you find that the angle is such that one row is your limit because to try and set more bricks on top of that row, they start to slide around and want to move. That's my view anyway. Hope that helps. Good luck.
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Post by khylen on Nov 19, 2017 19:21:37 GMT
Yeah the hammer and bolster was so easy! I spent a lot of time fretting about how to cut them and was going to hire a table saw, so glad I didn't! Only got the floor finally finished off today and made the IT tool. There's a few gaps between the floor and the first outer layer of bricks. Nothing over 5mm though so I'm happy with this expansion gap and it will no doubt fill with ash pretty quick.I sort of wish I'd just built the walls ontop of the floor in hindsight. The cutting of the floor bricks to be perfectly round is a bit of a mission with a 9" grinder. And I can't really see how much extra heat it will keep in. As no matter which way you build, everything will be covered in blanket and vermicrete anyway!
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Post by slen916 on Nov 19, 2017 19:37:21 GMT
looking very nice
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Post by MikeyC on Nov 19, 2017 19:45:26 GMT
Very neat Khylen. Following your build with interest.
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Post by Thomobigands on Nov 19, 2017 19:46:01 GMT
I just sat my soldier bricks on top of the floor. No mortar obviously, to allow for movement. I didn't see the point of cutting the floor bricks to fit. If a floor brick did require replacing I think I would just live with it or use it as an excuse to build another oven!
On the plus side though, it makes your build photos look good! Floor looks nice and level too. First couple of rows are exciting because you finally get a sense of what it will look like when your look into your finished oven.
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Post by khylen on Nov 21, 2017 21:18:42 GMT
Took advantage of time off work and got a couple of courses in! It's definitely harder than I thought it would be! It's all nice and level which I'm pleased about. It will definitely need a bit of pointing inside but shouldn't be too difficult. I was really pleased with my homebrew and it was nice and sticky, seemed good. However there is quite a few cracks this morning. It all seems sturdy and doesn't appear to be falling apart, should I worry?
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Post by Thomobigands on Nov 22, 2017 6:27:40 GMT
I had this exact same problem so firstly don't worry! It's the clay shrinkage that causes it.
If it's really bad, try bringing the quantity of clay down in your mix. Some sand has more clay in it than others you see so you may be overdoing the clay. I also found it helpful to constantly spray the mix with water after the bricks were in place. What I did was actually set the bricks, spraying as I went. Then, I would go over the home brew on the outside of the oven with the spray bottle, using my gloved hand to smooth the mixture and close the surface. Then I would move on to the next area but return to the first bit a little later to gently re spray and keep lightly wet. I would repeat the spraying from time to time, even after I had finished for the day, just to keep the surface slightly wet. This seemed to keep cracking to a very minimum when combined with reducing the fire clay a bit.
Think you can also apply clingfilm to the applied home brew to retain the moisture but I didn't try this. You are just trying to stop it drying so quickly, losing moisture and shrinking.
Another thing I would say is don't try and mix too much home brew. Get your ratios sorted and any bricks cut, then do small mixes so the stuff doesn't have a chance to dry out before you use it. Makes the build more time consuming doing lots of little mixes, sometimes double mixes but you will control the build better.
Hope that helps. Keep the mixes small until you get the cracking under control. You can always go over what you have already done if it's bad, just as long as the bricks are secure.
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Post by khylen on Nov 22, 2017 22:58:16 GMT
Great advice, thanks! That seems right aswel as it was drying extremely quickly! I'd get a couple of bricks done around the course and the first bricks motor was already pretty hard! I'll take a spray bottle out with me and keep dousing the homebrew as I go, I'm sure that will help.
Saturday and Sunday are designated days so let's hope for dry weather! The dangling tent over my oven has sprung a rip tonight with all the wind! Going to need another plan!
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Post by oblertone on Nov 23, 2017 12:28:45 GMT
Most small gazebos have hooks low down on the legs; just hang a bucket of water from each leg for stability.
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Post by Thomobigands on Nov 25, 2017 18:30:37 GMT
If you still need a shelter, how about some thin lengths of wood screwed into a roof shape with legs. Set the legs in 4 x 99p buckets of cement, tarp over the top and taped/cable tied. The leg trick is what I came up with when my gazebo legs buckled. Because everything moved slightly it flexed in the wind and was hurricane proof! Just take it down before ANY curing fires. I didn't and almost set fire to mine. Funny in hindsight. Sick in the mouth moment at the time
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Post by khylen on Nov 25, 2017 23:09:55 GMT
Cheers for the suggestions! Was looking at gazeebos and was about to take the plunge but remembered that I had another spare tent! So the rain sheet from that tent is now over the other tent! Not pretty but it works!
Well safe to say I spent about 4 hours this afternoon staring and scratching me head at the dome door way! And I did not lay 1 brick! I simply just can't get my head around it! It doesn't help with my lack of space on the oven landing. Where my 18" door width is, from that point to the end of my oven landing and concrete disc is only 1 bricks length. Really struggling to see how I'm going to manage to get an inner arch and an outer arch, and a chimney!!
Does the inner arch have to comprise of half bricks? Could I use maybe 1/3 of a brick? And could the stack of bricks either side of the inner arch comprise of 1/3 size bricks?
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Post by Thomobigands on Nov 26, 2017 6:44:08 GMT
Morning, could do with a photo to assist the deliberation really?
You could use smaller bricks, just wouldn't be as strong I guess and I would recommend trying to tie them into the outer arch in some way for stability? Should be fine when all set though.
Could your inner arch sit more inside the oven opening to give you slightly less oven space but more room for your two arches?
The inner arch is simply to provide a jam for the door to create more of a seal so if you really can't fit it in, maybe just have a straight single arch and build a door with a good close fit. TBH, it's not going to make any difference to cooking pizza and roasts etc.
Either way, just crack on. There will always be things you would do different, that's why people build more ovens after the first prototype!
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Post by khylen on Nov 26, 2017 19:51:28 GMT
Had an afternoon at it today! Got so fed up with which way to do the inner arch so just went for half bricks in full. This leaves me with a full size red brick for the outer arch. Should be just enough to put a chimney in, will be tricky but I think it's doable. Just a pic to to show what I've done pre cementing in! Will post more pics tomorrow as managed to get the 3rd course done and pointed it all.
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Post by khylen on Nov 29, 2017 21:02:59 GMT
Slowly cracking through the courses! Got the hang of the homebrew now and still so impressed with how sticky it is! The spray bottle is working a treat also to keep the cracks down. Would of liked the joints to be more staggered but I've kept starting each course at the front of the oven and by the time it gets to the middle, the bricks are on top of each other! I should start each course in the middle I think! My join are quite large and I would of liked each brick flush with the one below but I'm still happy with the finish once it's pointed! The weekend will hopefully be inner arch time. I'm going to taper the arch to make for an easier transition so hope all goes well!
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