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Post by truckcab79 on May 29, 2019 17:52:44 GMT
Feel free to tell me this doesn’t belong on the forum at all or that there is a better place for it than the modular section but can’t find anything along the lines of ‘other ovens’.
It is however an over and could be wood fired, although in reality will probably be charcoal.
Anyway. That aside I’ve decided to build a tandoor. As tends to be the case with me I’ve got a bit carried away and it’s escalated slightly but it’s still very much a budget build.
Started out as being one of those tandoors in a flower pot that are all over YouTube and seem to work well.
However I think I can do a bit better than that.
Base is about 710mm square and is set by the size of the pots I bought plus insulation plus ‘brickwork’. Base is hardcore from leftover pizza oven build bricks and just a couple of bags of ballast and cement. Cost about a tenner. The cement was a little lumpy as it was also left over from my pizza oven build but broke up and mixed fine.
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Post by truckcab79 on May 29, 2019 17:58:51 GMT
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Post by truckcab79 on May 29, 2019 18:11:38 GMT
Sorry. Photos being a pain to load. Base down. Time to put some thought to the inner clay pots. Found some large ones at Tesco for just £4.50 each. Rather than use as they are I thought I’d reinforce with some wire mesh and then render the whole thing with fire cement. Cost £0 as I already had it. Figured that when the pot cracks, which it will, the wire and fire cement will help hold it all together a little longer. Hole cut for vent. Top (bottom) cut off the other and the two joined together with fire cement also. Then it was wrapped in wire by my daughter. Then we rendered it with the fire cement and left it to dry. The real cost saving is in the outer build. Some time ago I was digging over the soil round one of our ponds. Previous owners must have had a rockery at some point as there was loads of what I think is sandstone or limestone. Some buff, some grey. Oddly none of this was visible above ground. All of it was completely buried. I’m hoping there’s enough for the whole build and I’ve split some of the largest pieces into two or three to help. Mixed up some mortar and started laying. At which point it threw it down so didn’t get too far. No bad thing. It will give the first courses time to set to give me a nice solid start at to make sure it’s all square. Never laid real stone, or uneven block sizes before. Left it here for the day.
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Post by truckcab79 on May 29, 2019 18:27:30 GMT
Oh. Also spent £4 on a proper brick hammer. Already invaluable for shaping the stone.
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Post by simonh on May 29, 2019 21:42:44 GMT
Looks cool already
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Post by truckcab79 on May 30, 2019 16:48:33 GMT
Well. Save your money on £4 brick hammers. The head snapped off today. Took it back and upgraded to a luxury £9 version! Ooh. Feel the quality! But more done today. Coming on nicely. The joints won’t look like that when finished. They’re just raked out and cleaned up prior to pointing which I’ll do at the very end. Realised that the size it’s ended up will mean I’ll use 4 x 600mm square stone slabs for the top. I’ll be using the ones that match the base of the pizza oven. Unfortunately that means that the slabs will cost £56 with quite a bit of wastage. Can’t be helped. Could do it for less but only if I use nasty concrete utility slabs which would look rubbish.
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Post by oblertone on May 30, 2019 19:33:00 GMT
Not too sure how the top is going to need 4 x 600mm slabs but will wait and see; however at £56 I'd be seeking an alternative ! I'm assuming you'll just back fill with vermiculite ?
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Post by truckcab79 on May 30, 2019 21:20:11 GMT
It’ll be about 750mm square with overhang. The slabs I need are available as 600x300 or 600x600. Unfortunately that means I’ll have to use 4 of them, each covering one quarter of the top with a lot of wastage. I could use 2 600’s and 2 300’s but it wouldn’t be symmetrical and more importantly would be really difficult to cut the hole out of.
I have considered quarry tiles which would match the pizza oven but they don’t look right with the stone.
Yep. Vermiculite will be loose filled. I’ll probably pack it down a bit, top with that wire mesh i have spare and skim with mortar just to give some extra support. I think the slabs will rest on the walls and the rim of the terracotta pot.
Even with the £56 slabs I’m still looking at £100 all in......including the hammer!
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Post by oblertone on May 31, 2019 7:45:42 GMT
Just a thought; as you're skimming the top anyway why not just cast the whole top and use a removeable cover such as a terracotta lid ? I appreciate it might not match the aesthetic you're aiming for, but it would be less expensive. Regardless, it's a great addition to your outdoor kitchen and I look forward to the results.
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Post by truckcab79 on May 31, 2019 11:43:10 GMT
Many thanks. I think I’ve decided to go with the stone slabs on the basis that whatever alternative I go with will be some cost so the difference between an alternative and the slabs will be fairly marginal. I tried an offcut I had laying around against the stone and it looks spot on.
Went to garden centre to pick up vermiculite. The one I use is always a bit pricey but good quality plants. However I’m not paying £15 for 20ltrs of vermiculite when I can get 100 ltrs delivered to my door for £25 off eBay! Order placed. Might slow me up a bit but I’m not on a deadline.
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Post by truckcab79 on May 31, 2019 16:30:04 GMT
Tiny bit more done today. Finished the row below and got one corner up to finished height. Then left well alone to dry before I messed up and moved something. Looks like I’ll just about have enough stone left to finish the build too.
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Post by truckcab79 on Jun 1, 2019 12:01:54 GMT
Not too sure how the top is going to need 4 x 600mm slabs but will wait and see; however at £56 I'd be seeking an alternative ! I'm assuming you'll just back fill with vermiculite ? Actually. You’re probably right. There is a way around it that is slightly cheaper. I’ll need to see what offcuts I have but I might be able to get away with buying a couple of large ones and split them four ways, adding smaller ‘inserts’ into the four middle strips between them. Even if I don’t have the right size off cuts I could do it with one less slab possibly. Will finish the base and measure up.
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Post by truckcab79 on Jun 2, 2019 16:44:36 GMT
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Post by ratboy on Jun 4, 2019 18:50:45 GMT
Good to see another Tandoor mate. I made mine out of rectangular flue liners from the reclaim yard!
It fits in my outdoor kitchen build here!
Good luck!
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Post by truckcab79 on Jun 5, 2019 13:43:05 GMT
Excellent. Looks great. I did toy with the idea of a reclaimed chimney as a liner initially but stopped myself getting carried away spending more money than I intended. On to today’s hour long interlude whilst waiting for coats of paint to dry on my ceilings. Vermiculite arrived yesterday. 100 ltrs looked loads but it was cheap so happy to have leftovers. Poured it all in and because of the inward flare of the bottom pot and the round pot in a square hole it predictably used up way more than expected. All 100 ltrs and to get that to the level I wanted I had to dig into it and pack out the square corners with old bricks to lose some excess space. Was going to use more of that leftover wire that I wrapped the pot in to cover the vermiculite and provide a base for the mortar top but decided that more bricks, rubble and even some of the swept up dust, gravel and dried mortar scraps would be more substantial and better at gap filling. Then mixed up a small batch of mortar and skimmed the top. Of course if it was a completely budget build I could leave it at this stage but I’ll let it go off and then measure up for the most budget friendly version of stone slabs. Hopefully have it running by the weekend, but don’t hold me to that. Anyhoo.....back to my painting.
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