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Post by spinal on Oct 18, 2012 11:27:46 GMT
I'm guessing dew/condensation made it moist enough to go soft again... more drying?
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Post by nickynoo on Oct 18, 2012 15:01:43 GMT
Thats kin unlucky! still the bonus is you haven't wasted anything but time I'm no expert having only just done mine but a couple of things that might help for the re-build: 1. Try and get the shape more into a dome and if you've got some more clay perhaps make it a bit thicker - it looks maybe only about 2" thick? I could be wrong. 2. Cover the sand with wet newspaper before building up the clay, it makes it easier to get the sand out and won't be sticking to the clay and therefor pulling on it when you remove it. I had to use clay slip to hold my newspaper together as it was windy as hell and kept blowing away. 3. When building up the clay layers make blocks of clay about the wall thickness you want and smack them down with the edge of a straightened hand (borrow someone else's, it hurts after a couple of hours!) so they lock together. I also used a clay slip between each ring to lay the blocks on thinking it may help give a better bond between layers - who knows? 4. My fear when building mine was exactly what happened to you so what I did was cut the door and only pull out the first say 1/3 of sand and then lit some candles to part dry that section, then I went about halfway in and lit a small fire to dry that section before whipping out the rest. Hope this helps and good luck with the rebuild. Nick
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 18, 2012 16:16:40 GMT
Thanks for the advice and sympathy... Was gutted this morning. But today is another day as they say. Do you think the clay would still be ok? Or start from a fresh?? I had a nightmare with the newspaper tried wetting it and just got in the way after the 3 layer up.. Nick - how long did you leave yours before cutting the door and using the candles ?? Oven Looks great by the way Thanks again
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Post by nickynoo on Oct 18, 2012 18:19:38 GMT
I don't know of any reason why you can't reform the clay and re-use it, seems a shame to waste all that puddling! but get a second opinion just in case.
I left mine 3 days before cutting the opening but it was in June so the weather was a 'bit' better.
I know the newspaper is a pain but mix up a bit of clay with some water and slap it on the wet newspaper with a brush and it won't go anywhere.
Good luck mate.
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 18, 2012 21:21:14 GMT
Thanks for the reply nick, think im going to try and save it maybe add some more clay to the mix as well. Just finished the dome again pic attached.. Attachments:
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Post by cannyfradock on Oct 20, 2012 8:22:13 GMT
bhb I would first like to touch my forelocks to you Sir for not giving up and persevering with your project. All pictures are special to me that are posted on the forum, but a picture of a set back or failure is truly inspirational for anybody who has or will come up against this problem in the future. Hope you don't mind.....I have spun your image aroung so we can better see your 2nd build.. At least now you have twicw as much experience in building clay ovens that most of our clay builders on the forum...including me. I've only built one clay oven but here are my thoughts on the matter. I also find that covering the sand mold in wet newspaper really helps when scooping the sand back out. I built a brick arch entrance to my clay build so this supported the "weak" opening part........evenso my clay was very wet even after a week of being left to dry naturally. I decided to force heat into mine to be able to scoop the sand out. First I removed about 2 bucketfulls of sand from the entrance and lit a fire. After about an hour the clay around the entrance started to harden so I removed the embers and scooped another 2 bucketfulls of sand out, lit another fire......kept it going for an hour or so then carried on for a full long day doing this until all the sand was removed. The fires were difficult to light and keep lit but a bit of perseverance and dry and small kindling will get you there. What made it worse for me was that the oven was covered with a tarp during out wettest part of summer and for the week it was left after building so this only seemed to keep the clay wet and found myself up against it from the start. I'm not sure if this will work for you but that's how I got round removing the sand while the clay was still fairly wet. I couldn't see from your fist picture how big the hole was you cut out, but just to give your oven a chance of having some strengthat it's weakest point I would suggest you make your entrance cut a lot smaller that needed. As the clay dries out you can always cut a progressive larger hole during firing until your ideal opening size is achieved. If not too much water was added to the clay and we had a spell of dry hot weather then a few days drying in open air would be enough to carry on as normal. Unfortunately this year the weather hasn't been too kind. All the best with the 2nd build. Please keep us informed on your progress. Terry
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Post by salilah on Oct 20, 2012 16:54:31 GMT
I think it is worth reusing the clay-sand mix: we took our first dome down after it cracked quite badly (first layer), rewetted the clay/sand mix and did it again the next weekend.
How big is your oven (diameter of the sand form)? It looks quite a bit bigger than ours - and I think we left ours 48h before trying to get the sand out, and it was a couple months ago so it was much drier atmosphere? Yours looked quite thin for the diameter maybe? (but I am definitely not an expert!!)
Doing a second time is easier - good luck and persevere best wishes Sali
PS after you'd made your mix of clay:sand:water, did you try the "form a ball and drop from waist height" to see if it kept a ball shape?
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Post by faz on Oct 20, 2012 22:44:06 GMT
Is it possible to embed expamet in the clay around the area of the door in order to give the clay some tensile stength in that area? I have never worked on a clay oven, so I'm just throwing the suggestion out there for consideration
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 21, 2012 14:23:05 GMT
Again thanks for the support. 2nd 1st layer is on the oven, it is a 80cm diameter. I was a lot stricter with myself for thickness of the layer this time. The gazebo is over the oven at the moment so will see what happens with the weather of the next few days.. I reused the clay mix but added some more pure clay to the mix as thought I added to much sand the first time.. Pics again attached.. Lets see what happens.
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 21, 2012 14:24:33 GMT
Pic1 Attachments:
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 21, 2012 14:24:55 GMT
Pic2 Attachments:
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Post by salilah on Oct 21, 2012 20:17:22 GMT
Fingers crossed!! Our second one was 600mm diameter - so yours will take longer to dry Really hope it works - let us know how it goes best wishes
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 25, 2012 18:45:48 GMT
Oven is still really wet, am now thinking this is the wrong time of the year... Attachments:
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Post by bhbnnc on Oct 25, 2012 18:47:15 GMT
Oven is still really wet, am now thinking this is the wrong time of the year... have added more protection to help it dry out...
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Post by rivergirl on Oct 25, 2012 20:14:07 GMT
We lit candles in ours for a few weeks a mixture of cowardice and romance LOL . The best thing about these ovens is that you can add bits etc (as I did with bert) this time of year you are going to need more patience with the drying good luck!!!
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