The First Fire

After a few days of gentle space heater heat i figured it was time to up the ante and light some small fires to get things going. Very exciting!
My first thoughts were "it works!" but then again I could also light a fire on the ground.
The chimney (stubby as it may yet be) draws the smoke well provided there is no draft across the front of the chimney (more reason for a building asap).

The Curing Begins

So the curing process takes a while. If you heat up the oven too fast while it is still wet the water can expand explosively and crack the bricks, at least that is what i imagine might happen. For the first 3-4 days I put a little space heater in the oven which warmed up the surface of the bricks and got rid of some of that moisture. In the mean time I set about doing some things that needed to be done.

My dad had been working on a design for the bakery building but we continued to disagree (civilly) and so i decided to design it. It'll be simple, just a building to keep out the weather while I bake bread.

I also have been building some tools to use in the oven. Some of these just consisted of taking short handled tools that I already had and putting long handles on them (usually old shovel handles). but in the case of the peel I made it all from wood I found in the basement.





This peel is for loading bread into the sides of the oven after a larger peel (which I will be making soon) loads bread into the bulk of the oven. They are a bit bulky but sturdy and will no doubt make me strong.

Arch Cladding

So I had to wait to do this final pour until i could get some help and it seemed to be scarce but eventually i did find some help and managed to pour the top cladding in less than 4 hours. This was the biggest pour yet and was exhausting but then it was done and with it the oven is functionally finished meaning that at this point the dry out procedure begins and the only remaining step is to build a wall around it and fill the void with loose vermiculite as insulation. The oven will work at this point (after curing) just not efficiently. There is of course a lot of "pretty work" to do, unless I want to retain the rustic appeal of concrete block.

The arches covered with foil ready for the pour. The foil breaks the bond between the arches and the cladding so that there is some freedom of movement when heat makes things expand.




The finished arch cladding.

Outside Arch and Chimney (hood) Beginings

After the wiring I started work on the Outside Arch. This Arch supports the outside wall of the chimney and creates the exterior visual entrance of the oven. pretty awesome. The back wall of the chimney rises from over the doorway to the oven and the sides gradually corbel up (step inwards) until the chimney is at 8"x8" inside dimensions. at that point it will be done until the building is built and then we will add a 8" insulated flue pipe to take it above roof level. A better name for this thing is "hood" rather than 'chimney' since it is outside of the oven and merely provides an escape for the smoke from the fire that isn't the room outside of the arch.

The whole thing is a bit whopperjaw at this point but a.) it is a charmingly amature structure and b.) this can be corrected in successive courses of brick.

Wiring

Even a low tech thing like this brick fire box needs a little 'lectric these days. (look at all those wires.)

There are 6 temperature probes that help to find out how deeply the heat has penetrated the masonry. Three are in the floor and three are in the dome. They are 1" from the surface, 4" from the surface and abour 10" from the surface (or in the brick, between the brick and concrete cladding, and on the outside of the concrete cladding, respectively).
here's the hole in the oven floor through which the wires will be routed.







The view from inside the oven, probably the last time this view will be possible.





All of these are hooked up to a multiple readout meter that allows me to switch from one reading to another to another. (It's 67 degrees inside that brick!)





The wires are routed through the catacombs underneath the oven for the floor probes and through the (eventual) outer insulation for the dome wires all to the meter which will be mounted to the right of the oven door in a little nook that I will create whenever I get to these decorative (i.e. non-functional) walls.

The Arches

Later in the afternoon, after I had returned the cement mixer from the morning's wall pour, I returned with the wet saw ready to begin the arches. I first cut the bricks that would sit atop the walls and meet the bottoms of the arches and then mortared them into place. While the mortar cured I set about the precise details of constructing the wooden arch form, an arc of plywood that would support the bricks while they were being laid.
That done I attempted my first arch but quickly found the mortar would not be nearly strong enough on its own to support the tapping and pounding necessary to get arch bricks into proper alignment. What I should have done was to mortar the beveled top bricks to the top of the wall when I built the wall and then pour the wall concrete so that it would come up to the bottom of these bricks and catch the outward thrust.
By this point I was tired and frustrated and gave up for the day but just then a friend scott called saying he was willing to come by and give me a hand for and hour or so before dinner and so, when he arrived, We mixed a bit of concrete and poured it around the top of the walls, increasing their height by a few inches and securing the top beveled wall bricks from sliding backward.

The next morning I awoke and in the freshness of my mind realized what I had been doing wrong, acknowledged that I had fixed it, and set about the project again with renewed zeal and before long I had my first arch (it was also my birthday). In the photo you can see the first arch with the arch form, having been removed, sitting atop it.

I carried on and by lunch I had completed most of the arches and after lunch finished the last of them and closed in the dome. The closing in on the corners got a little messy but, since my oven was slightly larger than the plans I had only a few whole bricks left and many offcuts and made do with what I had, the result being thoroughly satisfactory and vaguely cubist.

I returned the wetsaw, a little late, and enjoyed the rest of the day. It was cool dry and breezy (a lovely birthday gift for anyone born in early august) and later had some friends over for a small party a key feature of which was regarding the oven which now most certainly resembled a chamber in which one might someday (soon) bake things.

The next day it was off to Minnesota to cater the wedding of a friend's sister and so the concrete cladding atop the oven would have to wait til my return, just as well since I had not yet received the temperature probes that I would need to embed in the cladding to monitor the heating of my masonry behemoth.

Pictures:
The arches are complete and the row of bricks set against the doorway rises to meet them.





The inside of the closed in front right corner, Braque- esque, if you will.










The interior of the completed chamber.









The oven at the end of a long week.

The Concrete Walls

I was wishing that I could find some help for some of this concrete work but seeing as most people I know seem to have "jobs" they are not ready available in the steam of a Delmarva morning to mix and pour concrete.

I headed to the hardware store and picked up three 5 gallon buckets and rented the concrete mixer for the 2nd and not final time and then spent the morning shoveling gravel, sand and cement into the mixer (6,4,and 2 shovels respectively) and then dumping the mix into the buckets, then lifting the buckets onto the lip of the oven, then climbing up into the oven, and then lifting the buckets oven the forms and into the oven and dumping them into the void between the brick walls and the OSB forms set up to hold the concrete. After three hours and at least 8 batches of concrete I was finished and thoroughly disgustingly sweaty and gritty. But now I had walls and the next step would be to build the formidable arches.

Forms

Today didn't feel very productive mostly because I spent a long time trying to drill through concrete. I set up the rebar that will reinforce the walls and drilled the holes for the temperature probe wires. (That is why in some pictures you will notice a brick missing from the floor (i am still waiting for the wires via post)).
Then I built the forms that will hold the concrete for the walls. I also built the form for building the arches but I can't build the arches until the walls are poured and to do that I am gonna need some help.

Walls

And up go the walls!
I built the side walls first.








and then built up the back wall to meet the arched ceiling and built up the entryway.






When I went to take pictures apparently I woke the cat who must be under the impression that i am building him the most lavish lounging spot on earth.

Bricks

A friend of mine from NYC, eager to come and help with the oven before it was completed, came down this weekend. What she got, it seems, was the unenviable task of loading and unloading bricks.
You see I ordered the bricks last Monday and was told that they would be in on Wednesday or Thursday. When I called on Thursday afternoon I was told "oh they'll be in the first of the week." No explanation or apology. So the bricks didn't come until this Monday and Maddie was down for Sunday and Monday and so we spent Monday loading and unloading bricks. The old truck I have is weak in the springs and carting back 150 red bricks and 535 firebricks and a quarter ton of sand (like 2 and half tons) took 4 trips.
We did manage to get the floor of the oven down and it was exciting to finally see a part of the oven that would not be hidden by another part. Indeed the surface upon which the bread will cook!