Hansel and Gretel’s worst nightmare! The wicked witch’s oven starts to take form. The weather’s been nasty, I took another trip out of town and I caught a cold on the airplane. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to get working on the oven again!
People keep asking me how far along I am with the oven, and up till now I’ve said about 30% . Most everyone thinks that the oven chamber (or at least where the fire will be) is under the bottom arch. I keep explaining that that area is only where the dry wood will be stored, but I don’t think I’m getting through to most folks. However, after today’s work, I feel like I can now point to an area without waving my arms around to try to describe a barrel arch and say “here is the oven chamber”!!!
Oven Chamber
I’m using refractory mortar between the oven chamber bricks. Very thin joints are the order of the day. And yes, if you look closely at the upright bricks at the front of the chamber, you can see daylight in those joints. Those areas will be filled in with fire brick in triangular shapes cut to fit. Therefore, I’ll be cutting more brick tomorrow with hat, dust mask and safety glasses as part of my equipment.
Twenty four solid bricks went up today and I’ll finish the upright parts tomorrow. Then I’ll buttress the walls with a layer of reinforced concrete cladding before starting to form the arched roof of the oven. More forms to build but what else have I got to do?
Chamber from the back - back wall not in yet
Ve-r-r-y interesting, as usual. Looking better and better all the time. Hey, cover up that wood!