Friday, June 29, 2007

it's that time again

Today is the day before the Farmer's Market. It seems that I now measure my week by the market. Sunday is "recover from market day", Thursday is "start resting for market day", and so on. It's lunch time, and it's raining. We got two more rows of dome bricks layed out, but we need more mortar. This afternoon will be spent prepping for tomorrow morning. The dome only needs a half day of work to be finished, then we can clad the outside of the dome with a layer of refractory fondu cement mixed with some more stainless steel needles. After that, the first fire won't be too far off!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please bear with few more questions...
How are you planning on extracting the extra heat from the oven to create the traditional baths?
I see you have laid the firebrick dome with the brick laid flat instead of on edge. Why did you do it that way? To save $?
Since you need more mass there, how thick will you make the "refractory fondu" cladding?
I am still having a hard time unerstanding how you are planning to heat the dome. I see that you have an (optional) exhaust from the remote firebox into the oven, but I don't see where it vents into the chimney?
How are you planning to finish the face of the whole oven? Brick, stone, tile, stucco?

Dimitri said...

We just got back from the market, and I'm exhausted, so please excuse me if I'm brief.
I was kidding about the bath thing. We are not engineers or anything, we are simply following the plans and designs given to us by a friend and fellow baker that has built 11 brick ovens. The bake chamber is heated mainly from the bottom, as the heated air flows from the firebox through the chamber under the slab and hearth. If we need to inject hot air directly into the bake chamber, we will remove the plug above the firebox and open the damper in the vent in the back of the dome. We haven't decided on the facade of the oven yet.