Chimney Rising!

A little something poked it's head above our arches today....it was our chimney!  What you see below is the very bottom of the chimney, which you will ultimately not be able to see because cinder block and stucco will cover it up.  But, hopefully, on Saturday the walls will rise higher and next week the chimney will rise even higher.

In the meantime, we are also working on the bottom "edge" and over the next few days we will raise the walls higher and fill the area around the oven with our vermiculite slurry and insulation.

The last layer before the firebrick

It was another great Saturday morning with a crew of church folks, friends, and neighborhood folks who gathered together to mix and pour the final layer of high temperature concrete before we lay the firebrick and start building the oven chamber.

Just to recap, we mixed and poured a layer of vermiculite and high temperature concrete (calcium aluminate). It needed a few days to set and harden, and now it was time to do a smooth layer of level high temp concrete to finish the base.

In order to prepare the form, we put down some good old fashioned aluminum foil and rebar.

Then the crew started mixing, and we had a solid crew on hand working two big wheelbarrows and one mini.

Then it was all about hustling those wheelbarrows up to the oven site and shoveling it into the form.

Look at that nice smooth top! We're ready for the next phase.

All about that base...

On a glorious Sunday afternoon, we started building the base of the brick oven.  The seven of us started at about 1 o'clock and pooped out at about 4. The base of the oven is kinda like a basement. It supports the cooking chamber and all the other parts of the oven that get far more oohs and aahs.  I'd say the coolest part of this phase is making sure there is an "ash chamber."  Instead of shoveling hot coals and ash out of the oven and putting them in a nearby metal garbage can, this oven will have a narrow slot at the front of the oven. When needed, the baker can shovel/rake/brush the ash forward and it will fall through the slot.  About once a year the ash chamber will be cleaned out.  It's much safer than messing with hot coals and ash.

We got about halfway done today.  In the pictures below, you'll see the shape of the oven start to reveal itself.  The cinderblocks are drystacked, and then rebar is put through the holes.  Finally, rocky cement is troweled into the hole, which makes it a solid mass.

Here's the oven laid out. The math people did the measurements and the chalk lines.

Then we got some concrete going.

Once we got it figured out, then we stacked the block, filled it with concrete and stuck in the rebar.  Note the block in the middle. Those blocks will ultimately support the solid top/surface of the base.

 

Then cement was shoveled into the ash chamber and smoothed out.  Later there will be a small door on the side of the oven to clean out the chamber.