Timo's Oven...Because I can!

18 Jun, 2009

So Much Done, So Much More to Go

General — Posted by timo @ 17:09

Well, today was our first really hot humid day in a long while and I just happened to have it fall on the day to pour the foundation for the hearth. As you can see it's all in the preparation. I put enough rebar and angle iron into the structural part to make me happy.

I wanted to provide enough support for the firebrick and the decorative brick arches, too. Hey, it's only concrete, how hard can it be? Well, as you can see the grinding to cut all this rebar was just one step. But what about all the prepp that goes into the plywood form? Well, that took a day in itself. The picture above to the left shows how much rebar I stuck into the front span. I actually poured the front to corners with the hearth pour to hopefully tie in the whole front of the hearth because of the expected weight there and the overhanging landing. The rebar lattice is made of 1/2" rebar at 11" centers. I don't know why 11 inches...it just worked out that way. The plans called for 12" centers.

 

The rebar is bent into a 90 angle stuck into the cores and cemented into place. Yes, this is going to be rock solid. I figure it has to be because I tossed another 1,260 pounds of concrete in there.

And there you have it. A structural hearth pour. 3 1/2" thick. 21 60# bags of concrete. A bit of troweling for fun after the screeding. I made a nice screeding board out of a 2x6x8 cut out at the ends for moving across the hearth.

 

 

 

 I have to say this is one nice looking pour. It took about 3 hours to mix it all. We, of course, are expecting giant storms sometime later tonight, or tomorrow. That's why once I was done with it all, I covered it twice: Once with plastic to keep it from drying out too fast, and once again with a tarp to keep the rains off of it.

 

These are my two amigos. Without a decent pair of gloves you are in for a lot of trouble! Get a good pair and make them your best friends.

 

Well, guess what? I went to the library today and picked up 6 Sinatra discs and some other interesting discs. There is something about Sinatra in the background while eating. Maybe it's me. Anyway, Here's a favorite to be soon, around the oven. Enjoy! Now the hard part begins after the perlite insulation layer...actually building the oven. 

 

 


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