Fire Clay - technical

for the technical minded heres a good explaination of fire clay

http://www.mineralszone.com/minerals/fire-clay.html

pizza oven FAST

heres a QUICK vid on a "tunnel" oven prefab, but its got a few good ideas.

http://www.cyanweb.info/diy/video/

pizza oven forums

this seems to be one of the best and most OPEN forums about pizza ovens, there is loads of ideas if you have the time to sift through them.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/

My blog is designed to have done all that work for you.

Concrete slab recipe

Been down to my local garden center and he says the mix is 4:2:1 , thts 4 sand to 2 aggregrate to 1 cement.

I got a quote from a "mini-mix" delivery and its was $226 for my .4Msq , the cost of the sand/aggregate/cement from the local bloke is $129 !!! why the difference, WELL he tells me you can order what you want of the mini-mix but they just charge you a MIN 1Msq.

It doesn't matter when or where you are reading this but almost double is a BIG difference, especially when you can find sand and rocks everywhere yourself !

Everything I read still says "portland cement" is an ingredient you need, portland NOT becuase its from portland its just the brand/type name.

it has certain attributes and probably best just buying the stuff ! but if you want to spend time researching then "portland cement" is where to start.

Gonna go do me some sand hunting LOL

READY to start

Well today I delivered the last of the big items to granma's to start building the project, it was the last of the solid bricks, some wood to make the surrounds for the slabs, the angled bricks i got cut and a few pieces of "metal cross reinforcing" for the extension to the roof above the oven.

We are heading into winter so as expected this will slow up the project but at least no more "hunting and gathering" and "delivering" .

except now the concrete and mortars !

how to lay the concrete slab

here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQafafOwBT0

brick laying WHOLLLEY DOOLLLEY

well this vid is something to be seen, .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMu-HFPk7UQ&NR=1

i like the way he uses the scrap mortar to create the next brick placement.

I can't remember if i've given you this vid link before : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf18CbVJzFo but if i have then have a look again at the 18sec mark, you will see him holding a red plastic tool and he will use it throughout the video. From 8.20mins is all good info, 8.43mins is a great shot of what it does. The VERY LAST second you can REALLY see how this tool could help you/me. The problem with this product is that it is SOOO brilliant and sooo simple that you can build it yourself !

STAY tuned as I have built my own for FREE from items i have got from building sites, i'll post it a bit later WITH images and update this blog with the link.

Its a GREAT tool for the novice so watch the vid.