Arnie Sabatelli

Thanks again. Here's a few pics--the first shows what the door looked like after the copper melting bonfire. The second is the oven with a full door rebuild and added a clay/wheat glue glaze. Hoping to give it another firing pizza session soon.

I brushed it out and it seems much better! Thanks again. I'll refrain from trying any more repairs for now and see how it fares with the next firing.

Probably rushed the curing process. I did 2 much smaller and shorter fires two days apart before foolishly leaving son in charge while I was away for several hours....unfortunately things fall even when gently shutting the door, but I'm trying to keep fingers away.

By "brush out," do you mean brush the walls with a small whisk broom, say? I haven't. I'll give that a try, too. Thanks again.

I'm going to try wetting it and pushing gently to see if I can get it a bit less crumbly. Then I might try to see if a layer of clay/sand plaster will take? Otherwise, I can just try cooking and see how much sand falls in my pizza! Here's what I had before its demise...

That is the area. The entire inside wall seems quite frail. If you poke it, a small pile of it falls to the floor. Here's another angle.

Here's what it looks like. Rusty red and very sandy/granular.

Thanks again. My son fired it for me and burned away the sawdust/slip layer all around the front side, so he got the thing very very hot. It topped out my stover thermometer at 850 degrees when I slid it in next to the fire. I suspect that's a part of the problem, or should the clay/sand be able to handle that kind of heat. Yes, sadly, I'll likely have to rebuild. I'll mess around with patching tomorrow, with low expectations. I imagine using a wet thin mix and applying in layers will be best? Then I'll start over. Sheffield potters are about an hour away and they sell firing clay for $18/50 pound bag... That might be my next step for the first layer. Sadly the oven is a thing of beauty... I soaked/ deconstructed wood pellets for the sawdust/slip insulating layer, and it worked quite well....

Ugh. Thanks. I did fire one brick that was mostly just building soil just for fun and it is very solid and hard, so I assumed adding sand would make it even stronger. If this means anything, the material has become very red, even though it was dark brown to begin with. Yes, a rebuild is probably the way to go, though I have lots of man hours in this sadly. I may try a clay sand slip to see if I can at least get it under control until I can make the time for a total rebuild. Probably with some purchased clay.... To make sure I've got the right stuff.

Firing questions: is there any obvious way to tell what silt/clay content is? Mine is sticky and clay like--can mold into bowls etc. would adding too much sand make it weak/crumbly if it was actually clay and not silt?

I just built a cob oven and everything was going great. In the last firing, though, I think I may have over done the flames/heat? and now the inside is very crumbly. Just touching the wall gently sends a mini Avalanche of dried crumbly cob to the floor. Have I ruined it? Can I put a layer over it to rescue it? My soil is 50/50 clay sand. I added sand for nearly a 4:1 ratio, sand:clay. No straw for the firing layer. Any suggestions appreciated.

I've been tinkering with a rig to get a hotter flame for boiling maple sap.. This is my first attempt-- Rocket Stove (5 gallon bucket with ash insulator, 6" stove pipe burn tube, tin can feed with tin can feed plate. Gasifer sitting on top, a piece of double-walled stainless pipe I had laying around. Some metal mesh is crammed in the bottom for fuel to rest on and holes are drilled around the top (gasifier jets). I put the gasifier on top of the hot Rocket and the thing really took off.. just few handfulls of grass pellets gave me 4 foot flames. Will try to figure out how to attach a video... (doesn't want .mov or .m4v extensions?? Will explore further. Here's screenshot...)