STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR BUILDING WOOD-FIRED OVEN

1. Assemble Materials:
Newspaper Glass Bottles Masonry tools Drill with mixing attachment Wheelbarrow 2 Sawhorses Wood Storage Bin Metal Ash Collector Scuffle Rooker Peel Glass Jar Rocks & Mortar for Foundation Ring Gravel to Supplement Foundation Bale of Straw Concrete pigments Machete Axe Level (4 foot) 6-8 5 gallon buckets 55 Gallon Garbage Can Fire Bricks (#65: Dimensions 4.5 inches x 9 inches) Concrete Sand (18 5-Gallon Buckets Full) (12 cubic feet) 2 x 4s (tamping, etc.) Clay sifting screen (screening materials and wood) Axe Wood block to chop wood on Powdered fire clay to supplement (#2-3 50 lb. bags)

#25 red arch bricks (not decorative brick) 2-3 Bags of bark mulch or sawdust for insulation #2 Tarps (6 foot x 8 foot minimum) Hand or power saw 1 x 4s inch Mesh for filter screen Metal Chimney Form (or cardboard) Angle Iron for brick arch Dry, bagged, hydrated lime (Masons Lime) Hoe (strong) 3/8 inch diameter copper tubing for blow pipe Insulated Gloves Wicker Sourdough proofing baskets Sodium Silicate mixed 50-50 with water Flat Shovel

2. Dig the foundation footing:

Mark out a 5 foot circle where the oven will be using a homemade compass. Dig down 1.5-2 feet. Tamp down hole firmly and level Fill to ground level with gravel or gravel/sand mix. Dig a drain trench away from your foundation with a plastic PVC pipe. Place rocks around circular foundation and use mortar to connect them. Build to a height of approximately 30 inches (actual height when additional layers are completed will be 42 inches).

3. Build insulation layer above the foundation: (Approx 6 inches)

Add a ring of red brick along the top of the foundation wall to hold the insulation. Use a combination of glass bottles spaced inch apart combined with a mortar of clayslip and sawdust. To make the clayslip: Break up dry building soil to the texture of coarse gravel and pour it into a bucket that is 1/3 to full of water. Pour off any excess water. Let this combo stand overnight, and stir. A drill with mixer attachment may be used. Or a kiddie pool can be used as a mixer as well. Consistency when finished should be like heavy cream. Combine approximately 1 gallon of the clayslip with a wheelbarrow half full of sawdust and fold to combine. This material will fill the spaces between the bottles. You should be able to pack the dough into a ball. Too much slip makes it drip, too little it crumbles.

4.

Build dense subfloor (heat sink):

Build a 6 inch thick layer of dense oven mix in the center of the ring with bottles and insulation along the rim (6-8 inches in). Bottles around the rim can be stood up instead of laying down like in previous insulation production. Use cardboard form to hold back the outer rim of insulation prior to placing the dense oven mix in the center. Use the level to ensure the layer is firm and flat for the fire bricks.

5. Set the floor bricks:

Be sure the oven mud subfloor is firm and flat. Spread a smooth, shallow bed of sand on the subfloor. Do a rough layout first to center the bricks and get the tongue where you want it. Remove the bricks and then carefully re-set the first one to the mark you have made. Hold the next brick level and about an inch above the surface; kiss its long side against the matching side of the previous one, and slide it down until it is flat and lightly bedded. When all of the bricks are down, including the hearth tongue, seat them firmly in their beds by tapping them with the handle end of a hammer. Each should be flush with its neighbors. If not, try again!!!!

6. Assemble a brick arch:

Using angle iron and stacked bricks, build a flat-arch. Attach the bricks with mortar (oven mud mortar). This adhesive will be supplemented with oven mud and the other layers of the oven itself as it is being constructed. Leave out the middle brick or bricks at the top of the arch to accommodate a chimney that will be constructed later.

7. Make the sand form:

Allow enough time to make the sand form and cover it with the first layer of oven-mud all at once. Draw out a circle of the oven in a smooth line all the way to the very edges of your hearth bricks. Use a compass made with a string tied to a pencil. The line should evenly contain a maximum surface area. Start piling the sand by making a 4 inch disk. Pile the sand making a dome like structure about 14 inches high. Use a stick as a guide to height.

 Keep the edge defined where the form meets the previously constructed flat arch. Brick ends will be partially buried in and secured by the walls of the oven. Tamp sand firmly as you go. If you can, make the highpoint at the far end, and taper it down to the door (natural and easy with an oval oven, which looks like a halved egg on its side) The finished dome would then be hard packed, and solid. To ease removal of the sand, cover it with a sheet of wet newspaper. Make thin strips if big sheets are too hard to work with. Smooth them down flat so that edges wont get caught in the mud and make a crack.

8. Applying the first layer of oven mud (thermal mass):

The first step is to make the mud. The recipe is one part building soil, 2-4 parts coarse concrete sand (sharp sand), and water. Use 2 parts sand if the soil is silty, 4 parts if it is very pure. Most likely supplement with powdered fire clay. Screen your building soil prior to usage. Build a screen. Mix the oven mud on a tarp. Building soil in the middle, sand in a circle around the building soil. Add water as needed. Test the doneness of your clay by balling up and dropping from shoulder height as indicated on page 52 of the manual. Generally it is easiest to make the oven mud somewhat wet and allow it to dry a bit before application. We are going to make a 3 inch layer of oven mud around the form. Press handfuls of finished mix around the oven base using your thumbs and fingers. As you work up, press the mix down into itself rather than against the sand form which may crumble. Be sure to carefully blend each new handful with the previous one. Be careful around the brick arch. Use a single finger or a stick to pack the mud into the tight spaces. After application, use a board about a foot or two long to blend lumps and planes into smooth, deliberate, integrated curves. Finally, use a scrap of 2x4 to consolidate the final shape by whacking firmly. Let the clay dry before the application of other layers.

9. Hand cut the doorway:

Door height should be 63% of the height of the sand form (measure!!!!) The width is typically half of the oven diameter (measure!!!). Angle the cut of the door in, like the lid of a pumpkin. This makes the inside of the cut lower than the outside; measure your height from the low point. After you have neatly trimmed the cut, round off the edges with your spoon or other tool, compacting and polishing the mud to make it all smooth and strong.

10.

Remove the sand form:

Make sure the oven is sufficiently dry prior to sand form removal. Use your hands as much as possible to remove the sand. If you find rough or loose spots inside, try polishing and compacting them with the back of a spoon. Let completely dry prior to adding insulation layer.

11.

Adding the Insulation layer:

The insulation layer is a 4 inch thick shell of sawdust-clay mix over the top of your dense oven mud. Cover the whole oven the way you did with the oven mud. The mix is the same as that used in the subfloor insulation. The recipe follows: Mix a half full wheelbarrow of fiber (straw, bark mulch, sawdust) and add 1 gallon of clay slip. (Refer back to the subfloor insulation instructions for the recipe to make clay slip).

12.

Adding a Lime Plaster finish:

Make a basic lime plaster of 3-4 parts sand to one part lime, and just enough water to make it workable. Use straw as a fiber binder to add to the plaster. Add pigment to plaster or paint on after.

13.

Build a chimney:

To the basic oven mud recipe, add the following. Add water prior to adding the straw. How much water you add will determine how much straw you can work in. Add straw. This is a traditional cob design. Approximately an 8 inch diameter chimney. Chimney height should be approximately same as the oven depth. Thin metal Insulated masonry Make snakes of straw dipped in thick clay slip and coiling them up and around.