If you are using the soil dug from a garden. Make sure that you dig below the topsoil which has organic matter in it. Use the sub soil which has clay mixed in naturally.
To check your mix you will need to ball up some in your hands for the drop test. Shoulder height is recommended for a drop distance.
- If your ball shatters, you will need to add either water, clay or both,
- If your ball flattens out, it is too wet,
- Your ball needs to stay intact within reason of course, it can be a deformed sphere with cracked edges.
Elbow grease is what you need to mix the materials together for the first layer. Another method we used was to step and squish it together by sliding to the side. Twist and slide as Henrick would say. More feet make it faster. The mix seen in this photo was used for the main oven.
The colour of the mix for the temporary oven was a bit lighter as shown. this was our sample, your sample does not have to look like this. This is the tricky part. You have to pack the oven mud densely for this to work. A 4" thick layer is what you need for a pizza oven. Make the layer thicker if you want to cook or bake. Use one hand to keep the edges strong and squash down with the back end of your finger. Do not pat ot slap the mix, as that brings the moisture to the outside and makes it go soft. Metal trowels will also bring the moisture to the outside.Use timber at the sides to press the mix into its self. 
The most important part about this stage of the build is to keep the thickness the same throughout. Make sure as you go higher up the sand mold that the face of the layer angles upwards. Use a bit of timber as a guide pressed lightly against the sand mold at an angle following the curve.
I have an example in a later photo to show what happens when the layer has a different thickness.
This is what it should look like when finished. It resembles an igloo.
No comments:
Post a Comment