Welding the new oven base

Putting a new base under the oven presented several challenges.
1) The underside of the hearth slab was cast to the top of a brick wall and had no requirement for being flat.
2) The slab on which the oven sits is designed t drain water and so is not parallel with the oven slab.
3) There is an I-beam which acts as center support and was cast in place. This also needed to be tight up against the hearth slab.

Our solution was a steel stand with jack screws spaced around the top (See below) This stand would then be encased in treated plywood, covered with lime stucco, and decorated with fresco designs.

Step 1 The stand:

Welded up a stand using 2x2
structural tubing. There are plates tapped for 3/8 bolts spaced the upper beam. This is constructed of 4 panels which bolt to together at the corners.

Here is the stand painted and in place.  We used fiber board (usually used for concrete expansion joints) under the stand to even out irregularities in the slab surface.

Jack screws under the I-beam and along one edge shown below.
If you do the math the 20 jack screws in this design only need to exert 150 lb load to support the 3000 lb oven. Hence the rather skinny looking 3/8 bolts.We went around several time tightening all the crews evenly until the oven was 1/8" off the jacks and called it good.

A piece of 3/8x 1 1/2 inch steel with a 1/2 inch drill point depression to capture the end of the bolt and a piece of the fiber board used earlier seemed to make a pretty good support pad.












Next wee needed to modify the chimney. The original design used a 3x12 inch chimney which worked really well but was a pain to seal where it penetrated the roof. So, We decided to used a more conventional insulated round chimney pipe for the upper portion.

Here is the existing chimney which is formed by 2 1x4 ft x 1/8 ich plates joined by 2 pieces of 3 in channel.
The plan is to cut off 1 foot to salvage material to make the modifications and then make the actual changes to the next foot.

First we grind off the welds

Then use wedges to hold the plates back to give room to cur off the channel

And there ya go.

After cutting off the top 1 foot of plate we trim the sides to create a taper to fit the new chimney size

Next we bend one side out to accommodate the new pipe size.

Then cut one to the 12x12 plates from the top section in half diagonally.

Grind, grind, fit, fit, clamp, clamp
All ready for tack and weld

The second plate salvaged from the first operation is cut to fit the top and includes a circular hole for the new chimney.

Add the new chimney adapter

Install through roof

and Viola!

Oven 2.0

In the event you have a large tree fall on your wood burning oven you may find this blog helpful

The basic situation is that a tree fell on our carport (see earlier posts about that) 

Being steel lined, the oven itself is virtually indestructible. The brick base on which it sits, not so much. So how to build a new base under an existing 3000 lb oven? What follows is our solution. 

Here you see the basic structure. We are rebuilding the carport at the same time.  Hence no roof just yet.

Damage to the base is wide spread

Found these jacks on Amazon for $10 each. Rated at 6000 lbs , so 3000lb oven/ 6 jacks no problem.

Blocked up the jacks and demolished the wall

In the best Harry Potter tradition

Wingardium Leviosa
Remember to "swish and flick"
And you have an oven floating in space

This really only took about 3 hours to do








Next post "Welding The New Base"

So the lifespan of an oven is 10 months

So last night at 10:00 PM I here this CRASH

Yeah that's my truck under there. Oh, and the reason you can't see the brick oven is 'cause IT"S UNDER THE @#$%%^^&* TREE


Notice however that the trusses didn't fail. Yes I do build for the unexpected but this is a bit much.






The oven you might recall looked like this

Trucks make lousy truss supports. The roofs are too weak.

Just to the left of the "carport/scrap pile" was the metal grape arbor I was building. This will add to the fun of demolition 'cause there is a 2000 psi oxygen tank in there too. Woohoo !!!!

You know how when you finish building something you tend to look back and think 

"Ya know, if I was to do this over, I'd............" Stay tuned.  Here we go again.

Chedda Performing Her Various Duties

Chedda is our eldest cat.  As such she has multiple responsibilities. 

No life of ease and idleness for this one.

Guarding the entrance to the cave

Building inspection

Lizard patrol

Making the garden safe one anole at a time.

We need a new coffee table

So my wife (As Rumpole says "She who must be obeyed") observed that the current coffee table is too large for the room and not high enough for eating while watching TV. Our solution: a smaller table, on wheels, with under-top storage, and a top that hinges up and out to provide a good eating/working surface (think working at a laptop on the couch). Heres how that is playing out.

I designed the table to use one sheet of 3/4" (19mm) oak plywood

Start with wood and a plan

Cut and rabbet the sides top bottom etc.

Glue and screw the box together and add the four bar linkage to control the top

Here is a detailed view of the linkage

The bars at the top are actually split and the triangle piece at the bottom is removable so that one can work on the mechanism if needed on the basic philosophy that you never make something you can't take apart.

 The more observant of you will notice the dowel patch below my hand (in the side of the box). Yes, I'm an idiot and put the mechanism in the wrong place the first time.

I'll Show you the finished 

table this afternoon

Here is the finished product

Here are some views of how it works

I would have used some Paduk to make the accent trim but I live in the hinterland these days, so stained oak looks pretty good.

Even Bella has bad days

So yesterday afternoon I heard Bella our Weimaraner barking. She often barks at hallucinations but after several minutes I decided this was for real, so I grabbed a .22 and went to join in. We live in the sticks so armed combat with various creatures wanting the grapes, flower beds etc. is not uncommon. She had cornered a water moccasin (rather large at that ~3 ft long). When she saw me she decided that it was time to bite the snake. GUESS what happened next. Yes you got it in one. The snake bit back (on her lip).

I shoot the snake and Bella bites it a couple of times just to get even. I feed her Benadryl and we wait for the vet to open in the morning.

Spoiler Alert: The vet says she'll be fine in a couple of days with antibiotics and pain meds

Here she is after ~30 minutes

Here she is the next morning

Is that not the most disgusted looking dog you have ever seen?

Since she was wounded in combat I think something REALLY yummy is called for when her chewer is feeling a little better.

Here we are a week later    WARNING:  Not for the faint of heart
But really it does turn out OK

Here we are at 30 days after snake bite
I am amazed and relieved