Hope I’m not the first /only idiot this has happened to…
Everything was going swimmingly on our Cortile Barile oven build…
7 days in molds… Everything was completely dry…
Box 1 - The Front and Rear pieces came out PERFECT!
Box 2 - Maybe because my Uncle Elmer’s 80-year old cement mixer died during this batch & someone forgot H2O to refractory ratio, but one of the sides broke about 1/3 of the way down!
Is this fixable? I do have 55 lbs of Sairset or do I have to reorder another Box #2 and start again?
See pix & weep with me!
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Not to worry!
While it would be more ideal to recast that panel, $$$ may prevent that. First, you would need 3 more bags of castable refractory. Secondly, we would need to send you a replacement Box 2 (which we would sell to you at cost since you need it for a repair for an exiting oven kit purchase).
Personally, since it is a clean break right down the middle, I would just add a thin layer of High-Temperature mortar along the crack and simply join the two pieces together right before you put the panel into position on the oven base.
Don’t try to bind the two parts together and let them dry for a few days - it will only crack again as you lift it into place. Only apply the mortar seconds before you put the panel into place on top of the oven base. Once it’s in place - don’t touch it for a few days (so the mortar has a chance to dry).
Once the mortar is dry, go ahead and wrap the oven with ceramic fiber blanket and apply your desired finish.
After you’ve fire the oven a few times, and it’s completely black inside the oven, you’ll never think twice about the repair job (and the visible joint repair on the inside of the oven will be black - you’ll never see it again).
And yes - you can see something happened during the fabrication process where the crack occurred. The otherwise solid wall was very porous / not firmly packed at that spot.
