In villages and suburban dwellings you can see stoves made of clay. Previously, peasants manually made the mentioned structures for heating and cooking. However, even now people are building compact and inexpensive furnaces. In addition, you can build them yourself from ordinary building materials. The article describes in detail how to make an adobe oven with your own hands.
Construction characteristic
Owners of household plots and rural residents are still erecting Russian adobe kilns with their own hands. The heating device can be put not only on the street, but also inside the living room. In addition, often such a stove is used as a boiler for a bath, and if you need to decorate the garden, then it can be done in a decorative style with drawings made by hand. The main advantage of the design is its low cost, and other parameters include the following parameters:
- Small size.
- Environmental friendliness - the furnace is made from natural building materials that do not harm the environment. In addition, harmless raw materials (firewood, peat, straw and so on) are used for the furnace.
- Low cost - the design can be made from materials that do not have to be bought in a store. Clay and sand are the main elements for making a furnace. The main thing is to mix the solution correctly.
- Quick erection and easy operation. However, before making an adobe furnace, you must carefully study the instructions.
- Practicality - the design can be used not only as heating equipment, but also for cooking, drying clothes and as a bath boiler. In addition, it is an original decorative element that can decorate the garden.
But there is a drawback: for the construction of the furnace you need a lot of clay. To get the right solution, you need to be able to knead it. That is why the construction of the structure begins with this process.
Solution: general information
To create a Russian adobe furnace, you will have to knead the solution manually. All that is required to complete this process is to strictly follow the instructions with which you can get the right consistency. If this condition is violated, the clay content will not correspond to those characteristics that are necessary to create the structure. The only thing that is known for sure is that there is no ideal proportion, so you will have to experiment a bit.
To prepare the clay solution, you will need the following components:
The finished solution should be strong and with minimal shrinkage. As a rule, the more sand is added, the higher the shrinkage of the clay composition will be and the lower the resistance of the finished furnace. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly connect all the components to obtain the optimal mixture.
Experts recommend first to make a little test solution for the construction of an adobe furnace. If a reliable temporary construction is obtained from the resulting mixture, then it is possible to begin construction of the equipment in full size.
However, you need to know: to reduce shrinkage, you need to add as little water as possible.
The initial stage is the preparation of the solution
Builders recommend using components in a 2: 1 ratio to create the mixture, where the first indicator is the content of fine-grained sand, and the second is clay. Before preparing the solution, you need to know exactly how much composition will be needed to make the furnace. As a rule, for masonry of a medium-sized structure, approximately 3.5 m 3 of clay-sand mixture is needed.
The solution must be prepared in a special wooden container, upholstered in a tin, in which clay must be soaked for two days. After this time, sand must be added to the solution. The resulting mixture will have to be stirred with your feet until you get a thick mixture without lumps of clay. Large fragments can be crushed with a shovel or hoe. If, as a result, large clots remain in the solution, then they will have to be pulled out and broken by hand.
To prepare the solution, add an amount of water equal to ¼ volume of clay. The main thing is to use high-quality liquid. It can be river or rain water. As a result, a plastic mixture should be obtained from which an adobe furnace will be erected.
Testing the quality of the solution by drying
This method is a good option for determining the readiness of the mixture. To check the fat content of the solution by drying, you need to perform a few simple steps:
- Mix the clay with water to a thick state, and then soften the lumps, if any, with your hands. Next, you need to roll a small ball from the resulting mixture and put it between two flat boards.
- Squeeze the lump slowly until cracks appear on it.
To determine the fat content, one must take into account the degree of compression of the ball and the shape of its breaks. Normal is the solution in which a round lump begins to crack when squeezed 1 ⁄ 3 from the original diameter.
Adobe furnace: foundation technology
After preparing the solution, it is necessary to begin the construction of a strong foundation. For its organization it is necessary to perform such simple technological work:
- Dig a pit, the depth of which should be at least 25 cm, and make it 10 cm wider than the base.
- Pour the resulting recess with clay solution.
- Lay a layer of stones.
- Fill the foundation pit with the mixture again.
This is a simple technique for making a solid foundation.
Formwork installation
For its manufacture, the masonry must be raised approximately 20 cm from the ground. The top layer is laid out with a thick clay mortar, after which it is necessary to lay a waterproofing material on it (for example, roofing material or a plastic film).
The final stage of this process is to fix 25 cm thick planed boards on top, which must be placed crosswise. It is necessary to build several such layers.
Furnace assembly
The main part of the device can begin to be erected when the base and formwork are fully strengthened. First, stones must be laid on the foundation, which must be connected with clay mortar. The recommended height of this structural part of the furnace is about 20 cm. An important point: the top 5 cm should be made only from a mixture.
The next step is to install the outer part of the formwork from the boards, knocked together in a strong box, the dimensions of which should be 60 x 120 x 140 cm, on the pole. After that, you need to build the inner side, while leaving a hole measuring 20 x 20 cm. It will be needed in the future for burning out formwork. When these works are completed, it is necessary to wedge the outer boards with stakes so that the structure does not deform during use.
The space between the sticks must be filled with clay solution, but before that you need to secure the hole from the mixture. To obtain a dense layer, it must be carefully tamped. It is better to reinforce the corners with reinforcement, which must be placed 10 cm above the inner formwork. The diameter of the metal rods should be at least 10 mm.
The prepared construction should harden in a week. This time is enough to result in a strong adobe furnace. However, after three days, it is necessary to remove the outer part of the formwork, and then cut the mouth of the structure with such dimensions:
- height - 32 cm;
- width - 38 cm.
Then you need to remove the protective board through the hole, which should be made in the form of an arch.
The final stage - drying and finishing the structure
If the previous work was done correctly, then at the end it is necessary to give the furnace a finished look. The construction should be erected only in warm weather, since it will dry for a long time if the temperature is low outside. In the summer this process will take a week, but this time directly depends on the quality of the solution and the amount of added water.
However, there are some tricks with which you can reduce the drying time of the structure. To do this, you need to light a weak fire in the oven for 30 minutes, but no more. This procedure must be done several times a day. In addition, the masters say: the longer the structure dries, the better it will be. If you need to speed up this process, you can light a fire, however, it is better to wait until the furnace unit hardens on its own.
Do not forget that you need to make additional elements: the blade and damper. These accessories can be made of wood. The purpose of the flapper is to close the mouth. A shovel board is recommended to be made 25 mm thick.
To make a clay oven more beautiful with your own hands, you need to whiten it. For these purposes, you can use conventional materials, for example, chalk or lime. In addition, patterns are sometimes painted on the surface of the structure using watercolor paints.
Terms of Use
The formwork inside the furnace must be set on fire. If this is not done, then otherwise it will not work out. Such actions must be carried out carefully, because due to careless handling, the structure may crack or even collapse. If, nevertheless, defective places have appeared, then you can repair the adobe furnace. As a rule, for this crack must be expanded and simply covered with a solution. If all the described actions are done correctly, then you can safely light a fire.
Initially, the structure must be heated for about 2 hours. Dry wood can be used as raw material. The stove should be cleaned of burnt fireheads using a poker. After the device you need to tightly close and wait 20 minutes. During this time, the temperature inside the structure stabilizes, so you can put food in it, which will evenly warm up on all sides.
Conclusion
The article described the manufacturing process of an adobe kiln. This device can be made independently, but the main thing is to follow the instructions with which the construction of the structure will not take much time. In addition, you will need a minimum of tools and materials. If a person has minimal construction skills, making a furnace is an easy task for him.