COB OVEN

Porportions of COB

-Clay (Pure) 15-25% (some have tested 7%, rarely)

-Sand 75%-93%

-Straw (tensile/shear strength)

“Sand is structure, clay is the binder”

-Sand must be sharp/angular (not round) “Well Graded Sand”.

-River sand works.

-If purchasing ask for “Wash Sand”, filtered. Size best between 3mm-5mm)

Size of dirt particles

-Sand 5mm-0.2mm

-Silt >0.02mm

-Clay >0.0001mm (platlets _-

_)
TEST SOIL (Whats in your soil?)

1. WORM TEST
-Clay & Water. Soil/Clay must be in powder form mix water for 5 minutes and try to
roll a clay worm between palms. Wrap around your finger, if it doesn’t break you have
good quality clay. Breaking = Silt.

2. JAR TEST
- Clay Water in Jar, shake and leave
-Mark time deposits by marking on jar: Sand 0-30s/ Silt 30s-25m/ Clay 25m-8h

3. DROP TEST
-Find a good cob mixture by mixing different parts clay and sand (with water), note the
proportions and observe dropping balls on the ground. If it cracks you’ve added too much
sand.

4. BRICK TEST
-make a simple wood frame and put your clay sand mixture to dry in sun. Test durability
when dry.
OVEN PROPORTIONS

4 Parts (average size = 3,000 lbs)

1. Foundation
2. Base
3. Hearth
4. Oven

Oven Width 27” ------------ Dome Height 16” -20” -------------- Door Height 4”- 6”

6 Fire Bricks 60%-75% 63%

CHIMNEYS are best at the front because air circulates from floor level to the back of oven
and curves up to the top of dome exiting out of the the top front. Use a 5” stove pipe, add a
couple of metal fins to keep set in the cob layers.

*Save heat energy by placing jagged rocks above the door, this reuses and saves heat.

Inner shape of dome is important to keep wall straight 8”, this allows you to pace pots right
up against the inside wall.

PREPARATION OF COB, SLIP, INSULATION & PLASTER

COB

- Mix parts of clay and sand that you tested the strongest before project day.
- Clay must be broken into small pieces using a metal screen.
- Place tarp flat on ground. Mix proportions of clay and sand (ex. 2:3 / clay:sand)
- Make a crater in middle of clay sand mix and add water, bit by bit (don’t want too wet)
- Use feet to mash the mix together, from time to time pull tarp from one corner to the
other, best to pull walking backwards in desired direction to reduce back strain.
- Do drop test to judge that your mix is correct, ball drop to see if cracks or not.

SLIP

- Best to make slip 3 days before project day. Soak clay in water and break down into a
paint paste…no lumps is best. Let time do the work for you. Use a hammer drill with
special mixer piece to speed up the process.
- Dip your hand, if creates a web between fingers it’s too thick. If you can see your
wrinkles on your fingers it’s too thin.

INSULATION

- Wood shavings mixed with SLIP. It should be sticky but not dripping wet.

PLASTER

- Mix same proportion of sand and clay as the cob but more wet for spreading. You can
add paint colours now or paint after.
1. FOUNDATION BUILD OVEN

–Build with bricks or stone with a HEAT SINK in the center starting at 15” below where fire
bricks sit.

-Heat sink are filled with glass bottles, perilite, vermilite, volcanic stone. Cover with sand to
level top flat

2. FIRE BRICKS

-Find center of foundation platform. Place 5 front fire bricks 2” off front of table top, this is
for ash removal. Fire bricks are then 6 across, 6 front the back creating a square. Bricks need
to be flat for easy spade slidding insertion.

3. SAND CASTLE

- Build with wet sand a dome, a circle that meets the 4 edges for the fire brick square. Cover
with wet paper to prevente erosion and fast drying of sand.

4. COB (layer 1)

-First layer of cob 3” thick from sand dome exterior (sand, clay, water mix). Add in ball shapes

-Push cob into previous cob ball joining edges. Don’t press down hard to prevent squished walls.

-At the curve of the sand dome, the outside part of the cob ball needs to be higher than the
inside to ensure the shape and width of the layer is correct as you build upwards.

-Top needs to finish in cone shape before plugging in the last cob ball for structure strength

5. COB WITH STRAW (layer 2) *Make your sculpture base with the cob straw layer

-Scratch surface of fisrt layer of cob and should be damp.

-Add COB straw balls 4” thick all around the dome. Use wood finger to push into other pieces.

-Mark where you want your door with a knife. Place large mails around area and place cob
starw balls around.

-Place a rice or potato sack over cob and wet it down with SLIP (wet mixture of clay)

-Top needs to finish in cone shape before pushing in the last cob straw ball for structure
strength

*Extra layer of volcanic stones can be placed in the cob straw. Allows the oven to swell with
heat and shrink in cold.

6. INSULATION (layer 3).

-Place 2” thick, karate chop along dome wall until completely covered.

7. PLASTER

-Smooth over entire dome, you can create some smaller sculture shape for creative detail.

-use yogurt container lid to smooth out Blaster when dry

MATERIALS

-1 cubic meter of sand (Ok builders)

-1 cubic meter of clay (Glenmore)

-5 tarps (mixing and storage of cob)

-1/2 bail of straw or 2 to 3 cubes

-30 fire bricks (depends on size) of bricks)

-2 wood shaving blocks (85 litres, expands to 12 cubic feet)

-Stones or bricks for foundation

-Wine bottles for heat sink in foundation

-10 buckets…two 5 gallons for small mixture

…six 10 gallons

…two 50 gallons for larger mixtures

-Wheelbarrel

-12 large and long mails

-Shovel

- 5 Fabric potato sacks or rice bags (enough to cover dome once)

-Large knife for cutting and shaping

-1/2” hammer drill with special mixer attachment

-Wood finger mashers

-1 metre 2 by 4 to help shape first and second layer of cob

-Metal sifter/screen to break up clay parts.

-WATER source…

-Shade, tarps…