Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

[Tscarborough]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

If you have a truck with a bumper that has ball mounting holes they make perfect rebar bending holes.

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Yes.....the truck bumper hitch hole...excellent....I have a reciever but I will remove the ball and flip it...(2" drop) and use that.....nice call.


So i had to work in the rain most of the afternoon, but got the form done but not leveled and secured properly.
I have a picture of the 36" inside diameter with some "wood" bricks (might be code in Ohio....lol) around the outside and then a mock 2x4 for where the wall will be eventually.
The angled piece of wood in the front is where the front edge of the shelf (landing) is. and the two pieces of wood are 12' for the tunnel, 19" apart...does this layout look right???? Any thoughts appreciated.

I have a lot more securing/leveling of the form tomorrow, then plenty of rebar bending and securing and I may pour the hearth tomorrow night.

Thanks for all the great advice all.

chris

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

That looks good to me. I would have done a corner stand but that would have put the oven closer to the trees.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

make sure you remember to Level it. I had to go thru soem hoops to get mine leveled.

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Had to work under an "easy up" last night through the rain but we got the hearth poured.....I forgot to take a picture of the rebar before we filled it and just took at picture towards the end. The rebar you see is where the shelf comes out about six inches....from what you can see does it look like enough rebar.....my crew says overkill but better safe than sorry.
That being said I noticed this morning that there are a few cracks.....hairline but noticeable. I din't remove any of the supports yet, and where the crack is there is a support right underneath it. Any thoughts about these cracks??? I didn't see any on the base slab.

Well now I just need to scrape the cash together to buy my 36" Kit from FB.

Chris

[fxpose]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

You might have placed your rebars too close to the surface for those cracks to develop.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Or overworked it when you were finishing it, that is what it looks like to me. I wouldn't worry about it, regardless.

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

I am guessing it may be a combination of both, the rebar may have been a little high and I did work it alot trying to get it smooth. This is not an issue structurally though? I am ok to move to the next step?

Thanks for the reassurance.

Chris

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

It'll probably be just fine. I have not removed the forms from under mine yet, the only forms I took out are under the extention and that wasn't for 21 days.

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Probably going to order the 36" Forno Bravo Pompeii kit this week. In addition to the kit I am going to order the following"

3 Extra floor insulating boards (to make the basse 4" thick instead of two, I'm 6'2" I also can use the height in addition to the extra insulation)
1 extra roll of FB Blanket
and a 6" Duratech anchor plate (or is 8" better for a 36" or overkill?)
Infared Thermometer

I'm thinking of ordering some extra bricks for screw ups???? There is enough for the tunnel also correct?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!

Chris

[leckig]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Hey ThinCrust, good to see another Ohio build. I was told by another member that you were looking for the I-Tool - why would you need it if you but the kit?

I am nearly finished with my dome so I could loan you the tool that I made if you want, it is a "modified" design (well, they all are...) but it worked well for me, I only used it for courses 2-7 i think.

Greg

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Hey Greg......finally some good pizza in Ohio.....atleast you have Flyers and Angie's pizza in your area. I am from Warren and I swear you can't even buy a thin crust Pizza up here (Good thing I travel, I found some great thin crust in Milwaukee)

Anyways, I bought the Forno Bravo Kit that includes the Brick Floor Plates, All the Bricks and the mortar. I really have NO clue what I'm doing but I love to make pizza so I am giving it a try. I figured ordering the Kit would give me a good start. It is not the modular type....just all the supplies needed including the bricks.

I checked out your pictures, your oven looks great. Also your tool looks like it would do the trick. If you want to sell it, I could pay you for it and shipping to Warren Ohio. If you want it back I would ship it back as well. I want to get one so thats one more thing out of the way....lol.

I pick up the brick kit next weekend at "The Place" in Medina Ohio, they are the local distributor.

Email me (ChrisClayemail@aol.com) if you would like to sell it so I can give you my address. Orrrrr if you wanna make a few bucks, make a new one and I'll buy it from you.....thanks for your help.

One of the reasons I bought the kit (instead of buying everything locally) was to thank Forno Bravo for a place to get all this free education. This site is soooo valuable.

Take care,

Chris

[leckig]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

Ok, I will send you email in a moment. I did not know about these two pizza places, thanks for the tips!

Oh, my oven does not look great... I am a crappy builder. however, I did learn soooooooo much during the process! Making one more oven would be quite simple.

If I can give you an advice: dont overthing the process, just build. Spend much time studying pictures of others, especially the most difficult section: the transition between the dome and the front of the oven. If the bricks that FB ships are regular shape, you will have to decide if you use regular half-bricks for most of the build or you you cut every brick to shape, I did not. cutting bricks so they fit well on the last 4-5 courses may be worth it but is sure is a lot of work

Another thing I learned - you can buy very good compound miter saws on craigslist. This, plus a wet/dry diamond blade from amazon plus something that sprays water at the bricks while you cut is a simple and cheap (maybe not very safe...) way to cut bricks.

Two more only: angle finder is a super handy tool. And, instead of buying cheap dust masks, get a nice $20 respirator with dust cartridges, easier to remove with wet gloves on, will last for ever and will give you better protection.

[ThinCrust99]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

I did a ton of research over the last five years but your right, I don't know how much good it did.....now I am just gonna go at it and lean on this website and people like you for help.

I have an angle grinder and bought a good blade for it. I have a eight year old miter saw that I have been hopeing would break so i can buy a sliding miter with a laser line......so I will be cutting the brick with it and maybe it will do the trick....lol. I bought my blades off of Amazon for it. Pretty good deals. How did you rig something to spray water at the brick? I was going to soak them for sure to cut down on dust.

AngiesPizza.com is the better of the two in my opinion. Old World Pepperoni at both is the best. If you go to Flyers tell them well done and I order a little extra sauce on it.

Thanks again.

[leckig]

Re: Starting a 36" Pompeii oven...help plz

I saw someone that rigged a small garden microirrigation sprayer to his miter saw. I simply used garden pesticide sprayer and pointed the water at the brick. The problem is that you dont have enough hands to hold the brick (one hand operates the sprayer, the other the miter saw).

But spraying the water while cutting reduces the dust to nearly zero. I would absolutely rig up something for next build. Even if you soak the bricks, the dust is horrible.