42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

dvm,

Nice symmetry with your floor layout.

Russell

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

I will admit, sommething about symmetry helps me relax.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

A grinder will fix most of the scallops, your discovery will help others in the future for arched lintels. I used 1/2" OSB (sides) with 2X3 blocking and 5/15" ply (arch) in my arch form and had no issues with deforming.

Good luck with the rest of your build.

Russell

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

You arch looks great. I will make an arch over the adjacent fireplace; so I have another chance at this. The 8" metal flashing was very easy to use..... I think I will place the supporting boards side by side and cover with moist sand before rolling out the metal flashing. We will see how that works next time.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

It was a great morning - I have to say standing up and finishing concrete in the shade with a nice breeze was a treat.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

As I wait for this morning's cement pour to cure - I turned may attention to the oven archway.
I started with OSB template of the oven floor raise up on a few bricks. This allowed me to "dry set" the bricks for marking in prep for a day of cutting tomorrow. The carbide tipped brick marking tool from HD worked like a champ and won't wash off in the saw as would pencil - and the lines are sharper than a "Sharpie"
BTY the stick of wood on a hinge (when drilled at 21 inch radius first served as the compass to create the template) happens to be 2.5 inches wide which served me well when marking in the intersection of the soldier course with the arch bricks

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Hey DVM,

I like the carbide tip brick tool. Tried clay and wax lumber crayons, wash off. Went to a sharpie, 1/8" wide so kind of fat. Going to head to the orange box store and score one of these so I have when finer cuts are needed. Thanks, love this forum. Good luck with the arch, I am working on mine right now and the taper angles are time consuming since my bricks are 5.25" wide that the trusty of HF saw on has depth capacity of 3" max. so four cuts per arch brick plus a grinding with a diamond cup.

Russell

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

As the hearth slab cures (and I am waiting for a 2'x3" FB ceramic fiber insulation board in the mail - 3 were initially packed 4 are required) I continue to cut and dry stack bricks for the oven archway and the lower courses of the tapered vent. I am working from a full scale pencil drawing on brown paper.

Here is a question for the community: I plan to use a tall soldier course with the floor set inside the soldiers (the floor is inside the dome, the dome does NOT sit on the floor). I will level the floor tiles with a mixture of refractory brick dust (from the saw tray) and sand spread with a notched trowel.
Question: Should I mortar the soldiers to the ceramic board, or simply stand them up and mortar them together?

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

DVM,

I had a similar question and I received an overwhelming "no" to mortaring to the insulating board (I used CaSi). I also cut the floor to sit inside my "sailers vs soldiers" putting a ring of cardboard between the floor brick and in your case the soldiers for expansion of the floor purposes and to keep mortar from dropping down in the gap and possibly cracking the soldier ring. Others have used this technique and supposedly the cardboard burns out and eventually fills with ash from the fire. Hope this helps.

Russell

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

I suspected as much. It is hard to picture but important to remember these these structures do not sit still - they with expand (move) and contract (move) as they heat and cool; with different elements moving different degrees based of different heat content. Makes sense to let it "float" and allow it to move where it wants. a cardboard gap sounds like a simple interface solution. cool. I mean hot.

[man7sell]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

dvm,
I built my oven with the soldier course and used the plywood method. It worked well for me but I did not fix the board to the floor, all I did is mark the floor center and had the center mark on the edge of the board and went around setting the brick. That way I was able to take it in and out easier initially. For the last chains I made a form were I set the chains on top of.

Attached you can see the board inside the oven (the only photo I have of the board). Also the form I made for the last chains.

Brian

Now that's a great way. I was trying to decide which way to go.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.



OK for 2 inch FB insulation is down. The splits are in place, and I am placing the 2" thick, 18 x 18 FB floor tiles. To make the cooking surface level I am working with a mixture of "saw pan trimmings", sand and water. No way Can I spread any consistency of this combination with a notched trowel. So instead I roll it by hand on the splits until I have very fine, 2 - mm balls of fire clay and sand mixture (the moisture is quickly drawn away by the bricks) distributed. After some scootching and tapping with a rubber mallet, the result is level cooking tiles over a layer of splits with a inconsistent distribution of fire clay and sand in between with (no doubt) some pockets of air.

So the question is... is this good enough? or with the incomplete bond between the floor tiles and the splits render the extra mass under the floor tiles ineffective? Any thoughts?

dvm

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Today's Lesson Learned. If you plan to place splits under 18 inch square tiles you MUST level the splits before putting down the larger tiles (sure seems obvious when you say it out loud). Spent today (after church) picking up then re-setting the floor with three thermo-couples (below insulation, above insulation, drilled into back of 18 inch tile (1/2 inch below cooking surface) and FINALLY got started with Mortar! First third of Soldiers are in place!

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Way to go, building a oven is an addictive project. BTW, what are using for a readout on your TCs. I did not run power to my build and going to use a portable TC thermometer but have not bought it yet, only the TCs.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

An inexpensive option is here Craftsman -Multimeter
A really cool (expensive) option is here Thermocouple Data Logger with USB Interface
My older son is building an electronic capture station (using parallax hardware and writing his own code) meant to capture data from 9 probes, time stamp the data, and transfer to a computer via a usb device.... we shall see. If it works out I will post the specs.