Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

[Rbhumbert]

8/9/13 ? 8/11/13 We are almost finished with our 42? Pompeii oven build, so I can take time, reflect on what went well, what didn?t and share some photos for those planning or getting started with their own projects. Below are photos of the pre-pour footings, vapor barrier and rebar, and also the finished support slab. My wife mixed the concrete in a borrowed concrete mixer, and I wheel barrowed it down the hill to the oven location. Don?t under estimate the amount of effort, time and materials for this simple beginning.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/12/13 ? We dry stacked the concrete blocks as per the Forno Bravo plans. We decided to section off the back half of the oven support stand, just didn?t need that much space for little critters to set up shop in. We filled every other block cell with concrete for strength. We then used Hardibacker cement board that set on the blocks, without covering the holes, as the slab support form. It was cheaper than doing a lot of plywood forming, and we could just leave it in place after the slab pour, no form stripping required. (1c)

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/13/13 - Here you can see the Hardibacker cement board in place and the steel set for our 4? support concrete slab. We bought 1 piece of ?? OSB board, cut it into 4 12? widths, then screwed it to the concrete blocks with concrete screws. The strips lapped the blocks by 4? and stuck up 8?. This allowed us to first pour a 3 ?? concrete support slab and then pour a 4 ?? perlite/cement insulating slab over the top. Again, lots of material and hard work, get help if you can.

[Gulf]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/9/13 ? 8/11/13 ..............My wife mixed the concrete in a borrowed concrete mixer, and I wheel barrowed it down the hill to the oven location. Don?t under estimate the amount of effort, time and materials for this simple beginning.

Great advice on the "Don't under estimate......." By the way, it sounds like you've got a "keeper" there .

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

I am very lucky. My wife is of slight build but she picks avocados along side of me. This year after picking 36000 lbs of avocados then we tackled the ovenbuild.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/23/13 - Herringbone oven fire bricks in place, attached with the fireclay mix recommended in the FB plans. Our oven dome will sit on top of the floor and any protruding floor firebricks will be concealed later. Same day we started laying out the dome. You can see in the picture our IT attached to a 3 piece wood floor and raised up on wood spacers so that the radius point starts at the same height as the top of the 1st course of solders bricks.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/26/13 ? Starting the dome with homebrew cement, 1 part Portand cement, 1 part lime, 1 part fireclay, and 3 parts #60 silica sand. All these materials were readily available and considerably cheaper then the refractory cement. Based on how much it took, I think I saved quit a bit of money and time. Many posters talked about running out of refractory cement and having to wait for another shipment. I just hope it holds up as well.

[hodgey1]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Looks great so far, can't wait to see the finished product!

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/27/13 ? We really felt the key to a uniform dome shape was the IT tool perfected by so many others before us. Fortunately, I have a welder and can do a little welding, even if it is not pretty. I removed the wheel from an inexpensive caster, drilled a hole as close to the pivot center as possible and attached a turnbuckle and all thread. The IT tool worked out great, and any form of that tool that you can come up with is highly recommended.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

8/27/13 ? Well we have made it to the dreaded dome/arch opening tie in. I looked at every posting I could find on FB about this, spend many nights awake, then chose one suggestion and drove in. Working with an old Mikita chopsaw with a diamond blade, a Skillsaw and grinder with diamond blades we moved forward with trial and error. We ended up with cutting the arch to fit the dome and it worked out well.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/4/13 ? Onward and upward with the dome. What was fun and exciting at the beginning is starting to become repetitious. Cut firebricks, mixed mortar, set bricks. The exciting part is seeing the progress and realizing this can be done by a layman.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/8/13 ? As the rows of the dome reach the top and get steeper and steeper, the firebricks won?t stay in place without some assistance. I found this idea on FB and again welded up a quick solution. The rod in the center is adjustable up and down, and the plywood circle can be cut smaller as the dome closes in. The collective brain power on FB of those who have gone before makes it easier for those that come after. Thank you.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/9/13 ? A view from the interior and exterior as we reached the last firebricks. For the keystone we first mortared two firebricks side by side to each other (2 ?? side to 2 1/2? side). We did the same with two more bricks. After they had cured, we mortared them on top of each other with the joints perpendicular. We traced the inside shape of the keystone and then the outside and transferred that to our mortared up block of 4 firebricks. We shaped our keystone until it fit nicely both top and bottom, then removed any material either sticking down in the dome or sticking up.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/11/13 ? Not much here, just pics of the interior and exterior vent arches. For the most part we just followed those that went before us with our oven.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/13/13 ? We able to order flue pipe at our local masonry supply store of a size that would work. We added a few transition bricks and mortared the flue in place. Also a pic looking up and out of the flue. We later extended it higher above our final enclosure.