San Clemente, CA Build

[Chach]

Nice Job! Are you planing on enclosing the oven?

[Mongo]

Nice Job! Are you planing on enclosing the oven?

Thank you.
No, got going to enclose it. I like the look of the brick but as it's not exactly meant to be exposed I'll most likely be putting some kind of roof over the entire thing.
Going to blanket and stucco the dome and think about it over the summer.

[JRPizza]

Yes I bricked the flu form in. I have a plan.

Ah, you went for the "slice and dice". I was thinking you might burn it out

[Mongo]

Mongo, if you can improve on the design please document so others can follow and learn. The way I built my vent has a good portion of the downward load carried by the front and rear vent arches, and the serpentine part of the vent is mostly in compression, but that design has been criticized for lack of interlocking bricks.
I have studied many of the builds on this forum going back to the early days, and the ovens have evolved as clever folks tweak the design. Just look at the basic oven shown in the FB plans and contrast that to some of the more recent builds. Looking forward to seeing what modifications you come up with!

So here's my attempt at an improvement.
Would have loved to execute it better/with a tighter gap. The dry fit was much better than the installation but I'm sure you know how that goes.
Of the 4 'reverse' arch bricks only the first one at the bottom is solely held in place by compression as you say.
The next 3 have a 1 inch 'wing' that overhangs the front and rear arch.

My gap between the front an rear arch is 7.5 inches. I now see it would have been better at 7 inches giving me an extra 1/2 inch width of the front arch and 1.5 inch wings over the front and back arch.
There shouldn't be any such thing as a 'smoke chamber' that's too big right? That would be hilarious.

[JRPizza]

Interesting. If you frame your serpentine arch like I did in the link below you are going to end up with a rather large opening fore aft - is that what you are going to do and will your adapter plate fit? I had to round out my opening fore/aft at the top to fit my 8" adapter, which your design would have provided plenty of room, but I kind of like the look of the narrower serpentine bricks. That said, I also had to extend my chimney aft to transition from rectangle to square which you can see looking from the side - more mass to the rear of the serpent than in the front. Your mod may end up looking more balanced from the side so I'll watch with interest. I think one of the coolest things about home built ovens is they are like humans - they share lots of DNA but are all distinct individuals

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...510#post386510

[Gulf]

This is just my opinion. I did not do a surpentine, so I do not speak from experience. But, you are right about the smoke chamber. Once you get back to horizontal, get at least a couple of courses above that to tie every thing together with an interlocking bond in all 4 corners. 2, 3, or what ever will allow you to transition smoothly. The more courses the better for strength and for a smooth transiton imo.

[david s]

Yes, but every extra course of bricks adds significantly to the weight, placing more stress on any structural weakness. As each joint requires the full width of a brick to achieve the required bond strength the structure is already very heavy.

[Mongo]

More progress this weekend.
This 'double arch' is more an an improvisation to compensate for a mistake in my layout that gave me a landing that was much too wide.
I'm reaching the end of my bricks and don't want to make the 2 hour drive to buy a handful of bricks so I've been hitting my scrap pile for some time.

Ran out of clay about 6 batches of mortar ago and started using brick dust. I can say I do not like the way brick dust mortar handles. Sets up faster and is very unforgiving.
I did make the 1 hour drive this weekend to buy another bag of clay.

Just cut my last 3 bricks. Looks like I'll make it.

[Mongo]

Just laid the last brick

[M2salmon]

Looks great! Did you use std 2.5 x 4.5 x 9” bricks for the front and back of the chimney?

[UtahBeehiver]

Congrats, you deserve the cocktail. Just remember to be really patient with the cure. I keep hounding members to take it slow on the cure so not to damage all their hard work. Starting out with a couple charcoal briquette fires is a great way to start which hover around 250 F and you can cook some dutch oven stuff while you are at it. Do insulate but not install final outer hard coat before curing.

[Mongo]

Looks great! Did you use std 2.5 x 4.5 x 9” bricks for the front and back of the chimney?

Thanks. They were at one time full sized bricks. Some time ago I was running out of bricks and starting hitting my scrap pile.
The top course of the chimney and the curved base that mates to the arch represent the last five whole bricks I had, The top course are splits.
The rest of the visible chimney are scraps. Should be OK structurally. We'll see. I like the mosaic look.

[Mongo]

Congrats, you deserve the cocktail. Just remember to be really patient with the cure. I keep hounding members to take it slow on the cure...

What! But I have a party planned for this weekend!

But seriously. This will be the longest cure ever. I'm in no hurry. I 'through bolted' the top course of the chimney and will even let that course cure until the dome is insulated before I mount the base plate.
I've also seen your advice on insulation before curing in other threads. Makes sense. Thanks.

Speaking of sealing the dome. If I have no v nor p-crete at all would you still recommend installing a vent? If so, what is that threaded vent cap thing I've seen recommended for venting. I think it's an automotive part but don't know what to look for because I don't know what it's called.

[UtahBeehiver]

No dome is waterproof, if the ceramic blanket gets wet and then the water converts to steam during a firing, the volume of water increases by something like 1600 fold. The dome could build up enough pressure to crack the outer shell. The vent is called a breather vent, can be bought at any auto supply store for less than $10. Has a 1/2" mpt the screws into a 1/2" pvc bushing. Gulf reinforced his with a small square of wire mesh embedded in the stucco.

[Mongo]

This oven was supposed to be a simple igloo, with stucco extending over a simple flu and flu gallery but has morphed into this massive pile of bricks and a plan to eventually build a roof over it.
The chimney is as tall as it is to accommodate some artwork I have planned.
For the base plate I did a 'through bolt', thanks JRPizza , countersunk underneath, thanks Yokosuka dweller .
Laying the bricks in position is a bit tricky but not too difficult.
Going to wait for joints to cure for a few days before I mount the plate and check out how vertical my stove pipe is.

Two courses in the chimney interlock it front to back. Crazy variety of brick sizes as I was working from my scraps at this point.
Top course made from splits cut from my last two whole bricks.

Lots of weight on top of the arch. We'll see how that works out over time I suppose.