Oregon 42" Pompeii Oven

[Corsairmo]

Finished the archway today, I'm quite pleased with it despite my limitations in masonry!

[MarkJerling]

Finished the archway today, I'm quite pleased with it despite my limitations in masonry!

What limitations? LOL That looks fantastic! Well done!

[Corsairmo]

I've been working on the oven throughout the week and feel pretty happy with how things are turning out. Tying the dome into the arch has been as tricky as I thought it might be. I didn't do myself any favors by using only half bricks for the arch. I had considered using longer 6" lengths but was loathe to "waste" the bricks when I thought I might run tight on bricks. I ordered 220 and needn't have worried, I will have plenty left over but have had to work harder than I should have to make the dome and arch blend! The arch is tying in well enough I'm not worried about collapse or such, but it would have been easier if I had just another two inches of arch depth to rest the dome bricks on. There is a dip that I am slowly compensating for with each successive brick course.

I feel foolish, in my pursuit of shaping a perfect keystone to tie the 7th course together I neglected to cut the depth of the keystone down to match the bricks around it since it was handy for griping it as I test fitted the piece, so it sticks out almost an inch! I realized my error after struggling to get it all set just so and I said, "Screw it! I'll just use the angle grinder to lop the excess off!" So that's why there is a slightly off-center 1/4 brick keystone sticking out above the archway.

I think I am about at the stage where I will move on to smaller bricks as the triangular horizontal gaps at the base of my brick courses are getting significant. For my 8th course I did taper the bricks with the saw so that they fit bit tighter, but I am debating whether it is better to do that again for the next course or move on to 1/4 bricks.

All in all I am happy, things are working out quite well. I am using a table-saw type tile saw, which presents significant limitations to my ability to taper my bricks. I really can't justify spending on a better tool, but for a first oven (there might be more for others, this has been a great deal of fun and friends are already asking about it) I am happy enough with the results. Next time though, I will be aiming for a finely fitted bevel-cut oven! Kudos to all those who put in the extra time and effort for the works of art they are!

[MarkJerling]

That's coming along nicely!

[Corsairmo]

That's coming along nicely!

Thanks Mark! It feels crude compared to others but it's solid and I'm so excited to put it to use all the same!

[MarkJerling]

Thanks Mark! It feels crude compared to others but it's solid and I'm so excited to put it to use all the same!

If you think your's is crude, then you've not seen mine! LOL

[Corsairmo]

Courses are closing in! I'm still sagging a bit on the arch side, but I have to say I'm pleased with how round the rest of the oven is turning out, seeing as I took out my IT for this last course. They are dead ugly on the outside but from the inside it looks quite good! I actually already laid the course onto the plywood circle, but forgot to snap a shot before I covered it with a tarp to keep the rain off. I'm now using 1/4 bricks for the course and I think I will have 2 more before I seal it up with a keystone!

[Corsairmo]

The oven is finally enclosed!



And I think the inside is satisfactory. I used a plywood disk to support the bricks as I laid them. But once they were set I lowered it down (via the car jack I used) and was able to test the hold and clean up the inside as well. I have been using a chicken heat lamp to start to cure the oven which i left on for about 3 days. No outside insulation yet as I simply haven't had time, but I'm trying to keep it well insulated from the rain until I can finish it off.


The heat lamp didn't really make a difference, the floor stayed stone cold and the dome was at best room temperature. So I've moved on to a small fire. I'm going extra slow because the bricks and the oven work have been soaked with rain, before and during construction. Even with the small fire, the wetness of the air venting out the top of the arch is amazing! It's a constant stream of moisture coming from the oven. For those who have an InstantPot it reminded me of venting the steam and sticking my hand into it! I'm on to day two of fires and I am trying to keep the small fire going for about 2-3 hours and I'm checking and dampening it as needed with my old wooden arch form. I've been reloading the fire and moving it around every so often to avoid hot spots. I don't have an IR thermometer, yet, but so far the dome inside ceiling is a modest warm to slightly hot to the touch, the exterior is cold and the floor is room temperature to the touch unless directly after I have moved the fire off of it. I think I'll keep the small fires up until it stops pouring moisture from the dome. There are some moist exterior mortar seams that are visible from time to time if the fire has been in that area for a while, but so far no cracking of any kind! Fingers crossed!

[MarkJerling]

I thought I had read that the advice is to insulate before firing to help prevent cracking.Careful!

Your completed dome looks lovely.

[SableSprings]

Dome looks great Corsairmo! As Mark noted above, we do recommend insulating before starting the curing fires...but going slow as you are doing is perfect. Once bricks are wet, it takes a long time to force out the water. Once the moisture stops "pouring" out during your long, low temp fires, you might consider laying your insulation to keep oven brick temp more even. With a set oven you are wise to go slower than the posted time/temp schedule. You might even think about using briquettes rather than wood simply because you can control the long & slow early curing temps more easily. Good job monitoring & moving your fire around to make the heating more even.

[gvegasg]

Hello. Great job!
I would like to build a corner one similar size to yours (40 or 42). Would you mind sharing dimensions for the stand and for the oven, please

[SableSprings]

Hello. Great job!
I would like to build a corner one similar size to yours (40 or 42). Would you mind sharing dimensions for the stand and for the oven, please

You can find most of that information in my build thread (link in the signature line at the bottom of any of my posts). If you can't find what you need there, a little more detailed question of what you need would be appreciated.

[Ope-dog]

Hi Corsairmo. What a great looking oven!!! While we started our builds about the same time, you apparently stayed much more motivated that I during the winter! lol. I'm in Hillsboro, OR.. however my build is taking place at my property in PeEll (just west of Raymond on the Chehalis River..) so time never seems to be my friend, lately.

Having just insulated my dome and put on a p/v-crete rendering, I was very dismayed to see my perfect sphere go by the wayside and now it looks like a huge dinosaur turd sitting atop a cement counter. LOL. I'm really going to have to work some magic with my final rendor to try and recapture the dome shape.

I am curious to know how your oven fared through it's first sets of fires. I'm itching to get curing fires going now, and since a large portion of my mortar has been allowed to cure for several months now, I'm hoping the moisture drives out sooner than later. But being in the NW.. does it ever REALLY dry out? I had to modify my dimensions quite a bit at the start and redesign my arch on the fly.. your arch came out great!!! Would love to see more pics and hear of the progress!

Scott

[Corsairmo]

Hello everyone, I've been gone for a long while and never really finished up this thread. I wanted to offer a final picture of the oven as well as some of the tasty food it brought us. I've been gone in part because 2021 unfortunately brought a cancer diagnosis at the tender age of 38, which upended my life for the last few years! Thankfully, with surgery and chemo I expect to live a long healthy life; I know many are not so lucky...

The oven did indeed get finished and was an instant classic with the family and friends. My wife originally supported the project as a gift to me, but quickly became enamored of the good fun and food it provided, so it got heavy use from both of us over the next couple of years. Sadly we moved and have left behind the oven when we sold our house.

However, now in our new less rainy PNW location I am already fermenting my plans for Pizza Oven Mk 2. I'm going to start a new thread about it, including lessons learned, so feel free to hop over there if you want to hear more about my retrospectives. Thanks for all the help from the various forum members, I'm excited to incorporate a lot of ideas I've learned here! The last few years have also brought a career change with improved financial conditions, so I'm excited that this next build won't have to be on quite such a shoe string budget and that I won't have to cut so many corners (I'm looking at you cheap tile saw) while I am trying hard to cut nice clean corners!

[SableSprings]

Thanks for the "finished oven" pics...quotes because all of us seem to keep tinkering on them as we use & enjoy their versatility. I'm glad you beat the cancer. I know how that makes you very aware and appreciative of the daily joys of friends & family.

Few of us get the chance to apply all we learned from our first build to a second. Looking forward to hitching a visual ride on your new build thread!

Savor everything, every day!
Mike