Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

[mstang1988]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

Dome Day II: The Start of Mortaring



Things I have learned today:

--Being able to make nice cakes does not mean that I will have any innate ability to spread mortar well.

--A small flat spatula stolen from the kitchen is a very handy tool in building a wood fired oven.

--Boobs stick out and bonk into the dome and get especially messy. Wear shirts I really really care nothing about, and don't run out to Home Depot without expecting odd stares.

--This takes WAY longer than I would have guessed. I guessed, doubled the time in my mind, and was STILL way under.

What do you plan to do with the extra bricks on the floor layer? What are the physical dimensions of your kitchen? I'm thinking about doing a very similar design but I'm worried at how large it will grow with the 42" oven, eek!

[Frances]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

Its looking good Nikki!

...and there's nothing like telling other builders what to look out for

Seriously, I am totally in awe of you building an oven right now. I had trouble doing just about anything more than eating and sleeping when I was pregnant. Good for you!

[christo]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

I have a similar question to 88.

When I did my oven I was in a big hurry to get there you are and left my floor to extend beyond the walls. In some places, way beyond the walls...

I realized after the dome was completed that some of those bricks were going to interfere with inslulation as they were quite close to the metal stud walls of my enclosure. I trimed many of them down to allow me to get the 4 inches of insulation I needed. The whole time I worried (probably needlessly) that I would vibrate my oven down to the earth....I should have listed that as one of my lessons learned. Some places I doubled up on the ceramic insulation or stuck a chunk of leftover ceramic board where I had less than 4 inches... It all worked out.

Your enclosure looks bigger than mine, so I bet you'll be ok. My oven grew from 36 to 39 inches after a miscalculation during prebuild.... My stand was set up for a 36 inch oven.... so things were tight!

Looking good!!

Christo

[Modthyrth]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

I was just going to be lazy and leave it, since I'm now planning an enclosure. I don't have more than a half a brick extending out at any point (if I did I trimmed it first so I could use that half-brick) so I didn't figure it would cause much of a problem. The enclosure might be more work overall, but it meant less fussy work before I could start my dome in earnest, and I wanted to get to the cooking part as quickly as possible!

I'll dig up my original drawings and get some accurate dimensions for you, Mstang1988. I think the oven slab was 5x5 (maybe 6x6) with the front corner cut out. The prep wing to the right is 4' long, and the grill area to the left of the oven is 9' long. We'll have a couple hundred square feet of pavers creating the dining/working floor and surrounding the fire pit. It's big, no doubt!

No work on the oven today. It's raining, and probably will continue to rain through tomorrow. Oh well, I need to make pies and challah today, anyway.

[egalecki]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

I love that shirt. I wish I'd had one!

Have a great Thanksgiving! Next year, turkey in the oven! My MIL wants me to bring salad and a side dish tomorrow. So sad.... I'll have to make my own turkey at Christmas, for sure.

[christo]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

We have to go to my in-laws for Thanksgiving. I'm cooking a bird today in the oven just to have one and to get it out of my system - been jonesing for another turkey in the WFO since last year!!!

Christo

[Modthyrth]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

The regular courses are easier than the soldier course--thanks for the encouragement, Elizabeth! I'm also stealing your idea to use small stones to prop up the bricks as I go along. I'm almost through my first bag of refractory mortar (I'm using a brand called Thermal Ceramics that my local brick yard was able to get at half the price of Heatstop), so I think I'll also use your idea to use homebrew to backfill the gaps in the bricks. You know that thing they say...imitation...flattery...I'm not your cyber-oven-stalker, I swear. ;-)

Two more courses completed so far today:



Now it's time for some fancier cuts to figure out how to incorporate the angle iron and bricks over the opening. Time to go haunt the galleries for inspiration.

[bturton]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

I'm in awe... You're not using a form? Looks great!

[Modthyrth]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

Just the Fancy String Alignment System for now. Eventually I'll graduate to the ball that was supposed to tighten my abs but instead lives in the garage. ;-)

[egalecki]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

Actually, by the time you get to that stage I bet you won't need the ball. It really isn't that hard to get them to stay up! A real stalker would take pride in doing without one...

It all looks really good. I found the homebrew easy to squeeze thru the mortar bag into the gaps on the back. You'll do fine. And you're going really fast, too!

[Frances]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

That looks very good! ...are sure its really your first oven build?

[Modthyrth]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

That looks very good! ...are sure its really your first oven build?

Do you count the thousands of times I've obsessively built the thing brick by brick in my mind since spring? ;-)

[Modthyrth]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

Two more courses today, including some tricky work around the angle iron. I have a bit of the teardrop shape going at the moment. I hope I'll be able to correct that in the next couple courses.

[egalecki]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

You'll be able to correct it over a couple of rows. Just take your time. I ended up putting two long skinny wedges in to correct mine, which worked fine. Great gravity-defeating system you've got going!

[Les]

Re: Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

I agree w/ Liz. You can come out of the tear drop just fine. Use the string system or the BS. You want to correct the ugly before you get to the top - thats where it can get ugly You may have an edge on the inside but no one will see it - looking good.

Les...