Glenn's WFO

[Les]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I know herringbone can be done with bricks flat, but I just think it looks better with bricks on edge IMHO.

It does look good. The down side (other than the heat time) is that there are more edges to catch with the peel.

Les...

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

It does look good. The down side (other than the heat time) is that there are more edges to catch with the peel.

Les...

aahh, yes, but that's the pizza makers problem, not the bricks problem
Will have to finesse my peel skills.

[Tim M]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Hi Glenn,

I am in Adelaide and still am very much in the planning and material aqusition stage of building my WFO. Could you tell me where in Melbourne you sourced your firebricks from. The cheapest I can find them in Adelaide is $6 each. (Your bricks look great and at $3.50 each are a lot more cost effective!!) I have a truckie mate who does the Melbourne to Adelaide run all the time and I am sure that he would be able to bring them back for me.

Cheers,

Tim

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Time for an update in case you all think i've been sitting around doing nothing on my holidays!

First photo is of floor and soldier course (half brick) all laid out. I forgot to pull the camera out for the completed soldier course, but i ended up cutting every second brick on both sides to get my curve.

Second photo jumps ahead as i've done the second course and got my very first arch in place! I was pretty excited to get that completed and actually staying up. I used a form to get the bricks in place, but as soon as i put the top brick in, i took the form out as i wanted it to be completely self supporting.

Third photo shows where the mortar cracked and moved a fraction when i was knocking the keystone brick in, but at that point, all the load is downwards so it didn't move any more. Also, as soon as i completed the next course of bricks, it would tie everything together, so i wasn't too worried.

Progress was slowish after that as it was taking me longer than a day to get a single course cut and set.

I was also mixing up my construction methods by swapping between cutting all 3 sides of the bricks, or using shims to tilt the bricks up.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Photos didn't work in the first post

If the mods want to move this to the construction forum, go ahead, or let me know and i'll start again in there.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I completed the "crossing of the Arch" the other night which caused me much head scratching.
Like a lot of others, the back of the arch is a bit ugly, but no-one but me will ever know that. The dome itself has a few flat spots in it as it goes up, but not much i can do about that without creating a ledge or overhang internally.

I'm mainly concentrating on getting the inside as neat as possible with minimal gaps between the bricks. Obviously i'm not too fussed on what the outside looks like.

I tried to get a good photo of my floor to give an indication of how flat it is too.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

So progress has been good and the easy bit is now done.

The premix mortar i was using was sticky enough to not need any sticks or anything to hold up the bricks, which made it relatively easy to get the upper courses completed.

I've got a few minor problems now that I need to figure out. The first being that i've only got about 12 fire bricks left which isn't enough to do the entry, vent and outer arch. However I do have a heap of pressed red & cream bricks left over from our house and would like to use these, but i'm not sure if mixing the 2 types of bricks will be an issue? anyone?

Also, with the design of the entry and vent, i'm not sure how the whole lot should be tied together. If i just butt the ends of the bricks up to the face of my dome arch, the flue support plate will end up sitting across this joint. Is this ok?

I might need to look through some other builds to get some ideas.

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Final pics showing finished dome. I'm pretty happy with the result, although it got a bit crazy at the end trying and get the old square peg in a round hole!

[exceloven]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Glen,
Very nice arch! Everything looks great so far. Doesn't it feel good getting the dome finished?

Mark

[christo]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Based on the heat from my oven - I think you would be fine doing the walls of the entry with normal bricks and saving the firebricks for the top part of the entry arch. we have seen several domes built with conventional bricks with only one or two reports of any type of problems/spalling that I recall.

If I had it to do over again - I might have poured a refractory arch/chinmeny transistion for my entryway. Making the brick arch was fun, though!!

Christo

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

It was pretty satisfying getting that last dome brick in.

Thanks for your input Christo, as this is kind of what i was thinking too. I'll used the pressed clay bricks for building up the base of the vent, and the firebricks for the top arch part. I plan on using the red bricks for the outer arch to get a nice contrast look happening.

[gjbingham]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Nice work Glenn. Your oven looks great. I agree with Christo on the idea of casting the vent and arch sections. I wish I had thought of that!

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

I've cleaned up the front arch area and started on the entry now.
It's a bit too hot this week to get much done as it's currently about 44 C outside (~113F !!), although it's good for curing my dome.

*edit* Power went out before i could post the photos.

I will use the red clay pavers to put a "face" on the outer arch and i'm trying to come up with something a bit artsy, but we'll see how we go.

My design basis is to have a deep entry arch but will have it finishing higher than the outer arch. It was a choice between the problems with smoke at firing and smoke stains, or having to duck down to look inside everytime i use it.
I chose to go with ease of use (high outer arch), as there are work arounds for the other problems (smoke doors, etc), but we'll have to see how well my chimney draws.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Hi Glenn, Your dome looks great! Very elegant arch too. Your decorative outer arch being higher to allow for good views makes sense but I've read about others who wished they dropped it slightly to hold in smoke. If you have a "deeper" vent landing than most then maybe you'd have less likely any smoke out the front? I just don't know. I'll be watching to see what you do for ideas.
Thanks, Dino

[glennb]

Re: Glenn's WFO

Hi Glenn, Your dome looks great! Very elegant arch too. Your decorative outer arch being higher to allow for good views makes sense but I've read about others who wished they dropped it slightly to hold in smoke. If you have a "deeper" vent landing than most then maybe you'd have less likely any smoke out the front? I just don't know. I'll be watching to see what you do for ideas.
Thanks, Dino

I had the same issues when i was trying to plan it out, and the pros and cons i came up with for a high outer arch are:

Pros:
Ease of use in terms of being able to see inside without hunching over, and using peels, etc. (this was important to me, and getting it wrong would put me off using the oven, or result in a rebuild of the arch/entry).

Cons:
Possibly more smoke coming out the front (only a problem during fire up, and can be fixed with the smoke doors that others have made).
Smoke staining of outer arch (I'm choosing ease of use over aesthetics), and besides, it adds to the rustic look.

I'm going to make a relatively large opening in the top of the entry arch where it goes to the chimney, which will hopefully catch most of the smoke, and if it doesn't work, then i'll just have to build one of those half height smoke trap doors that others are using to great effect.

Once the fire is up and racing, the smoke no longer becomes an issue anyway (in theory).