Time to introduce myself!

[Erlend]

Hei

As my nick gives away, my name i Erlend. Situated in Porsgrunn, a small city in southern Norway.

I've been playing arround with the thought of having a pizzaoven for several years but after aweek in Toscana this summer, the project started.

Started u with no real plans, others than a simple DIY in a pizza recipie book.

Dug out a big hole (I thought) 120x180 cm , 60-70 cm deep. Hit bedrock, so should be safe for the vold winters. Filled the hole, comprimated, and had a truck come an deliver the concrete.

Discoverd this site, the pompeii plans, and my foundation slab is to small!

[UtahBeehiver]

Initial post have to be approved before additional post can be made. I just approved you initial post and deleted the "test" post.

What type of oven shape were you thinking about? Will it be enclosed in a structure? The 120cm (47"+/-) is your restrictive dimension. You may be able to do a barrel shape oven but we are primarily dome shape ovens on this forum.

[Erlend]

Ah, that explains. Thanks :-) Well, I am planing to build a 36" pompei, (wanted a 42") so I just had to get creative. Pictures say more than words :-) BTW, what's the size limit of jpg files for uploading here?

[Erlend]

The table is ready, and I'm soon ready for the fun part. reinforeced with 1/2" rebar every 6", so I think I'm on the safe side :-)

[Erlend]

The first picture is of my first cut made in bricks. Note to self, mark om what side of the line you cut :-) The second pic is as far as I've come now. Will recive some insulation boards this weekend, and hopefully start building next week. I plan to have half bricks standing as soildiers, so to my first question, should I tapper the bricks for a tighter fitting? Or is that just a wast of time and bricks?

[UtahBeehiver]

I have seen it done both ways, it is builder's choice. Glad to see we chose half soldiers vs full soldiers, the outward pressure from the dome on full soldiers can be problematic without some type of wall bolstering.

[Erlend]

Got the insulation boards this weekend and placed the bricks on a fireclay/sand mix. A small question, the soliders, do you place any mortar (or fireclay/sand) under them, or just place them directly on the boards?

[UtahBeehiver]

Just place directly on board with no mortar. Also place and expansion gap between floor and first course, a corrugated card board strip is around the perimeter of the floor is about right. You can leave the cardboard in during the whole build to keep errant mortar from falling in gap while you do the dome.
In the attached pic you can see the first course on the insulation and if you look really hard you can see the cardboard strip between the floor and the dome.

[Erlend]

Thanks. Just as planed, but always good with a second opinion

[Erlend]

Got my row of soliders set yesterday. Fun finaly starting on the dome!

[Erlend]

My IT. Any obvious faults or flaws any one of you more experienced builders see? It is set so the senter of the brick vil be at a direct line to the piovet point.

[UtahBeehiver]

Just be aware that since the IT is off the floor elevation by the thickness of the ply and the distance to the center of the caster it will affect the dome height by this distance. Not a real big deal but it is something you need to be aware of and will need to make adjustments especially if you are doing a tapered inner arch, the IT use to mark the various bricks will be off. With the current design, there is no way to make length adjustments (shorter or longer) which really comes in handy when doing the dome. Nice start.

PS run some blue painters tape along the edge of the ply and the soldiers to keep mortar from dropping in the expansion gap between the floor and the soldiers. There have been some reports of the gap filling up with mortar and the floor has no where to expand and causes some dome cracking.

[Erlend]

Thanks. Was planning to tape the edge, before building on, as I often am a bit sloppy and messy :-)

. I'm planning on using deejayoh's dome design spreadsheet, for cutting bricks, så I had to revise the IT, and get the piovet point below the soldiers. Still static length, though (Except for a few mm I can lengthen or shorten by adding washers behind the angel Iron.)

Tapered inner arch? Havn't really conciddered that yet, taking one step at the time and solving problems as they come.

[Erlend]

Its been a busy weekend, and I feel I'm making good progression. Using Deejayoh's spreadsheet. After cutting bricks at row 4 and 5 at 4" at the outside bottom, all the brick waste hurt to much, so onwards I've reduced the size to 3,2", thus letting me cut 3 pieces out of every brick. Mortared row 6 this afternoon, pics will follow later.

One question, I would like to make the oven igloo style, but I am worried about the waterproofnes of this style. I live in Norway, so water, freezing and thawing are common :-) Any good posts where this is discussed in depth?

[UtahBeehiver]

It is a common problem with Igloos and some of the remedies are too late for you, ie raising the CF board off the hearth so water migrating in from the hearth cannot come in direct contact with the CF board which is very water absorbant.. On option you may have is to drill a couple weep holes from the bottom of the hearth for water drainage. Since you cut your CF board long I assumed you were originally going to enclose the oven. Another option is to place a roof over the oven but the side open. Look at Gulf's Miss Queen. It is a timber frame roof over a brick veneer clad oven, very nice.