Starting Pizza Oven

[JRPizza]

There is some confusion on my end, so let's talk strictly the inner arch dimension, critical height of the arch should be 63-65% of the interior dome height, ie 36" ID - 18" dome height (assuming high dome config) so inner arch height rule of thumb height 11.34 to 11.7 +/- width as NC say not as critical and more builder's preference.

Hey folks, I think Mike is showing a width of 19" and height of 12" to match the FB plans, so these numbers have some basis, even though the ratio of door to dome works out to about 66%.
If I was building a 36" and wanted to do a semi-circular arch, I'd look at the numbers to see how the arch design comes out. A 19 inch wide opening could be built with a 9.5" radius arch, and if sitting on a standard 2.5" thick brick would give you a 12 inch height plus mortar thickness. If you reduce the width to 18.5", incorporate a 9.25" radius for the arch (half the opening width), it would sit on a 2.5" brick with .25 inch mortar joint and give a 12" height.
That is the thing about these ovens - you kind of need to know where you want to end up before you start!

[JRPizza]

I used a 13.5 inch deep vent on Gulf's recommendations, and it worked good for me as I wanted to make my vent as strong/stiff as possible without incorporating my inner arch into the design like UtahBeehiver did. I just went a different way to provide a heat break along the top of the arch but Russell's design is great and allows for a shallower vent. You can even cast a vent like david s does and make it really shallow, but if you are going to work with bricks you are somewhat constrained in how short you can go.

[Michael Harrington]

I am ready to lay the under other floor insulation I have 3 inches of foamglas and 1 inch of thermal gold with that much foamglas Do I need to put the ceramic tiles for drainage

[UtahBeehiver]

IMHO, no, FoamGlas does not absorb water. I can't remember if you put weep holes in or not. Not a deal killer with FoamGlas but a way for water that does migrate through the hearth to egress out.

[Michael Harrington]

I did put weep holes in top slab

[Michael Harrington]

Thank you for all your help Utah

[Michael Harrington]

I recently started working on oven again cut first rows of bricks. I then tried to cut bevels had to build new jigs because the one built last year did not work after trial and a lot of error I might have figured it out. My question is how accurate do the bevels have to be. I have read on forum you only have to bevel just the front of brick I can not figure how you would do that looked for a picture or a explanation on how this is done. It has been said it saves a lot of time which i am all for any help would be appreciated

[Michael Harrington]

I made new jigs when I make first cut on left side of jig comes out perfect then flip brick 180 to make second cut the bevel comes out a 16th of a inch off I could readjust Jig but I dont understand why I should have to. The jig is flat put a piece of metal on it had a slight warp to it so it is flat any ideas would be appreciated .

[JRPizza]

Michael, I had not noticed you started posting to your thread again. If you had any pictures of what is happening it would help. Not sure if I made this recommendation to you or not but you should pick up a sliding tee bevel from the hardware store if you don't already have one. They are cheap and very helpful in checking your angles and even transferring angles from a brick back to your saw.

[Michael Harrington]

I have working on oven have 5 rows partly done rented 14'' saw did not check depth assuming a 14 would cut a inch and a half more than my 10 inch with guard on it would not. I am cutting from both ends with 10" what a time consuming nightmare. I found online pre-cut arch bricks 2.5 top 1.75 bottom they are in Boston in-law coming to syracuse on friday can pick them up for me.What I need to know if they will work on a 22" wide 11" radius total height 13.5. Arch will sit on one full brick so 2.5 +11" =13.5 .I went online for arch calculator this is what I came up with any help would be appreciating have to put the order in by tomorrow in order to be picked up by Friday .

[JRPizza]

Michael, how did your pre-cut bricks work out? Any pictures you can share? There may be other folks that don't want to do the double cuts necessary with a 10" saw that might want to go the same route.

[Michael Harrington]

I have not posted for a while and worked on the oven until it started to get cold again and I had to cover it for winter. I got over the inter arch to row 8 took a long time to get the arch completed let me say it is not pretty inside but I think it is structurally sound. I do not have any pictures of the arch inside but here are some pictures l do have.

[Michael Harrington]

I guess I have to work on posting pictures

[Michael Harrington]

Still don't have it right yet.

[UtahBeehiver]

JPEGs limited to abt 1.25 mg each and about 5 per post. Most phones shoot pics in the gig range so you have to reduce pixel size to post on blog.