The adventure begins

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The adventure begins

"If its worth doing its worth doing once"

Only problem was that I finished to early to relax with a beer

I agree 100% to both quotes
Nice work oz, you are well on you way

Cheers
Mark

[nissanneill]

Re: The adventure begins

backinoz
going great! Get your vermiculite insulation down (quite unusual to mix). I used a flat bladed fork to mix mine (see the pics within my build), for tips and tricks, get it nice and level and smooth and flat and experience less troubles bedding down your hearth bricks. Leave for a week, time to cut all or most of your bricks and 2 days for your dome! No joke, it's a breeze, longish days but very achievable. You will need to cut the odd special cut around your arch and maybe a narrower brick to maintain the better correct bond but it is surprising how quick you get each course done.

Get into it and sit back and enjoy.

Neill

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Thanks for the encouragement.
Since my last post I have

• made up my indespensable tool
• cut out the template for the inside oven dome and door from structural ply left over from the formwork
• purchased bricks from a local gardening center left over bricks from their oven project.
• purchased sheets of calcium silicate board insulation for the floor from local pyrotek distributer
• cut the bricks for the oven floor
• cut and mounted the insulation board

Going good so far although starting to count the weekends between now and first pizza deadline on 22 dec 09.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The adventure begins

Nice indespensable tool oz...

Dont forget to use wedges under your arch form so you can take it out easily after the form is done......

Cheers
Mark

[trockyh]

Re: The adventure begins

backinoz,

Your build looks great! I hope mine will look as good. Hope to get my forms set for the base today, but rain is coming in this afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing your progress. Thanks for the pictures.

Tom

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Another good weekends work. Spent the weekend trimming the floor bricks to fit flush with the template and cutting the soldier course bricks and course number one.
Cutting bricks was reasonably simple although my saw has a cut depth about 7mm too short so every cut was done in two steps.
Have gone for a taper on one side of the soldier course.
For course Number 1 went for the three cut option. First two cuts create a parallelogram and the third cut creates two trapezoids which I then tapered at a ~6 degree angle for the dome. Note if you tapered the brick first you would need four cuts instead of three and waste more brick. the bricks are about 120mm on the long edge and 98mm on the short edge and a ~5.4 angle for the three cuts.
It was a refreshment in algebra, solving simultaneous equations an trigonometry. It took me longer to work out than it used to.

[Alter ego]

Re: The adventure begins

It was a refreshment in algebra, solving simultaneous equations an trigonometry

This sound a little like when I was building my inner arch entry into the dome. The cord (ie the with of the entry) was 455mm. The distance from the cord to the circumference of the arch was 75mm and I needed to know the radius or the arch to draw the template. I solved this problem with a piece of string but curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know how to solve this mathematically. I asked everyone but no one was able to give me a formula straight away. My neighbour eventually Goggled it as he was also frustrated and eventually we came up with a mathematical solution. I won?t repeat the equation as it was too complicated but I am happy to lend my bit of string to anyone who also needs to works this out.

Paul

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The adventure begins

Hey Oz,,
Your floor is looking great, Nice cut work,,

Cheers
Mark

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

That was FUN. Put in the soldier course for the dome tonight. It went very well and a lot easier than I thought it would be. The mortar from Claypave was like spreading butter mixed with sand and after the first 5 or so bricks got into a rhythm.
With a bit of luck and some more evening progress I might still meet my first pizza on 22 Dec target. Hard to keep the silly season out of the way at the moment though.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The adventure begins

Oz,,
Your off to a great start... Looks nice and neat.... Keep up the good work

Cheers
Mark

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Course 2 Completed tonight but two bricks short. Back to 5th grade for counting lessons I think.
These couple of photos show the center board I have made out of structural ply in three pieces (so I can get it out at the end). The pivot for my indispensable tool is mounted with the ball joint center level with the top of the soldier course.
The plan last weekend was to spend this weekend laying bricks but I guess Ill be cutting bricks instead.

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Haven't posted for a while. The silly season has given me a variety of distractions so progress is not where I would like it at this stage. Have got up to course 7 with the next task to start to tie into the dome arch.

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Boxing Day Progress was to tie in and lock the course over the arch.
Wasnt as neat as I would of liked it but is nice and tight. Used some fireclay to fill in some of the small holes.
Finished course 8 and 9 today and cut the bricks for the arch.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The adventure begins

hi oz,,

Your joints are nice and tight... looks great.. I wouldnt worry about the neatness.. you cant see it when theres a fire inside..
cheers
mark

[backinoz]

Re: The adventure begins

Good progress yesterday. Getting close to that last brick. Have been balancing the work with mother nature getting in to work when when the rain eases up.
The trick now is to work out how to best fit the top keystone brick. The hole is a mix of a hexagon and an octagon.
I got a picture of my bricksaw setup. (only a few more bricks left and that is where a majority of my time has been) Im using a table saw with a tiltable top and a 215mm diamond blade. I soak my bricks in a wheel barrow of water for ~20min and soak between cuts to eliminate dust. It may eliminate dust but not the mess. I also have a dust extraction system which works well at keeping a negative pressure at the blade but doesnt have enough guts to lift the dust (wet brick particles) into the bag so it deposits in the pipe and needs to be emptied every 30 bricks.
I bought the cheapest blade and it has cut over 200 bricks. Every brick is tapered and all bar the arch bricks and soldier course are tapered on the end into truncated pyramids.