started my build and have some questions.

[autumncs]

G day all

I've started my build (well the stand) so far, after several years of procrastinating and thinking I can't do this to I can but I have to much else to do, to if I don't do it I'll never do it. Anyway,I have built the base out of Hebel blocks and the heath is Hebel panels. See pictures below.

My man question is sizing, I'll explain now.

My base is 1.8 mtrs (71") by 1.57mtrs (62") with a diagonal corner cut out.
I was planning on working with the Pomeii Oven and I have the PDF Version 2, I am a little confused. I was looking at building the 42" high vault and thinking of just the dome (no enclosure). I was working on the figures on page 13. Then I've moved on to pages 17 and 18 and are confused as the sizes are 35.5", 40",43.5" and 49" which don't correspond to figures on page 13.

Am I missing something?

What is the maximum size you would recommend?

Thanks in advance,Tim.

[staestc]

You are not missing anything. The examples on page 17 do not correspond to the dimension guidelines on page 13. The top example on page 17 is an oven with a 35.5 inch outside dome diameter, and the bottom example is an oven with a 40 inch outside dome diameter. Those are really provided just as examples. I believe they correspond to prefab units sold by our host, but am not sure. Since you have built your stand, you need to determine what size oven will actually fit it.

Are you going to go with an enclosure of any kind, or will you be building the stucco covered hemisphere? If you plan on building walls around it you need to account for the thickness of those walls. If you are going to stucco it, you need to account for the thickness of the stucco and lathe. Then figure you will have 3" of insulation blanket under the stucco. Under the insulation blanket you will have the dome bricks themselves, which can vary in thickness but are typically 4.5" if using half bricks. Then you are left with the interior of the oven.

I just guessed at the actual dimensions since you did not specify how much of the corner is cut out, but the attached picture shows what I mean about how to figure out the interior diameter.
{I can't get the picture to upload correctly}


Also, consider that you will have to get your hands and a trowel between the wall and the dome when doing the stucco, etc., so you need to have some kind of gap there to give you room to work, and you need room on the front of the dome for the inner arch, chimney and flue, outer arch, and probably a little bit of landing of some kind. I did not draw that stuff in.

So my advice is to take exact measurements, figure out what you are going to do for arches and chimney, work out the outside dimensions that will fit your hearth, and work from their.

[staestc]

Picture did not work like I expected it to.

[UtahBeehiver]

There is a Aussie build going on right now that is a 42" corner build. Here is the link, he has done a lot of research and design so look at it. Why reinvent the wheel.

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...erra-australia

I also did a 42" corner build but my concrete base was 86" and my finished oven goes right to the edge. So a 42" will not sit on 71" base.

[staestc]

I screwed up my picture above and I can't get edit to work on any of my posts for some reason. Ignore the pictures above.

And Russell's point was the same one I was trying to show. This picture has a 32" inside diameter on what I am approximating your hearth size to be based on the two measurements. And even at 32" it's very tight.

[fnbroken]

hey...

Can drop this into FreeCAD for you tonight - but yes, that's a very tight fit. Can you give me the dimensions of the two sides....

You may get yourself some extra space if you put a thermal break between the inner and outer vents and pour yourself a landing to put the outer vent on.

Otherwise, looks like your using hebel - can you put an extra brick and extend the dimensions?

[autumncs]

Thanks guys, not had to confuse me at the moment, lol. Sorry about the photos beng upside down and on the side above.

I hadn't even considered the stucco straight on the insulation blanket, I was considering a double brick with insulation.

I have marked out the 36" and I think it will work which has 12" walls, 4.5" internal, 3" insulation 4.5" external wall

the full dimensions are (Sorry USA guys metric here) 1570 depth, 1800 wide, corner cut is 950 along 1800 and 1050 along the 1570 depth, I have a bench out the side plus 1200 on to the 1800 and is 830 deep. the angle cut meets the at about 280 along.

I can't add to the size as there is a shed on one side with a slid door which is the 1570 depth and the other the slab there is only about 100 to150 mm before it's paved.

I'll add more later, time to work

[fnbroken]

Hi autumncs,

See some pics below of your setup. I've shown it as a model with the inner arch a part of the dome, however it gives you an idea of your space/positioning.

I've assumed the sides are 900 wide (if it is more I can recut for you). Based on this, you will have about 380mm to fit your outer vent.

Cheers

Greg

[fnbroken]

Thanks for the extra measurements - you posted as I did

Revised floor hearth plan. 810mm diameter = 405 radius, 115mm firebrick, 125mm for insulation (50mm blanket, 50mm vermicrete and render (25m m)).

Ive pushed it back as far as it can go - leaving a 50mm surround to work in (and that will be hard to get a good finish). However the is room to move it forward depending on the outer vent depth (send me the measurements) you go with.

I would move it forward as far as possible, stick with 810mm and go for more insulation (extra 50mm vermicrete)...Depends on how much of a landing out the front you want/need....

[JRPizza]

Wow, I had never heard of anybody using a prefabricated hearth, but a web search turned up several oven builds from your part of the world that have. Please keep posting - it will be interesting to follow your build!

[autumncs]

Wow, I had never heard of anybody using a prefabricated hearth, but a web search turned up several oven builds from your part of the world that have. Please keep posting - it will be interesting to follow your build!

JRPIZZA I've seen 2 or 3 on the forum, after I had done my research that it was possible and looked on here the see if anyone had done it. There's two options is Aust,for the Hebel panel as in the panels (which are meant for walls) and Hebel flooring, which is the same as the panels however it is in a tongue and groove format and only comes in 1.8 mtr lengths.

fnbroken, Greg thanks for the image however it is so small I can't read it. Yes I need to work out the landing and position. I was going to cut the corner at a 45 however the minister for war and peace said it would look weird having a point hanging and who am I to argue. Which would made the landing easier.

Another question, where do you take the vent landing measurements from? From the arch or from the intersection. I know not a big deal.

fnbroken have you seen the fire bricks that are already halved and angled? The local supplier here has them and wondering if they would be any good. I'm going back there today to find out more, I basically dismissed them however it might be worth while (they cost more) as I wouldn't need to hire/buy a wet saw.

[fnbroken]

Hey buddy, download freeCAD, drop me a PM with your email address and I can send you the files..you can look at all the dimensions/measurements and play to your hearts content.

I found once I had something close to what I wanted it was a lot easier to understand how to manipulate the designs.

The angle shouldn't be a problem, wont look symmetrical to my preferences - but who is going to complain to the boss!

I will take a look the FB pompeii oven plans on the vent placement and play a bit for you - sorry not much time during the week. Placement of the arch depends on the width of opening you go for, and then how deep you want it. But on the FB design I think the inside of the arch lines up with the inside of the oven dome wall.

I have seen the angled (tapered) bricks but if you read the forum most people think only beveling the bricks is worth the effort. To bevel you need to buy a saw. If you buy the saw you might as well leverage the investment and cut exact tapers if you really want to as this taper changes at every course in the dome build and vents. Tapered bricks only really save a bit on the mortar consumption - but if your using homebrew then the extra expense of the tapered bricks isnt worth it. I would also say that if you are going to buy a saw, then forget the FB plans and run with one of the vastly improved designs that has been done here on the forum.

This is where I got to whilst working thru what I was going to do.

Please note, I have not yet built anything - just been sifting through many many build threads and absorbing the wealth of knowledge here and trying to put that into a logical plan for my build - its all theory to me right now!

[staestc]

Hey buddy, download freeCAD, drop me a PM with your email address and I can send you the files..you can look at all the dimensions/measurements and play to your hearts content.

I found once I had something close to what I wanted it was a lot easier to understand how to manipulate the designs.

The angle shouldn't be a problem, wont look symmetrical to my preferences - but who is going to complain to the boss!

I will take a look the FB pompeii oven plans on the vent placement and play a bit for you - sorry not much time during the week. Placement of the arch depends on the width of opening you go for, and then how deep you want it. But on the FB design I think the inside of the arch lines up with the inside of the oven dome wall.

I have seen the angled (tapered) bricks but if you read the forum most people think only beveling the bricks is worth the effort. To bevel you need to buy a saw. If you buy the saw you might as well leverage the investment and cut exact tapers if you really want to as this taper changes at every course in the dome build and vents. Tapered bricks only really save a bit on the mortar consumption - but if your using homebrew then the extra expense of the tapered bricks isnt worth it. I would also say that if you are going to buy a saw, then forget the FB plans and run with one of the vastly improved designs that has been done here on the forum.

This is where I got to whilst working thru what I was going to do.

Please note, I have not yet built anything - just been sifting through many many build threads and absorbing the wealth of knowledge here and trying to put that into a logical plan for my build - its all theory to me right now!

Greg, how far have you gone with FreeCAD models of ovens? Have you constructed individual dome bricks with a component for each level of the dome and assembled them? Is that even possible with FreeCAD?

[fnbroken]

I started doing this with the inner arch design....and whilst it would be super to finish it, I had sufficient of the design concepts down to want to spend the time in getting the site ready for building my WFO...that, and deejahoh's dome calculator spreadsheet does everything you could need and more. It would take tediously long to build all that in FreeCAD

The designs I have done give me more than enough to visualise my oven and how I want it to look plus all the measurements required to get the placement right.

You can see the designs in my build thread (link in signature block)

[JRPizza]

Travis, as a FreeCad user, it is possible to do what you are asking, but at least at the skill level I am at it would take a crazy amount of time for what I think are diminishing returns. The beauty of FreeCad is you can relatively quickly make top and side views that allow precision determination of the placement of the oven on the hearth and the location of the inner arch relative to the dome.
It is relatively easy to create 3D solids of your chimney and any other square/rectangular objects that have linear orientation, but wrapping 3D beveled/tapered bricks in a spherical orientation is probably something easier done in a program like Sketchup. You can fairly easily make solid models to see what your completed oven might look like, but they would not be at the brick by brick detail. Below is one I made when I was first thinking about building an oven - it's pretty crude but helped me visualize what I was trying to do.