36" Pompeii Build in the desert

[jim lofaro]

Thanks all for the recommendations. I will check out the granite-ware. I did spend yesterday afternoon refurbishing an old abused cast iron skillet.

[Gulf]

I just took this out of the oven. The cast iron can't be replaced for corn bread and Chicaco style deep dish pizza imo.

[jim lofaro]

Corn breaddddddd. Never thought of that for a WFO. Looks really good.

Anybody use clay cookware?

[jim lofaro]

So my plan is to cover the dome p-crete layer with vinyl concrete patch prior to stucco to keep the perlite in place when the stucco is applied. Any thoughts?

Have done a few pizzas. Wow, a noticeable improvement over all other pizzas we have had. The chicken, potato, carrot, onion disk in a cast iron skillet is to die for. The cornbread needs a bit more work.

[Gulf]

If you are making "yankee cornbread", I can't help you there lol.

I don't have an opinon on the vinyl unless you are not including a vent. Are you planning to install mesh or lath over the p-crete?

[jim lofaro]

Sir, you have insulted by fam-i-ly (read with your best foghorn leghorn voice)! Yankee cornbread indeed.

The plan is to have a vent at the top. I was not going to install lath over the perlite. Should I? My concerned is about having the loose perlite in the stucco.

[Gulf]

Sir, please accept my humble apolgy. I stand corrected. Any location above the deep south is suspect imo. I was served some cornbread in Ohio once. I thought it was ok. but, I thought that it needed some jelly or cake icing and should have been called a desert .

Loose perlite? Are you doing an igloo or an enclosure?

[jim lofaro]

Apology accepted. Before moving to Arizona I never lived above the Mason Dixon line and called Charleston S.C. and Ashville N.C. home.

The recipe I followed for cornbread added honey which IMHO made it a dessert.

The build is an igloo.

[Gulf]

You probably wouldn't like our recipe. It's made from yellow cormeal. No sugar other than what's in the corn. It's our bread of choice for beans, peas and greens. It doesn't completely dissolve when covered with pot liquor .

I like mesh rather than lath. It is easier to form to the shape of the dome, if it is applied correctly. Also, If it is is spaced a little out from the v/pcrete, it will act more as a reinforcement than just something for the stucco to hang on to. The stucco is pushed through the mesh to fill the void behind. Another couple of layers are applied directly over that. Imo that makes this makes the outer shell a ferrocrete. It is much stronger than stucco alone.

Since you are installing a vent. I don't see a problem with the vinyl. I did not do the traditional scratch coat, brown coat etc. I smoothed out each layer with a sponge, painted with a an acrylic bonding agent and mixed some acrylic in with each batch. I was going for waterproof. One danger point that I see with your oven is the connection with the chimney/flue. That will be a cold joint and also a valley for water to intrude since your igloo will not be covered. . My advice is to insulate, mesh, and stucco around the entry and provide a recessed lip for a storm door.

[jim lofaro]

Thanks Joe. Looked at your build pictures again. Well done sir. I believe I see what you did; used half inch hardware cloth cut 1 foot wide (at the bottom) by 2 foot tall. The top is approximately 7 inch wide and the sides are stepped inward. Are you using concrete screws to hold the wire in place? If so how long are the screws?

[Gulf]

Thanks for the compliment, Jim.

Yes, it was 1/2" hardware cloth. The screws are 1 and 1/2" metal roofing srews that I had salvaged and are made from aluminum. If you zoom in closely on the pic you will see spacers behind the wire. The first run of mesh is one solid run around the full circumference of the base of the dome. I fitted it at the bottom with the natural curve as it comes off the roll. I then cut the wire down to about 5" from the bottom where the curve of the dome starts from vertical. I trimmed the mesh back to trapesoid shapes where there would be a little overlap. There is no overlap near the cut at the very bottom so I cut some approximately 2" wide strips to tie in over the lower splices. I tied the mesh with the very fine wire that is used to hold the mesh in a roll for shipment. The spacers that I used were cut from salvaged 3/8" black pastic tubing. But, a better spacer could be made from the mesh if someone took the time to cut and bend some scraps into cradles imo.

You may have to try a lower baking temp in the oven due to the high sugar content of the cake .

[Petar Petrovski]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum so please excuse me if I am not posting or asking questions the right way.

i have recently built a wood fired oven in my garden made of bricks. For the base I have used a fire bricks( Vermaculate) purchasing those from ebay.
I have set the fire inside but it doesn’t hold heat properly even after 2 hours of burning. I understand that the bricks I have used to build are not the ones that retain heath best, so Ihave ordered fire blanket insylation which I will plase over the dome and render, so that should help.

My bigger problem is that I got the filling that I might have used the wrong brickyfor the base of the oven, as pizzas dont bake properly and even burn on the side but the bottom is allmos a wet dough. The bricks I used are the soft ones that you can cut with a hand saw. It fills like they ate to isolate from heath, rather than retain it.

Please advise

thanks in advance
Pete

[jim lofaro]

Thanks Joe. Let me see what I can do for adding a bit of support for the stucco.

Not sure I can help you Petar as I r a serf myself. Not even sure how the forum works; as I ask questions and they magically get answers. Good luck with your problems.

[UtahBeehiver]

Pete,

By your description of the floor bricks, they are insulating fire bricks (IFB) which are not what you need for your floor. They are for insulating and do not provide the thermal mass necessary to store heat for cooking the bottom of your pizzas. They are also, typically, double or triple the cost of standard fire brick. Your possible choices are, if you have room, install a layer of standard fire brick over the IFB or pull out the IFB and replace. It is too bad you joined us so late in the game, we could of helped you out sooner.

[MarkDLxu]

Dome done. Removed the IT/wood block (not easy) and replaced the floor brick.

Any suggested readings on serpentine arch construction?

The most precise and beautiful inner dome I’ve seen so far!