Rocko's Build Log

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Are you sure it's too high? Your base didn't look that high... It might be worth stacking some bricks on there and playing with a peel or rake just to see how it feels. Mine also turned out quite high and I thought I'd made a mistake but it's more comfortable not having to bend over to check the fire and working it at elbow height or thereabouts... just a thought.

We're talking a matter of something like 2 inches. It's arguably a smidgen too high for me but bearable, which means it's generally too high for my wife.

We're playing for keeps so I'm going to tolerate overanalysis of the height. I did throw a brick on it and that was above my elbow when I actually lowered my shoulders.

The height is lower than what I anticipate eye level would be when sitting, but yeah, maybe I should flail around with the pizza peel and see what it's like.

[jonv]

Yes, definitely worth taking the time to get it just as you want it - it's too big a job to regret something later.

For what it's worth, I just checked mine - if I bend my arm to a right angle the hearth comes roughly to the top of my forearm so a couple of inches higher than I initially considered. I'd do it that way again but we're all different so you might find a different height more comfortable...

I didn't have to consider my wife's height - I don't let her in the kitchen let alone near the wood oven

What depth of pcrete have you got there?

[david s]

You could easily raise the area in front of the oven with a layer of pavers. That's easier than digging a hole.

[jonv]

Good point! And arguably better than reducing the insulation...

[Rocko Bonaparte]

My drain is near the front of the oven and is part of a larger, continuous slab, so I don't want to mess with the ground. It looks like I could make do with popping out half to one inch of insulation. It is currently 5.5" of 1:8 perlcrete so that's fine.

I'm prepping to make my cutting jig because I don't trust using the angular components of my old Harbor Freight mitre saw. It's one of those 12" Chicago Electric saws. Chicago is a particularly strange name for a Chinese city, don't you think?

I'm really playing a game of chicken using this saw. I am hoping it dies after making the last cut on the last brick of the project--and no sooner. At least I have a good blade, right?

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I made a first attempt at a cutting jig today, but I'm not at a point of using it. I had also figured out that I cast too large of a perimeter in perlite too, so now I have to give everything a haircut. I thought at this point that I would draw out on one of my spare plywood sheets the profile of the oven. I kept botching the circles using string, and figured that maybe I could use my indispensable tool. I bring it out and find out that too is also too large. I must have built that out based on diameter instead of radius.

OTOH I saw the Pompeii plans call for a clay/sand mix under the bricks. I like that better than straight sand since I expect the sand would find its way through the pockets and negate both the effect of the sand as well as the perlcrete. I was about to fret about getting some when I realized I have a bucket of pottery clay as well as pottery sand left over from my original oven from years ago at the previous house. So at least I have that!

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Has anybody here dabbled in metal studs for an outdoor kitchen? I had dismissed it previously due to having to make sure I spray some galvanizing paint on every bit I cut or drill. However, I actually tried some galvanizing paint for the first time when I cut down the angle iron spanning my concrete blocks. It just spews out metal snot like nothing. I don't think I have anything to fear in missing a spot. I kind of like the idea of not dealing with saws for once.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Did I see somebody ask to post pics? I think somebody said to post pics!

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I had people over on Saturday, so I did not work on this all too hard this weekend. I did manage to carve off a lot of perlcrete so I can sink in my bricks to the height we ultimate chose, and I trimmed about an inch around the outside so I had more slack for exterior. This ended up with... four garbage bags of crumbled perlcrete. I am keeping it for now because I assume I can basically reuse that although I'll take a little hit on insulating power. I basically have 9.5 inches of insulation around the outside, so I should be doing good.

It turns out the crumbly exterior of perlcrete gives away to something very robust. Well, it did when I had added stucco fibers. So this ended up being a real pain to do. The section I carved out was very jagged so I ended up casting just a little extra perlcrete to get it all level again. I anticipate I'll have to finagle with it when I am putting in bricks for the floor.

It's about to get over a hundred every day here now, so I'm glad the more strenuous work is done and I'm just constrained more by the technical work of the bricks. I still want to take this cold frame kit I had from years ago and make a canopy. I am not sure what I would drape over it. Solar screens?

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I've been beating around the bush when it has come to cutting the bricks, but I finally have done it. I listened to a podcast on Stoicism, took a stuff upper lip, and went for it.



It turns out that if I soak the bricks overnight that they cut very well. My blade does not get hot at all. With the pace between marking and cutting the bricks, it looks like I could do this reasonably.

My main problems are with consistency. The saw likes to take a nibble out of each corner in the rear. My cutting methodology has put the inside face in the back so it's taking a nibble out of the corner. I am doing the floor right now so this isn't a foul. I guess I will have to reverse my process so that this nibble shows up on the outside face instead. Also, my cuts are not the most consistent and I am getting all kinds of sizes. It is clear to me that trying to actually cut the taper is too precise and I should just give in to plopping down refractory cement to make the angle. Question: If the angle I'm using right now for these flat cuts if 5.5 degrees, then is that roughly the angle I need to use when plopping down refractory cement?

Something that caught me off-guard was that the bricks are not quite 9x4.5. They're more like 8 and 29/32" long by 4 and 7/16" wide. I have not really checked the height. I have some older bricks (~2012) that are very distinctly 9x4.5. This has made it hard to get a good measure to find the center point for the cuts.

I also played with metal studs. It's rickety as-is but I could reinforce it. However, I then saw the pressure-treated pine 2x4's are actually cheaper than the studs so screw that!



Finally, I did test the grill and my big fryer burner. They work fantastically and make my wish the whole thing was done already. We're now consistently over a hundred degrees every day without even factoring the heat index.

I am focusing now on getting the foundation level with all the outer bricks and then committing to their placement with a clay/sand mix.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Well, apparently I was supposed to do a 5.2 degree cut. That would explain the base layer being a little wonky. It'll be out of sight, but I better nail that on the first visible course.

I could also use some tips on staging the bricks. I'm trying to get its exact placement correct.

[agrasyuk]

Hi Rocko. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm not very sure why are you stressing about angles at this point t. First two rows bricks can be just cut square. It is upper rows you will need to give more attention , cutting becomes very annoying, loud and dusty. I'd say save the energy for later , for now just split them with chisel.

As for staging , I've seen someone here laying out coarses on pieces of plywood marking every brick. Excessive if you ask me. I mean that I see very little return in end result for all that extra effort. YMMV

Good luck!

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Hi Rocko. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm not very sure why are you stressing about angles at this point t. First two rows bricks can be just cut square. It is upper rows you will need to give more attention , cutting becomes very annoying, loud and dusty. I'd say save the energy for later , for now just split them with chisel.

As for staging , I've seen someone here laying out coarses on pieces of plywood marking every brick. Excessive if you ask me. I mean that I see very little return in end result for all that extra effort. YMMV

Good luck!

I saw the good old Dome Spreadsheet Calculator v2 was angling all the way up. I decided to give it ago for the base because those bricks would be invisible. I do see in the Pompeii plans that they're just going square. I don't know what to think of it.

A lot of my analysis paralysis is trying to make things as precise and pretty as possible. My first oven was a walk in the park because we were just slapping clay/sand cob all over a bunch of sand on top of a bunch of cinder blocks resting on glass sand. It was the first pancake. In software they call my problem "version 2.0 syndrome." You try to put everything you've learned into the next one and it bogs it down so much it never gets done. This thing will get done at this point unless an anvil falls on my head, but the time span is suspect. Well, and it's also stupid hot outside now.

What makes it difficult for me to align everything is that I have curved my front. So lines I'd normally take off the corners just aren't there. I come in from the back and sides, but I get more error that way. I figured out I would lay out this plywood sheet I set up for the profile of the floor, line things up that way, and then start creating the base walls. I planned to cut the floor to fit, so I am inclined to do all of the perimeter first. I will make an exception for bricks towards one side; I won't mortar them in until the rest of the floor is done. This should keep me from trying to cram a brick into the middle of the floor and wrecking something.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I was thinking about that plywood situation. Tonight, I cut out the inside of my plywood frame and I was going to use that to lay the perimeter. I think that's a different kind of anal retention but I think it'll work for me. I should be able to get the entire floor set this weekend.

Something that's bugging me is how people do the chimney without all the bricks falling in on themselves. I don't get it.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I laid down the floor. I actually cut the bricks to fit. My motivations were:

1. Not having excess brick going out past the perimeter that would have to be heated up.
2. I might need to actually replace these bricks because I may not be kind to them. I'm particularly thinking about dutch ovens and such.
3. Getting some practice in on cutting these bricks and improving my technique and rig for the dome cuts.

I concluded that my cutting jig needs some changes to the top. I had cut the slit for the blade too wide, which made the left side bend independently of the right side. This led to some wonky cuts. I also could have used a little bit of overhang so I could actually clamp down the bricks. I was using my hands, and things would wiggle a little. There were some scary cuts in there IMO despite a huge exercise of care.

When I was cramming the last bricks in, I kept thinking, "I really need something like a hammer and a 2x4 to softly tap these in. You know, if you only I had a hammer like that." I honestly went two nights planning ahead for that before, you know, grabbing one of my rubber mallets.

I found that doing the more intricate cuts was much simpler starting with making a cardboard template. It's very quick to snip a bunch of cardboard and dabble with that before playing around on the saw.