Rocko's Build Log

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I am planning to work on the front of the pizza oven, but I wanted to experiment with doing some of the angled cuts with my jig. I got some very inconsistent results. I have different angles from an otherwise static jig. Could it be wobbly? I wedged some stuff under it to make sure it wouldn't move around, so I don't know what is up.


IMO these bricks have too sharp of an angle.


These came out better.

Here's the jig:

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I also had some kind of brain fart and couldn't figure out how to make the angled and beveled cuts work for both segments. It was fine at zero degrees, but I went stupid. I'm going through the motions in my head right now and it seems like business-as-usual. Who knows. I was doing a lot of templating and such last night so my head was all over the place.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I decided to do something crazy and stupid and build the landing first. I saw a lot of people complaining about that being the hardest part of everything, so I figured that having it physically be there from the beginning will set all the rules on how everything else has to work with it. It was also good practice since most of it won't even be that visible, so I got to screw up there.

I had built these plywood forms for the interior. I had two for the landing--I only needed one. I wedged the other set that I will use for the front on either side of the arch to make sure it was oriented well. I had cut the forms across the bottom and screwed them together with some extra plywood. This give me something I could knock free on the bottom of the form where things where more anchored. Then it could come free.

Note that I only did this when I was down to the last bricks so I could clean some of the refractory cement as I went.

I'm both impressed and horrified. I'm going to try to get the front done ASAP so that arch is more stable. I'm still not so sure how I'm going to do the chimney.

[JRPizza]

Rocko, a couple of suggestions. When you build your outer arches you might want to insert small tapered shims under your forms. I followed that recommendation and it makes it pretty easy to pull the shims and lower the forms for removal from the completed arches with much reduced risk of breaking something. Also,you said you wanted to do doing something different, but I think having the front of the oven built first may tend to get in your way when you are working on your dome. You might be better off completing the dome and tying into your inner arch before you add any bricks that could end up impeding your access.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I was assuming shims were going to be a little scary with my freestanding arch so I did that crazy thing with the plywood. But yeah, shims would be a lot easier hehe.

I was assuming that it was generally just a pain to clean out bricks in the dome, so I was going to do the front first. If it's not, then I'm fine procrastinating on that and doing the dome instead. I'm still not really feeling that good about doing the chimney and my door.

Something I really should be doing is going in afterwards with a wet rag and wiping the bricks so the mortarwork looks clean. I'll make sure to do that with the dome. I see I already will have to do some chiseling on that arch.

[JRPizza]

I didn't really clean up the inside of my dome, but before the mortar set I just knocked down the "squeeze out" with a trowel. I picked up a cheap set of mason's tools at Harbor Freight and mostly used two of them - the one on the far left and far right if you click on the link. While the mortar was still wet, I would scrape off all the excess, then use the point of one of the tools to force the mortar tight into the joints, giving the appearance I knew what I was doing (which I didn't). That is way better than having to chisel or grind the extruded mortar off, and if you do it right you might be able to get away without wiping. Some of the experienced folks say wiping just smears the mortar into your bricks and makes them hazy.

https://www.harborfreight.com/5-piec...set-35402.html

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I see what you mean. I had already started wiping them on the assumption that I would basically spray the whole thing inside down with a 1:10 muriatic acid:water mix and do one more wipe. That is of course going to be super duper duper fun. I also got a grout bag to fill in some areas. It looks like some of my inner arch bowed a little bit and the bricks leaned back enough that some of their mortar joints weren't really doing anything. I managed to chisel some of it out; it was completely loose.

The dome is nearly closed. I would post pictures but I don't have a cable here with me. I wager I have something like four more courses to do. I did my last course by alternating half bricks with third bricks. I might do one more course that way, go to thirds, and then do whatever I have to do for the last courses to keep it round.

I had a problem when I finally ran my first 100% round course. Between slight variations from end-to-end and what I did to connect the arch to the dome, the courses are getting very wonky. My angle is more correct towards the front while my angle is flatter towards the back. I am trying to close in the back as I lay the last courses. Unfortunately, my IT broke look from my plywood from all the fidgeting and the water. I got slightly larger screws, but I suspect I'll have to start with fresh holes.

BTW it's really nice to have an adjustable one for all this fidgeting because my radius is ever-so-different and I can toggle the tool to at least start to get the angles correct.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I'm doing a second response to separately complain about something. I have been cutting bricks fairly late at night--like up to midnight and such. One of my neighbors has started calling the cops on me. I am in county jurisdication but the city is technically across the highway. They're somewhere over there. My literal adjacent closer neighbors don't hear anything. Whoever was complaining called twice when I was cutting at two different places on my property. Based on that, the closest corner of the closest houses that could have complained are around 250 feet away, with my house in the way, with a highway and a stone wall between us. There is a generic HOA subdivision over there and I have roughly 9 houses to choose from.

The sheriff didn't really know what the hell to do to be honest. There's some ambiguity about noise after 10PM in the county. The city is 11PM. But it was so damn far away that a car could park on the highway and probably be louder from where this person is. I think also think he was leery to do anything because I have let him use our informal driveway to check on shenanigans. There have been pretty regular accidents from people pulling in and out of there each weekend this summer (ugh). The neighbor apparently requested I stop at 10, but I can't really finish cutting a course until around 11PM and I will now have to cut at least a key stone some time after that to finish my course.

Granted, it's going to be less of an issue shortly since I'm using far fewer bricks now that I'm so close to the top. However, I might end up cutting the same brick five or seven times now where I used to only do three cuts on it.

I get home from work around 7PM and don't really get moving until 8PM. It's over a hundred here any early anyways, and the mosquitoes are pretty crazy until 9PM. I asked the sheriff if he could turn down the thermostat outside hehehe.

[Toomulla]

I'm doing a second response to separately complain about something. I have been cutting bricks fairly late at night--like up to midnight and such. One of my neighbors has started calling the cops on me. I am in county jurisdication but the city is technically across the highway. They're somewhere over there. My literal adjacent closer neighbors don't hear anything. Whoever was complaining called twice when I was cutting at two different places on my property. Based on that, the closest corner of the closest houses that could have complained are around 250 feet away, with my house in the way, with a highway and a stone wall between us. There is a generic HOA subdivision over there and I have roughly 9 houses to choose from.

The sheriff didn't really know what the hell to do to be honest. There's some ambiguity about noise after 10PM in the county. The city is 11PM. But it was so damn far away that a car could park on the highway and probably be louder from where this person is. I think also think he was leery to do anything because I have let him use our informal driveway to check on shenanigans. There have been pretty regular accidents from people pulling in and out of there each weekend this summer (ugh). The neighbor apparently requested I stop at 10, but I can't really finish cutting a course until around 11PM and I will now have to cut at least a key stone some time after that to finish my course.

Granted, it's going to be less of an issue shortly since I'm using far fewer bricks now that I'm so close to the top. However, I might end up cutting the same brick five or seven times now where I used to only do three cuts on it.

I get home from work around 7PM and don't really get moving until 8PM. It's over a hundred here any early anyways, and the mosquitoes are pretty crazy until 9PM. I asked the sheriff if he could turn down the thermostat outside hehehe.

i think you need to show more respect and consideration for you neighbours

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Let's say we're on a soccer field and I'm cutting bricks in one of the goal boxes. The closest corner of your house touches the penalty box on the opposite side of the field. Now put in a bunch of trees. Also, put most of my house in our way. Also, add a stone wall and a highway. This all even assumes the closest house that is complaining. There are three closer neighbors that didn't hear anything at all, and only noticed when they drove by while I was cutting out front that I was doing anything at all.

That other neighborhood beyond the wall is pretty closed off. Actually, some of it is gated IIRC. It's pretty damn hard for me to even reach out to them.

[deejayoh]

Tell them "No pizza for you!"

[david s]

If you are having issues with your neighbours re noise during your construction and you ignore their complaints, expect plenty more once you start creating smoke. You may end up with an oven that you won't be able to use.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

These people are going to complain about everything, I am sure, regardless of what I do. That subdivision is new, generic, expensive, and tied into an HOA. I tried to walk my dogs around in there once--where I wasn't even gated out--and got lost in a circle since everything was so identical. You basically get a choice of what off-white colors you want to use on the houses.

For what it is worth, I rushed to finish my cutting on the dome by 10PM last night and got the key stones in on top. The blocks were really ugly because I couldn't really fret over them without worry about the cops showing up. But it's in and you'll only notice if you crawl into the thing.

Regarding smoke, I think even the sheriff is going to shrug smoke complaints given we're in Central Texas and all he really lit up about when I described the oven to him the first time was being able to smoke meat in it.

It's also worth reiterating I got a permit for all this work with the wood-fired oven spelled out and everything. They can try to get into a Faustian debate of "well we knew you were building it but we didn't expect that you would USE it" but I don't think that's going to hold up.

As it stands, it's going to be something I'm talking to the neighborhood about in 9 days or so. The folks up the street are trying to stop a development that will double the number of houses being fed by our narrow street. Apparently school buses get run off the road. I live at the front so I don't see any of this. So I'll be there with one of the county commissioners telling everybody in that area what they can expect if that new subdivision goes through. Those houses are going to be a lot closer to those people than who is complaining to me. I know my immediately neighbors were fine with the cutting and only knew I was doing it from seeing me out front before with the saw. I no nobody down the road from them are complaining, but I'll get to see if it was wearing them down (very unlikely TBH).

[david s]

If there are smoke complaints it won't be the sheriff you'll be dealing with, it will be the fire dept. You would do well to pre-empt any complaints by going to them first yourself to see what local regulations there are re outdoor wood fired ovens.

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Again, I have a permit for this. The whole outdoor kitchen plan was reviewed for issues with sewage (septic), water drainage, and safety. This included fire and risks of fire from what I recall. I had to replace my septic tank to get the permit approved. I've been through the motions.

What am I supposed to do, personally interview every neighbor in a quarter-mile radius and consult the fire marshall of every department that might report for a call here?