Starting my barrel vault

[jim81147]

Well the time has arrived . I have been doing slab work and cinder block support structure , perlcrete hearth , stuff like that and asking lots of questions and reading all the build threads I can . Yesterday I laid down the hearth bricks and put up 4 courses to form the box of the oven . Today I am starting the dome . I have dry stacked it ( first row ) to make sure the form is correct and things do what they are supposed to . I think I am going to just leave it dry stacked and push the mortar down in the joints with a trowel . My adventure has begun !!! thanks everybody for all the input and answers so far , I am sure there will be plenty more.

[Ken524]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Post some pics!

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Well I got 3 rows of the dome done today . I have to start on the transition now although I am not 100 % sure yet what to do . time to read some more . One thing that came to mind that I never thought of while looking at the different builds was the dome mortar . After actually doing it I am wondering if the mortar acts more like a glue , or more like a spacer , holding the bricks apart so that they can not fall in on themslves. I did take some pics as i went . I will try to figure out how to post them .

[brickie in oz]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

The mud holds the bricks apart.

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Al , I see on your build that you put the flue right in the tpo of the dome . I have not seen this approach on any other oven . Do you like the way it works? would you do it again? It appears that it might take a bit more fire to get up to temps , yes?

[brickie in oz]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Al , I see on your build that you put the flue right in the tpo of the dome . I have not seen this approach on any other oven . Do you like the way it works? would you do it again? It appears that it might take a bit more fire to get up to temps , yes?

I love the way it works and it draws beautifully with no smoke out the front unless I put the damper in too far.

Pizza temps in 2 hours, roast temp in 1 hour.

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

here is my try at posting pics , hope it works . If it is wrong , mods please feel free to remove them . As you can see its just a standard build , nothing earth shattering .

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

here are a couple more . First one is the dry run to see if things lined up close and the second is putting it to bed for the evening . I covered it with the plastic , then a tarp and turned the light on for more heat . Kept it nice and toasty all night long .Some of the pics I took wont load but you get the idea . comments and critisizms welcome

[mrchipster]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

here are a couple more . First one is the dry run to see if things lined up close and the second is putting it to bed for the evening . I covered it with the plastic , then a tarp and turned the light on for more heat . Kept it nice and toasty all night long .Some of the pics I took wont load but you get the idea . comments and critisizms welcome

Nice work keep going, you might want to toss a piece of plywood or cardboard on the floor to make it easier to keep things clean. But you are doing a great job or that nice clean install and nice tight joints.

The photos might not load because they are to large try lowering the quality/resolution of the photos that you use for uploading.

Chip

[Tscarborough]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

You should use running bond on the brick of the cieling, i.e. start every other row with a half, but other than that, it looks like a nice oven with a lot of mass.

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Is there any reason not to build your chimney just out of brick? I am having trouble locating a usable masonry flue liner and can not figure out how to adapt a steel double wall flue pipe to the top of the brick so I thought I might just build the brick chimney and call it good . Any reason I shouldnt go this route? Thanks.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Is there any reason not to build your chimney just out of brick?

You have to consider the weight of it all and how you distribute the weight to the base evenly.
Once you have that sorted you are good to go.....

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Can perlcrete be used as a suitable thermal break or will it crush and stay that way after the first full firing? Thanks.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

Where are you thinking of using the thermal break?

[jim81147]

Re: Starting my barrel vault

You can see the space where it would go in these pics . The middle pic is probably the clearest shot of where the gap is .