36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Dave, if my build comes out anywhere near as well as yours it will only be due to the help of you and the accumulated experience on this site. I took it easy today and still have one side left to bond. In an earlier post you noted the height of the hearth. With insulation and brick the floor will be about 31 inches/78 cm and I hope is high enough so it can be used both by wheelchair users and able bodied.

Once the stand is finished, it seems like I should start a new thread in the Pompeii Oven forum. It seems like the more I learn, the more I recognize how limited my understanding is. It seems like my next step is to figure out what needs to worked out ahead and what can safely be worked out during the process. I also hope people will share some of their experience and help me streamline the process as much as possible. For example, how many bricks can be precut for a level? Anyways, gudday to you and thanks as always for you interest and encouragement. Bruce

[cobblerdave]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Gudday Bruce
YOUR build is an incouragement! Don't move it buddy ....keep it in one place .... It will be a resource for those who come later.

Regards dave

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Rain this am, so had another day in the kitchen.

[cobblerdave]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Gudday Bruce
I'm getting the idea why you wanted a wood fired oven!

Regards dave

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Gudday Dave,
The WFO has become a bit of an obsession since I found this site. I've been baking bread for the family for at least 20 and probably closer to 30 years. Since I retired about 2 years ago, I have really tried to up my game and get good reviews from my friends. I'm curious how you caught the WFO bug?
Bruce

[cobblerdave]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Gudday Bruce
It just seemed to fit. I love food, the whole preparation the presentation the eating its great to see people when they enjoy the whole experience. I'm not a big party person smaller groups these days. I was lucky to spend some of my youth in a small country town where the wood fuel stove was still very much in use. Even the local bakery had an old side draught welch wood fired oven. In do love the smell of wood smoke it means warmth,comfort and good food.
A friend had a stack of bricks in his yard that he was collecting for a oven which he never got around to building he offered them to me before I could answer my wife said yes, we'll what could you say the deed was done.
Those bricks sat around for mths till I found a small book a mag really which had all these ovens in them . No definite plans but all these ordinary folk making all these ovens from clay and brick in thier backyards. I was getting hooked.
I started collecting some materials for an oven found the forno site and plans. I swaped some of the brick for some block ( the mismatching ones are in my build) and built the oven sat by sat and as I could afford the time and material.
I couldn't afford the brick saw and and was not that skilled in brickwork to build the fanciest of ovens, but its solid and works better than I could have hoped.
That's probably why I have given back to this site I really appreciate the plans for a start but the knowledge and encouragement from the forum are what made it possible.
I know of a few ovens built off the site from different plans and materials, I don't think they work as well... But who am I to pass judgement... They all love there own oven and they should be proud they built them with there own hands.
Anyway that's about it
Regards Dave
Ps the friend with the bricks asked for a set of plans a will back... Can't get the bricks back though

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Finished suface bonding the stand. This is the first I have worked with masonry of any type. It took me a few times to get the surface bond mixed to the right consistency. I mixed it too dry the first and second time I used it and it was difficult to apply. Once I got the mix right it went on quickly and cured to a very hard surface. The liquid color starts out very dark (almost black) and becomes much lighter as the cement cures.

Now it's on to the oven.

[deejayoh]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

I don't think you really needed that on the stand. Mortar should bond well to the concrete blocks with no treatment

[Capt]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Looking great!

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Thanks for the comment. I think it may have been overkill as well, but I saw it as a structural alternative to either motar or filling the block with concrete. At any rate, the final wall is coated (inside surfaces as well) and once it sets the stand won't be budging.

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Thanks Capt. I took a look at your build - very impressive. I grew up in Detroit (my father was a police officer) and I received my undergraduate degree from MSU. I came to Tallahassee for Graduate School at FSU and set down roots. Hope things turn around. Last time I drove through the city, it looked liked a war zone with the deteriorating abandoned buildings. Hope Oakland is holding up.

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Thanks Capt, my first like.

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Deejayoh,

The pompelli plans suggest a stand that has rebar reinforced concrete cores covered by a solid poured slab that is also reinforced with rebar. I was expecting comments in the other direction (i.e., that my stand was in effect too insubstantial). Too late to change but curious how you what you would have suggested.

[Bec1208]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Went out to buy firebrick today and stopped at a small storefront brick shop I had noticed in passing a few days ago. Asked about firebrick and was quoted a price of $1.15 per brick for the Whitacre-Greer light duty bricks the other brick place sells for $2.00. However they had to order them and I paid for 100 bricks that should arrive in about three days. So I have a few days to make some decisions regarding the build. Can I get some guidance on what should be must be decided on now vs decisions that can be finalized during the process.

Bases on reviewing threads on this site, these are some of those choices that come to mind:

Oven Size: 36 inches
Floor insulation: 4 inches cf board
Soldiers or sailors: Am I right that the current consensus is neither?
High or low dome: High Dome - I bake bread as well
Inner entry size: 18" x 12"
Rectangular or arched inner entry: I am leaning toward rectangular. It just seems to make the dome itself easier to build and for the insulated door to be fabricated.
Smoke chamber, vent, and chimney: can I simply allow say 12" for this area and 12" for a self in front and decide later?
Enclosed or igloo? I think I want to start as an igloo and possibly enclose later.
Home brew or commercial mortar: I could not source lime locally so bought 3 bags of HW 413 dry mortar mix.
Outer insulation: I have 4 boxes of hp 6 1" inch cf blanket. I purchased this in Jacksonville and that only had this weight in stock so I bought the extra box.

Okay, please give feedback, suggestions, and tell me what I missed.

Thanks, Bruce

[cobblerdave]

Re: 36" build in Tallahassee - AKA Bruce's Folly

Gudday Bruce
You well on the way to collecting all the bits you need. Good score on the firebrick... There three times as expensive here and with transport costs..wow
Shame about the lime I could find lime at 5 different places within 20 mins. But high temp cement only in 2 places and expensive as well.
If you are determined to have a rectangular entrance so be it. I have one and the metal expands and I have hairline cracks in the mortar not the brick. The oven cools and they disappear.
Notice that you have had no comment on the stand. I would have core filled it myself. And it's easy to do mix up sloppy concrete in a bucket and pore it in. Doesn't even take much concrete either. If you can't do this at this stage I suppose time will tell. But there is a few positives. The forno stand is massively overbuilt to start with. You have only 3 block height and the structure is quite squat. You have a stable base and will be putting 160 odd bricks on top to pin it down.
I think you can leave the entrance at this stage especially as you have the set back to build it later. There are ovens with no chimneys I have a friend with one you do have to put up with a face full of smoke on occasions though.
Regards dave