Oven arch depth

[daniel679]

Hello,
I'm almost done building the dome, and there's now the issue of the oven arch. I've completed the dome arch, it's 45cm (17") wide and 30cm (12") high. The dome itself is 36" diameter. How deep should the oven arch be? It would be easiest for me to make it one brick length deep which is 23.5cm (9.2"), but with a bit of effort I can make it 30cm (12"). What is the preferred depth?

Thanks

[JRPizza]

I built mine at 1.5 bricks making it about 13.5" which I believe is close to standard for brick arches. If you want to go shorter you can but you need to plan out the next steps well. Most vents have an inner and outer arch plus opening for the chimney transition. You can shorten the distance needed by pulling the rear vent arch back partially over the dome arch like I did, or forego a rear arch and use the oven arch to build on similar to what UtahBeehiver did. You just need to visualize how you want to build it and make a plan. Pay attention to how big of a opening you have to feed the chimney and how you are going to build the transition to your chimney, especially if you have an adapter plate you need to attach.
If you find you need to make the vent even shorter than what you can envision using bricks check out some of DavidS posts - he has made and advised on several cast vents that take up relatively little room.

[Neil.B]

Mine is 6".
I have no idea how well it will work when completely finished. I don't have the flue on yet but so far I'm happy with small fires.