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Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

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  • #16
    Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

    Hello woodhead (sorry; you did not leave a name)

    I found the fire bricks at Jinkins Brick Factory, they are at Phillips highway, at the corner of JTB. they also have the fireclay by the bag. The firebricks are $1.15 each. I found the Vermiculite at Halls Ace Hardware, they are at San Jose Blvd, at the corner of Loretto, they have the 4CU ft bags for $16.00.
    Everything else that I needed I found at Lowes. You will not find the high heat mortar You will have to follow the formula provided within this forum, Lowes has all the ingredients. Send me an email provided in my profile, and we will arrange to meet.

    Looking forward to hear from you

    Eddie

    my pics:
    My Brick Pizza Oven

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

      Today: Saturday 07/19/2008: I built the hearth support and assembled the frame, but I still need minor adjustments for the frame to fit right. I could not continue working, the rain came in.
      I will try tomorrow.

      Eddie

      my pics:
      My Brick Pizza Oven

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

        Dave, like your layout for the placement of the oven. Am I mistaken that some people opt not to put in that "inner entry" brick and actually create the vent hole between the "brick" at the oven entry and the "outer entry" brick thus reducing the requirement in front by 4.5 inches and then take up that extra space up fron with a brick cladding?

        Thanks, Tony
        Check out my build at:
        http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/t...uild-4678.html

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

          Today Saturday 08/02/2008, I completed the hearth. I followed the instructions provided by fornobravo, but I needed more vermiculite and more Portland cement.
          I also added an additional internal frame to maintain external space to build surrounding bricks after the dome is built in the near future.

          Eddie

          my pics:
          My Brick Pizza Oven

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

            Originally posted by asudavew View Post
            63 is your width side to side.. so the center of your slab should be the center of your dome.
            31.5 inches from either side.

            Now measure from the center of the back to 31.5 inches.

            that will keep the same distance around the sides and the back.

            18" + 4.5" + 1/2" + 1" + 4" = 28"
            floor / brick / cladding / blanket / vermcrete Total 3.5 inches left

            (... Enough room that you could build an enclosure....)

            70" - 31.5" = 38.50" left over for the front.

            18" + 4.5" + 4.5 " + 4.5" + 4.5" = 36"
            floor / brick / inner entry / vent hole / outer entry

            Looks like you will have 2.5 inches to spare up front....

            I hope this makes sense.

            Dave
            Hi Dave,

            Do you know the formula(mixture) for cladding?

            Thanks

            Eddie

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

              Vent hole 4.5"? That's a half brick width by I'm guessing about about 12" wide. That would be a 54 sq. inch vent opening. However, I've been reading in the posts that the vent pipe should reduce to about 50% of the opening to let the smoke-draw dynamics work right. If you install a 8" vent pipe (50 sq in) then the opening should ideally give you about 100 sq. inches. Is there any problem in making the vent landing (in front of the oven opening) a full brick deep for the vent hole? maybe even 1 and 1/2 bricks so that 4.5" vent hole dimension would be 9" or more? What do you think?
              Thanks, Dino.
              "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." -Auntie Mame

              View My Picasa Web Album UPDATED oct
              http://picasaweb.google.com/Dino747?feat=directlink


              My Oven Costs Spreadsheet
              http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...BF19875Rnp84Uw


              My Oven Thread
              http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/d...arts-5883.html

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                The oven is now complete, I still need to do some landscaping and cosmetics to the outside of the oven, but this can wait.
                Now it is time for my own first brick oven pizza.
                Thank you is in order to all participants in this forum. You have been a great help.
                Here is the last page. a presto

                My Brick Pizza Oven

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                  Geeze,
                  That went up quick. Nice build! How's she work?
                  GJBingham
                  -----------------------------------
                  Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

                  -

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                    Thanks,

                    Actually it took me longer than I planned, I started in June last year, and was supposed to eat my first pizza by end October last year, just working every other weekend, but due to hurricanes,and other weather factors, I could not finish until a couple of weeks ago.

                    How she works?, I am going to try tomorrow, I will post some pictures. I have an issue with the firewood, a lot of moisture and hard to fire up.

                    The truth is, I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun building this oven. I will do it again in a heartbeat, but I am sure I will do a better job. My advice to everyone who wants to build such an oven is to have a very good wet saw.
                    cheers

                    Eddie

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                      I tried cooking a pizza today, the fire was lighted according to James Video, that worked really well. But it took 1 hour (one) to cook the pizza. I need to buy me an infrared thermometer, I do not know why. I thought the fire was real good, and it stayed on even after I moved it to the side, and kept adding wood. I suspect the tempreture was not high enough, I even suspect that the floor was not hot enough because the bottom of the pizza was still white, while the cheese an peperoni was cooked.

                      Any thoughts? anyone/

                      Thanks

                      Eddie

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                        Eddie,
                        Did you cure the oven already?? I looked back but did not see any discussion about you curing it, which is completely necessary to dry out the dome and mortar joints in a methodical fashion, and which hopefully will extend the life of your oven.

                        Your one-hour pizza bake makes me think that your oven is still saturated with water.

                        George
                        GJBingham
                        -----------------------------------
                        Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

                        -

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                          This is a good looking build:



                          I like how the chimney arises from the keystone of the arch in a contrasting brick.

                          I think your heating problem is retained water: That solid cast slab on top of your insulation layer may be sealing in your moisture. Vermiculite concrete holds a LOT of water - that's vermiculite's use in horticulture. Short of installing a brick vent:



                          You're going to need to build a lot of fires in succession to dry out that big cube of concrete.
                          My geodesic oven project: part 1, part 2

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                            Thank you for your response.
                            Yes I cured the oven (but maybe not enough), although I did not post it, however, I think you are both absolutely right, because we had a lot of cold weather and rain here, I think the oven still retaining a lot of moisture or water, so I will try few more fires.
                            I am also glad you like the build and the chimney, because your opinion counts, since I've never touched a brick in my life before, and until this oven had no clue in architecture.

                            Cheers,

                            Eddie

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                              in lieu of a brick vent, you might try drilling a few slanting holes (so water does not go into the oven) in near the base of the roof slab and see if you find any steam escaping. if Drilled in the mortar between bricks you can likely seal them later and not see much evidence.

                              I was surprised by the number of firings I had before visible steam stopped escaping. I thought my oven was as good as it was going to be, but it kept heating faster, retaining heat longer, and making better pizzas as time went on.

                              Christo
                              My oven progress -
                              http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/c...cina-1227.html
                              sigpic

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

                                Good point Christo,
                                I cured mine without the blanket. I could see the progress of the cures by the very noticeable difference in the bricks and mortar as they drove out the moisture. The first 3 or 4 fires dried out the top third of the dome. It almost seemed that each subsequent fire cured one more course of brick and mortar. Even after I finished the prescribed curing regimine, the exterior of the bottom third of the oven still showed signs of moisture.

                                As long as you cured the oven Eddie, I'd just keep firing the thing up, or keep a long slow burn going in it for several days. I think you're going to see drastic improvement in its performance soon.

                                Let us know how it goes.
                                George
                                GJBingham
                                -----------------------------------
                                Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

                                -

                                Comment

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