UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

[cynon767]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

I guess my concern would be with what's holding up the bricks that hold up the keystone. With a continuous arch, the downward thrust of gravity is taken up by transferring the stress horizontally outward to the next brick; but with the completely flat section in the middle, I would worry about the center falling out with only mortar holding things in place.

That's why the I envisioned the cut-off sides of the dome- that way you get a little more floorspace and a little more height without risking the top of the dome collapsing or having problems with the barrel-vault side stability.

[hulkiebear]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

Thanks for the link, interesting stuff, it makes me think, the area in the centre of the dome(that was cut off) forms a ring that supports the outer dome, with out actully existing! Example, St Pauls cathedral in London, if you have ever stood inside under the dome, it seems that there is not alot holding up such a large structure. So, with the lower part of the dome and archs that push in, will hopefully clamp the key stone bricks.

a quick diagram to show what I mean by shaping the key stone bricks at the top.

[cynon767]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

sorry... accidentally deleted my earlier post...

what I had looked at before here (scroll down to see picture #2) was different. I'm not sure which way would be easier to build or more effective. Just thought I'd throw that out there as another solution to the same problem.

[hulkiebear]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

Thanks cynon, I was well please with how they turned out! They are reclaimed clay bricks, which I don't think are that strong!(hence the concrete lintels behind them).

I made a form for the front arch, then after finishing the front arch, I simply trimmed the sides of to fit into the smaller side enterance! quicker and easier!
My only worry is that they do not stick out enough(20mm from blocks), I still need to render the blocks, so will try to keep the render quite thin!

Yes, good point on the flat arch point! I still need to ensure that I can solve this problem before I am confident this design will work, at the moment I am thinking of shaping the bricks to have teeth that fit together in all four directions!

It is true to say that I am kinda making it up as I go along!

[cynon767]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

It looks pretty cool... the one thing I would worry about is the stability of the arch in that center section where it goes more or less horizontal.

[hulkiebear]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

When I orignally decided on building a Pizza Oven, I had my mind set on a Barrel oven, ue to the easy of building and the apperance it would give, I never liked the look of the dome shape. As I researched pizza ovens, it became clear that the dome shape was much more suited to my needs. But I was still worried about the quality of the finish of the inside(firebricks) of the oven, I know that very few people will look, but I would always know!

So, after seeing the tool that pivots in the centre to hold the bricks while they set, I decided that I could achieve a spot on dome oven that would look great! Then after another thread in the Newbies forum, Rasty's mentioned the idea of a rounded cornered square oven, the idea set itself in my mind, and now I have set myself on a design that comes from that!

To cut the long story short, I took the design of an 26" round dome, split it into it's quarters, expanded it out, and inserted 8" inbetween the quarters, thus giving a 34" rounded corner dome! If that is a little confussing, hopefully a few diagrams will help, or photos as it's built might!

Here are a couple of diagrams and photos of dry runs on setting the oven out! also, A nice stack of new Fire bricks! And my Slammed VW T5 with the pallet that just fitted, with minus 4 mill to spare!(some excellent forklift driving by the lads at the depot!)

[cynon767]

Re: UK 34" rounded square Oven Progress.

I really like those brick arches worked into the stand like that.

[hulkiebear]

As this project is starting to consume my life at the moment, and is the main thing on my mind, I thought I would blog it here, as you guys, unlike my Wife/Family/Freinds are actually bothered about what I am doing, rather than making comments like, "uh huh, thats nice dear!"

I have got pretty much all my ideas from this forum, so hope I can give a little back to future builders.

So, My base is built 150cm x 150cm, IT has turned out to be a bit higher than I wanted, but thats better than too low, as I can build some decking infront to even it out.

I used 6" concrete blocks in a kinda cross between a H and an A, the reason for this is, I did not want huge re bars and a massively thick concrete slab on the top, it is just 5" thick, with reinforcing mesh inside. I did use 2, 4"x3" lintels across the front(hidden behind the brick arch) also some lintles in the back section, this gives me two large storage areas underneath, the centre wall acting as support.