To taper or not to taper?

[cholme]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Faith... very impressive indeed! What did you cut them with? I have a lot of wood tools, table saws, chopsaws etc. but I was leaning toward renting a wet saw. Is that the right move? or should I just get a dry cut blade for a chopsaw or something?

I appreciate all the input on this topic. I am leaning toward tapering, but still on the fence a bit. I want to do it right, but I also worry about it taking too long.

[AtTheLake]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

I think a wet saw is the way to go. The dust generated with a dry blade is hard on you and your equipment. I have a diamond blade for my power saw that I use for cutting limestone slabs and the bearings in the saw are shot. I try to spray on water as I go but that only works so well. At a minimum you would need to wear a respirator or dust mask. I also think the dry blades won't last as long. I went through 2 blades on my wet saw building a 42" Pompeii. The blades I used were Felker TurboRim masonry blades. They are a little aggressive but seemed to last longer than the thin rimmed tile blade I started with.
I would look for a 10" wet saw. I bought an MK paver saw off of Craigslist for $350 and it worked well. Also, a lot of people on here have had good luck with the Harbor Freight wet saws.
Either way I would definitely recommend tapering the bricks, I think the smaller gaps look better and there will be less mortar to fall out during use.

Mark

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Wow, Faith! I had never seen the interior of your oven. It is a work of craftsmanship and patience. Very impressive!

John

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Thanks for all the nice comments. I just used a 10 inch wet saw. I used the angle guide and a small piece of brick to make those cuts. My small pieces of brick looked like a stick of gum but I had various thickness pieces. So I set my angle and placed my brick piece on the deck in front of the angle guide and set my brick to be cut on top of my lift brick piece. So between the two I got angle and pitch in one cut.

[cholme]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Faith, Not to keep bothering you for details, but can't a 10" saw only cut through about 3"? How did you cut a taper on long side (the 4.5" side)? Don't you have to taper the large flat side in addition to the sides?

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

No bother Cholme ask away. True but I did not taper the 4.5 in side. I allowed mortar to fill in the gaps on the outside of the oven. I don't remember where but I did need to cut from both sides at times. Perhaps that was in my floor because my bricks are standing on edge and cut to fit inside the dome.

[cholme]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Ok... so here is what I am trying to figure out... other then the "workmanship" aspect of tapering the dome; is there a great advantage to tapering? Or conversely, is there a big DIS-advantage to NOT tapering. Would I be better served tapering only the sides and not worrying about the large side? I want to get a working oven, and don't want to spend all summer doing it. I want an oven that will last so if not tapering will be detrimental, in the long run, to the functionality or longevity, I don't want to cut corners.

I am NOT retired, but I am at a lull with work right now so I have a bit of time to devote... but again I can't spend weeks and weeks on the dome.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

cholme,

There is no structural disadvantage to not tapering, just large outwside gaps and the cost of filling them in. In fact most ovens do not employ tapered bricks. However, a great many ovens have beveled bricks which minimize the vertical joints and eliminate the large inverted V joint, which is an advantage.

The biggest benefit to not tapering is the savings in time (and diamond blades), which is right up your alley.

[cholme]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

AWESOME!!! That is exactly what I was looking for. I think I will go with plan "C" (or d or something) which is to bevel the sides and leave them flat. This seems like a good compromise.

If I had the time, I would love to fit each brick, but I don't have the patience for that... and neither does my wife .

I am going to start a thread with my oven so I will post some pics as I make progress. I welcome any input and critique.

Chris
Sherman Oaks, CA

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Just budget the time to avoid having vertical joints line up by staggering them.

[eprante]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

I cant speak for Faith, but most of us that tapered bricks only did the cuts on the short side of the brick. I used a similar method to Faith, as taught to me by Greg Geisen,( Greg's Pompeii 42"-San Diego) so you get angle and pitch with one cut. I ended up using the door shim method, you can add more shims as the angles change further up in the dome.
IMHO I think tapering the bricks is worth it. See tile 36 in the link below.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/8/gr...go-6169-2.html

Eric

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

Yes, that is the same thing I did Eric. I did not mind if the exterior had mortar joints so I also only cut the sides. Personally I would have chewed up a lot more bricks if I tapered the tops and bottoms as well.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

The guy whose tapers I like are SCChris'. There are no extra cuts and are therefore economical. The outside of the brick is left untouched and remains consistent per course.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/s...uild-7035.html

[Neil2]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

"There is no structural disadvantage to not tapering, just large outwside gaps and the cost of filling them in. "

Exactly. Taper them a bit but there is no need to go overboard with an exact fit. Try to keep the inside joints small. If you have larger outside joints, fill them with mortar and bits of brick left over from the cutting process

[RTflorida]

Re: To taper or not to taper?

I tapered and beveled the 2 sides, virtually eliminating mortar between sides and eliminated that inverted v . It took me a full weekend about 3-4 hrs a day during the week to get my dome up. I'd guess about 35 hrs, plus another full day on the inner and outer arches.

RT