Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Fifth course completed today. The dome just cut across the corners of the arch; not in a major way. From now on I think we will dispense with the dome form guide and just press ahead.
After completing the next course we will remove the temporary wooden arch formwork. The arch bricks have no mortar between them at all and Molly does not think the arch will hold up.
Defying gravity so far but the next courses will test.
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

forgot to upload the pics....maybe need a day off.

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Completed sixth and seventh courses today.
During laying the sixth, was hit by a major downpour which made things a bit tricky.
Thinking about going to quarter bricks for the next courses as the gaps under the centre of each brick is growing. Can't use thirds as the bricks have already been cut into halves!
Removed the arch support today. The arch, with no mortar, is still standing. Molly not convinced though and mutters about unnecessary 'risk taking'.
As others have mentioned, getting sick of cutting and then grinding. My advice; try to get proper good brick saw and life will be so much easier.

The flue opening is planned to be wide and narrow. Hoping to gain a 'venturi effect' as adopted on most traditional fireplace flues. Does anyone have thoughts about this?

[Aegis]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Nice work so far! Beautiful mortar joints and your transition seems very smooth.
As far as the flue goes the wider the bottom and funnel effect you can get the better you will be. I used 8" square flue, which I angle cut to piece together a funnel, and I made the brick transition area wider at the bottom and came up to the funnel. Then it was the 8" flue up from that point. I have never had smoke coming out of the front of the oven, it all goes up the flue. I am extremely happy with how this turned out. Thanks to the people who did this before me that I copied!

John

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Thanks John. Yes, this forum is such a resource.
I get the 'streamlining' and 'funnelling', and that the bottom (where the flue meets the top of the arched opening, should be as wide as possible; in our case it will be the full width of the opening.
But how deep should it be? I have seem some on the forum that seem to be 6" deep, some maybe even more.
Looking at the flue sizes in our pizza shops, some are full width of the opening and only 3" deep, and are said to work perfectly. The narrow opening seems to create the venturi effect to which I referred before.
The deeper you make the opening the deeper must be the entrance, to state the obvious. And this means less accessibility.
I'll have to make a decision in the next few days and I'm not confident.
Thanks again,
Andrew

[david s]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

It is the area of the flue that counts, so if you make it rectangular (ie. wide but not deep) you can still have the area, but still allow for a shallow entry for easier access when cooking
My oven has a 5" flue pipe, but the entry is only 5" deep with good funnelling to the pipe. Although the entry is quite shallow you will notice that there is no smoke staining on the front arch.

[Aegis]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

My flue and vent opening are 8 inches deep. Making the out side arch much wider than the inner arch allows more elbow room to work. Also the 16" deep area from the front of the vent area to the inner arch allows for a cooler cooking/warming area. I haven't found the depth a problem at all, in fact if it were a couple of inches deeper, I could imagine that not being a problem. Longer handles on peels and rakes etc. Here is a pic of my vent area, the front arch isn't mortared yet, but still stands in this pic by itself! The second pic you can see the how far the smoke/soot reaches out. It is well contained inside.

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Hi David and John,
Thanks for the advice. I thought therefore we might have a bottom flue opening which is full width (21.5 inches) and 4.5 inches deep tapering (somehow) up to the 8 inch s/s flue. So that is an opening of 98 sq inches tapering to the 50 sq inches circular flue.

And there will be a total distance of 13.5 inches from the outside of the entrance arch to the inside of the oven arch.

The oven will be located outside and we were thinking of a steel facade painted black which will not be affected by smoke.

Many times I have read the word 'teardrop' on the forum and never understood what it actually meant. Well yesterday the penny dropped as there it was for all to see....that dreaded teardrop...on our oven.

Our method of tapering the bricks using the dinky Aussie ito tile cutter is not what it could be. Our eighth course of 1/4 bricks looks trashy. We we will have to remove and replace quite a few bricks due to the unacceptable gaps between. No pics today....too ashamed.

Got some fixing up to do.
Andrew

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Andrew,

I think being fussy or detail-oriented is a good trait to have when building an oven with your hands. As your build evolves so do your skills and expectations. I think I replaced 3-4 bricks maybe four or five times over the course of building my dome because they didn't look right. Take your time and don't let speed hinder quality. You only have (get) to build it once and it's you who has (gets) to look into your oven every time you use it.

Great-looking start to your oven, BTW.
John

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Thanks John. I agree with your sentiment.
Molly used her dental skills today to fill the offending holes with mortar and it looks not so bad, even according to Molly who some have said can be fussy. But my pledge to have no mortar on the inside face is shot. Pragmatism wins the day.
So the eighth course is complete.
There will be another day (tomorrow) fixing the 'teardrop' and getting the dome back to something approaching circular. Rather than demolish what has been done, we will try to re-shape that section to bring bak up to the correct level. We could be reaching for the castable for the first time.
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Repairing the teardrop....this is a difficult and messy affair. Will let this much rest for a few days then attack with an angle grinder with diamond wheel to clean up. I think it will look OK at the end, but no one will be able to see it anyway unless they stick their head inside the oven.
Finally, to fill the gaps with castable.
Quite enjoyed this challenge.
'Worked' the little tile cutter by replacing the 7" blade with a 9" segmented blade. OH&S would take a dim view but it goes like the clappers.
Ordered the 8" s/s flue (s/s 'pizza base', flue, chinaman's cap) today from The Flue Factory here in Lilydale.
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Nearly completed the repair of the 'teardrop'. Purchased some 'Vesuvius' castable to fill some larger gaps. Finish the repair tomorrow and get back into ninth course.
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Decided to use the styrene 'mushroom' form and it worked beautifully.
This decision was made after about 10 placed bricks in the ninth course collapsed into the oven.
Using the styrene form, we placed and mortared the ninth course in about 30 minutes.
Steaming ahead now. Most of the time is taken cutting the quarter bricks with the required taper.
Decided we will fill the top 'keystone' with castable when we get there. Not looking at the finishing line though!
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Completed 10th & 11th courses and worked on the entrance and arch a bit. Mortared the side entrance walls and cut the top brick to take the arch bricks. Having sleepless nights thinking about how to do the flue gathering and with no resolution yet. Maybe it will become obvious when the flue assembly arrives.
Tapering of each quarter brick is quite severe now. Just one more course tomorrow and then the 'castable' keystone plug; the arch as well if there is time.
The styrene form is very good. The main drawback is that one has no idea what the inside face looks like. This will only be revealed at the end when the form is removed. If there are blemishes, then, as a creaky senior, crawling into the dome to carry out repairs or even for cleaning seems unlikely.
The el cheapo $19 segmented diamond wheel is still going strong. Definitely outperforming the $65 one by a country mile.
We seem to always mix too much mortar, sometimes way too much. We have been plastering the outside of the oven and have added now a truckload of extra thermal mass.
Andrew

[andyshak]

Re: Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

Can someone please let me know what is the usual outside finish to the sides of the entrance? The oven will have the blankets, perlite and render. For the entrance area, just a thin rendered finish? If so, what would be the best type of render, as it will get reasonably hot?
Andrew