Lilydale 42" build, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia

[brickie in oz]

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

but will it work

No.
You have blocked off the flue with that brick laid flat on both sides, you may as well have just bricked it up completely.
The smoke will find the easiest way out, the front entry.

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

Always happy to put off the cleaning and tidying. Finished the entrance and flue gathering and, despite much trepidation, seemed to work out nicely; but will it work so? Will attach the s/s flue system tomorrow...and maybe clean up a bit too. Pondering whether to light up before installing the blanket insulation and rendering....... or after? Andrew

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

Stripped the forms very early this Sunday morning. Might leave the inside of the dome exactly as is and spend the day cleaning up a bit.
Still mulling over how to finish the outside of the entry and flue gathering; if to render (will it withstand the heat?) or insulate with blanket first then render. Love to hear any ideas.
A

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

Started doing the twelfth course but gave up as the 'tapers' were becoming too radical and the time taken to cut them was increasing exponentially. Decided to convert this course into the 'key-plug'. We poured it using castable and it took 10 minutes to complete the dome.
The flue gathering is a bit of a challenge. Whilst some progress was made, the feeling of being lost and out of our depth pervaded.
We will strip the formwork tomorrow to both the dome and front archway and then we will finally be able to see the inside of the dome.
Andrew

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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

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

[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.

[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.

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