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Hello from Lilydale which lies in the Yarra Valley on the outskirts east of Melbourne, Australia.
This forum is a wonderful resource and thanks to the Forno Bravo team.
Our build is about to commence. There has been a wait for ?straight? fire bricks and this has allowed some sensible planning rather than what would have been a ?bull at a gate? approach.
This 42? (110cm) oven will have the following specs:
1. Concrete blockwork base; Dry stacked hollow blocks , concrete filled/reinforced at least at the corners (pic). Base brickwork ?bagged? with sand, cement lime at 6:1:1
2. 90mm concrete suspended slab with F62 mesh, 25mm bottom cover. Some addition reo in critical areas (pic). Thankfully my neighbour Pierre offered small Kubota 4WD tractor with front bucket to move concrete from Mini-mix to the oven site. Don?t know what we would have done otherwise. The concrete quantity was 0.5 cubic metre.
3. 40mm thickness perlite cement (5:1). Exfoliators in Melbourne supply a wonderful product called ?Premium Lite Fill (fine)? which is perlite that has been treated to make it waterproof. This is easy to work with, has good compressive strength and is not at all ?crumbly?.
We mixed 100 litre bag of LiteFill perlite with 20kg bag GP Portland cement and it made 75litre finished volume (ie 25% compaction).
One reason for using this thin perlite layer was to prevent any water damage to the Calcium Silicate sheet directly above.
4. 50mm Calcium Silicate sheet beneath the hearth.
5. 75mm thick hearth using herringbone pattern and the standard 230x115x75 firebrick.
6. Hearth protected during construction using 19mm particle board (yellow tongue; waterproof)
7. Dome made from ?dry stacked? tapered fire brick (230x115x75/63mm). These are the same cost as ?straight? bricks. Bricks supplied by Melbourne Fire Bricks. They specialise in supplies for DIY Forno Bravo Pompeii ovens. Refractory mortar only required at the back of and between adjacent bricks, but no mortar on the inside face.
8. The bottom course will be ?half bricks? on edge. These will have 13 degree angle cut at their top face to take the second row of bricks which will be tapered bricks (cut in half).
9. Dome will be constructed using wood arch guide (pic). An indispensable tool was made but it was soon realised the centre of the arch is below the hearth level and this would have required many adjustments to the tool. Further, as tapered bricks are being used, there will be no need to ?clamp? each brick in position. The arch guide is notched to indicate each brick course.
10. Today, a polystyrene dome? form? was made (pic). Brickie?s sand and the arch form were used to make the form for the form(!) We used polystyrene because it was at hand, but one could just as easily use a thin layer of concrete/chicken wire or a? lightweight model? using the ?LiteFill Perlite/cement mix reinforced with chicken wire. But the styrene worked a treat and the whole construction of this form took just a few hours.
11. Both entry arches will be made from the tapered bricks. The arch is rather flat but should be OK?
12. Flue? entry? will be the full width of the entry arch and 115mm deep. This will taper up to a 3 foot long 8? stainless round flue
We are cutting the bricks using a cheap diamond wheel ?tile? saw ($99 at Bunnings). A bit dinky and the 35mm max cut requires bricks to be? turned over?. The wheel supplied lasted 50 bricks! Maybe a proper brick saw would have been the better option, to be sold at the end of the project. Persevering?.!!
I wonder if a tungsten blade might do the job as the diamond blades are expensive and fragile. Intend giving this a try and will report on success or otherwise. Has anyone tried this?
Someone else suggested a hacksaw and water. This actually works (!) but is hard Yakka if a lot of cuts are required. But could be useful for some fiddly cuts at the entrance.
Some extra pics will be attached to next post.
This forum is a wonderful resource and thanks to the Forno Bravo team.
Our build is about to commence. There has been a wait for ?straight? fire bricks and this has allowed some sensible planning rather than what would have been a ?bull at a gate? approach.
This 42? (110cm) oven will have the following specs:
1. Concrete blockwork base; Dry stacked hollow blocks , concrete filled/reinforced at least at the corners (pic). Base brickwork ?bagged? with sand, cement lime at 6:1:1
2. 90mm concrete suspended slab with F62 mesh, 25mm bottom cover. Some addition reo in critical areas (pic). Thankfully my neighbour Pierre offered small Kubota 4WD tractor with front bucket to move concrete from Mini-mix to the oven site. Don?t know what we would have done otherwise. The concrete quantity was 0.5 cubic metre.
3. 40mm thickness perlite cement (5:1). Exfoliators in Melbourne supply a wonderful product called ?Premium Lite Fill (fine)? which is perlite that has been treated to make it waterproof. This is easy to work with, has good compressive strength and is not at all ?crumbly?.
We mixed 100 litre bag of LiteFill perlite with 20kg bag GP Portland cement and it made 75litre finished volume (ie 25% compaction).
One reason for using this thin perlite layer was to prevent any water damage to the Calcium Silicate sheet directly above.
4. 50mm Calcium Silicate sheet beneath the hearth.
5. 75mm thick hearth using herringbone pattern and the standard 230x115x75 firebrick.
6. Hearth protected during construction using 19mm particle board (yellow tongue; waterproof)
7. Dome made from ?dry stacked? tapered fire brick (230x115x75/63mm). These are the same cost as ?straight? bricks. Bricks supplied by Melbourne Fire Bricks. They specialise in supplies for DIY Forno Bravo Pompeii ovens. Refractory mortar only required at the back of and between adjacent bricks, but no mortar on the inside face.
8. The bottom course will be ?half bricks? on edge. These will have 13 degree angle cut at their top face to take the second row of bricks which will be tapered bricks (cut in half).
9. Dome will be constructed using wood arch guide (pic). An indispensable tool was made but it was soon realised the centre of the arch is below the hearth level and this would have required many adjustments to the tool. Further, as tapered bricks are being used, there will be no need to ?clamp? each brick in position. The arch guide is notched to indicate each brick course.
10. Today, a polystyrene dome? form? was made (pic). Brickie?s sand and the arch form were used to make the form for the form(!) We used polystyrene because it was at hand, but one could just as easily use a thin layer of concrete/chicken wire or a? lightweight model? using the ?LiteFill Perlite/cement mix reinforced with chicken wire. But the styrene worked a treat and the whole construction of this form took just a few hours.
11. Both entry arches will be made from the tapered bricks. The arch is rather flat but should be OK?
12. Flue? entry? will be the full width of the entry arch and 115mm deep. This will taper up to a 3 foot long 8? stainless round flue
We are cutting the bricks using a cheap diamond wheel ?tile? saw ($99 at Bunnings). A bit dinky and the 35mm max cut requires bricks to be? turned over?. The wheel supplied lasted 50 bricks! Maybe a proper brick saw would have been the better option, to be sold at the end of the project. Persevering?.!!
I wonder if a tungsten blade might do the job as the diamond blades are expensive and fragile. Intend giving this a try and will report on success or otherwise. Has anyone tried this?
Someone else suggested a hacksaw and water. This actually works (!) but is hard Yakka if a lot of cuts are required. But could be useful for some fiddly cuts at the entrance.
Some extra pics will be attached to next post.
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