39" Stargate Pompeii

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

No tips from anyone on adding the layer of vermicrete to the dome. I went ahead and started anyhow - I bought a sheet of hardboard and cut it in two. That just about wrapped around the lower part of the dome - a bit more than the planned 3" but that is no harm. Here's a pic. I didn't wet it too much - so I hope it binds OK. Since it isn't structural if it holds together at all I will be happy - I just guessed the cement ratio - as little as possible being the criteria.

I'd still appreciate advice on getting it neatly over the top of the dome - so any pointer appreciated? Is it best to just slap it on without a form?

[david s]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

I've put a layer of ceramic blanket just one layer but doubled in many areas - after "papering" over the hairline cracks with some mortar mix. I guess they will just reappear under the insulation but I won't know and anyway they are very hairline and only in some of the mortar joints.
Next I will add a layer of vermicrete. Could someone recommend a best practise here. I'm thinking about 3" should be OK - but how to add it and how to maintain the shape?

This is the recipe I use.

10:1:3.5 vermiculite, Portland cement, water. Water addition varies depending on grade of vermiculite. If it is fine you need to add more water.

When you pile the stuff on top give the surface atyap with the flat of a trowel and use your eye to check the profile. You can get a remarkablly accurate spherical form this way.

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Thanks david - is it OK if I fire it again this weekend? I have filled the form up with vermicrete but the top of the dome still just ceramic blanket. I thought I might actually vook something. I will spare you any details about a slight culinary disaster last weekend. Just remember to not leave a casserole in the oven all night. I wasn't expecting it to stay quite as hot The cat and the dog loved it

[Gulf]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

No tips from anyone on adding the layer of vermicrete to the dome. I went ahead and started anyhow......I'd still appreciate advice on getting it neatly over the top of the dome - so any pointer appreciated? Is it best to just slap it on without a form?

Amac,
I do not have the experience to know that this will work. I do beleve it will. I saw something simular on this sight. Can't remember which thread. (I have a split personality, I also go by the name of Al, short for Al Zimers )

The jig in the photo is not set for height, but it will be guaged for 7". 3" for the ceramic fiber layer and 4" for the vermicrete. I intend to follow the 10 to 1 recipee using this swinging guage to keep the dome as precise as possible.

[Lburou]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

How about this: Make a crude form for the first 18-24 inches and then ladle the vermicrete on the slope of the dome after that.

I've seen a build in the Northwest (Washington or Oregon) where he made a form and just squared it off and then put the facade and weather layers over and around that -don't remember the builder's name. That way, you can mix the mix YOU want and have a good insulation component for sure.

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

lburou

How about this: Make a crude form for the first 18-24 inches and then ladle the vermicrete on the slope of the dome after that.

Sounds good to me - and I have the "crude form" bit already done. It is good to get some reassurance thanks for that.
Aidan

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Gulf

The jig in the photo is not set for height, but it will be guaged for 7". 3" for the ceramic fiber layer and 4" for the vermicrete.

It'll be snug in there with all that insulation. I just had the ceramic fibre on and last weeks fire - with just my thin wooden door kept the dome warm for three days.
As usual Gulf your project looks like an engineering tour de force. How does that guage pivot. Is it hinged at the back and rotating over the top?

(I have a split personality, I also go by the name of Al, short for Al Zimers )

As someone who can't remember what I went to the toolshed to get I'm a bit sensitive on memory issues, so I only laugh a bit nervously when I hear alzheimers jokes.

such as:

Welcome to The Alzheimer's information web page. Please enter your 16 digit password.

[david s]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Thanks david - is it OK if I fire it again this weekend? I have filled the form up with vermicrete but the top of the dome still just ceramic blanket. I thought I might actually vook something. I will spare you any details about a slight culinary disaster last weekend. Just remember to not leave a casserole in the oven all night. I wasn't expecting it to stay quite as hot The cat and the dog loved it

Allow the vermicrete to harden 24hrs. It only needs to be hard enough to work over. But wait a fair time (about 10 firings) before doing the outer render/stucco because it contains tons of water and will give you problems if you trap it in.

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Perfect - thanks David - much obliged
Aidan

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Done - I had to buy a couple of more bags of vermiculite today. Funny stuff the last two bags I had seemed to shrink in the bag over winter. It looks like it will all just fall off when it dries out I threw a wet towel over the top and covered it. Fire again tomorrow.
Thanks david Gulf and lburou for the help. I am so glad that bit is over. I may still go for an enclosure, but with this I still have the igloo option. I think I will try the igloo and if it becomes problematic I will enclose it later.
Aidan

[deejayoh]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Looks good!

I thought about an igloo as the enclosure for my oven - but with all the rain we get here, I worry about how to keep the water from seeping in from the exposed bits of the hearth and getting into the oven that way.

You have any concerns about that over there in Ireland?

[texman]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

how about these mods to the IT?

[Gulf]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Gulf
..... How does that guage pivot. Is it hinged at the back and rotating over the top?......

It pivots on a pipe which is temporarily secured to the apex of the dome and to the roof-over.

[Amac]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Newsflash - or as the US TV News anchors say - this just in:
First stargate pizza voted major success.
I am on the record as saying I am not all that fond of pizza. I like it OK but just once in a while. So this weekend while my son and his fiancee were home I had to fire up the oven. First on Saturday I just put in a small chicken and tried some more of that ciabatta bread using the Lidl mix. The chicken was good the bread looked good but was a bit heavy for my liking. My next effort at bread will not be using any premix.
Yesterday I fired it up again and this time we made a communal effort and had a go at pizza. The dough recipe was Jamie Olivers but we cheated a bit on the sauce using a jar of napoletana I think. Some mozarella, Spanish chorizo salami, Italian prosciutto, Irish musrooms and some pineapple, The result though was an unqualified success - and it really was the best pizza any of us had had. Very skinny base and only 2 mins or so to cook.
With my usual planning and preparation expertise I of course had no peel so had to make a crude one from a small sheet of aluminium and an old broom handle which were lying around.

That bite gone from the pizza in pic 2 was a sacrifice to the oven god helped by clumsy use of the peel

[kpms1st]

Re: 39" Stargate Pompeii

Hi Amac pizza looks good tried that lidl mix myself its not to bad home made brown holemeal works well .If your going for a render or brick igloo finish there's a sealer I used that is suposed to last 10 years from seka or sika but it aint cheap but so far is keeping it dry.Sorry missed your problem with vermiculite cover had trouble myself until I added more water & then it seemed to work quite well with trowel .
all the best Kevin