Under way in Socal

[Bookemdanno]

Re: Under way in Socal

if your sand is too fine in grain, it'll do the same too as the more grains=more surface area=more water=more shrinkage upon drying.

its not just making mud pies you know!

[brickie in oz]

Re: Under way in Socal

if your sand is too fine in grain, it'll do the same too as the more grains=more surface area=more water=more shrinkage upon drying.

its not just making mud pies you know!

Sand only shrinks because of the clay content drying.

[cnicholson]

Re: Under way in Socal

Well I can rest easy on my mortar issues..


I laid up the entry arch sleepers and, after all the threads I have looked at, didn't account for the curvature of the dome so it looked like hell. It took me a decent amount of force with a cold chisel to pop them loose and scrape the mortar off...it was only a couple days old too..

I think the new sand helped too. It's a screened plaster sand so the aggregates are no so large as to interfere with a tight joint but the different size particles undoubtedly are a benefit for shrinkage.

I have now been humbled by my WFO project at the dome/arch connection. A lot of head scratching, compound brick cuts and TIME. Truth be told, I still don't think it looks right but I need to go a little further to see if my transition is going to work. I'll post a couple pics later!

Thanks again!

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Under way in Socal

Cnicholson,

I think we all have been there done that at one time or another. I would focus in the inside tightness and not worry so much about areas being covered by insulation or an enclosure. Be patient and take your time, I knock bricks out several times the next day if it did not look good inside, yeah and sometimes outside.

[cnicholson]

Re: Under way in Socal

Ok...I'm back at it.. a bit crazy these past few weeks!! I really should have paid more attention in geometry class, the dome/arch intersection is indeed the hardest part thus far!!

I cut a reveal in my arch so the door will fit inside the inner arch bricks and I am planning to completely isolate the dome/inner arch from the outer arch/chimney. My plan is to leave about a 1/4"-3/8" gap between the two arches and floor, route a channel in the inner arch brick and use ceramic rope (THANKS RUSSELL!!) a more or less a gasket between the two. On the floor I think I'm going to fill it w/ vermicrete except for the last 1/2" of height and let that fill in with ash.

I have to admit I haven't been as careful as I would have liked as I have a deadline of Nov 3 to be firing up some pizzas...

That being said I noticed I wasn't so careful getting off some mortar from a session, has anyone ever tried cleaning thier dome w/ muriatic acid? If so any issues with it? I've used it to clean stucco off windows before but I'm a bit worried about using it around a food apparatus...Thanks again everyone!!!

[SchillerM]

Re: Under way in Socal

I am digging the split look! Any update for end of Oct? Week away from your deadline.

Matt

[cnicholson]

Re: Under way in Socal

Hey There All WFO'ers!

As Matt (thanks for the props on the splits! I think the dome looks WAY cool w/ spilts) pointed out I'm fast approaching my deadline and, well, she may not be pretty but she seems to be performing well. I'm in the curing stage and I'm going to be putting an enclosure around it so I think I may have taken Russell's advice a little too much to heart about not worrying about the things that will be covered...

Bottom line is I got into a hurry and it didn't turn out as near as clean as I would have liked, or as clean as a lot of your out there (Russell's and John's come to mind) but I was able to incorporate some stuff.

I was able to get my heat break installed (not totally isolated as I would have liked) and pack the ceramic rope (ONCE AGAIN THANKS RUSSELL!) in the gaps and it seems to be working like a champ. I used splits, cut in half lengthwise, to lay up the chimney and it draws perfect. My cuts weren't that clean and I got sloppy with the grinder but all of that is pretty much going to be enclosed so I'm not to bummed.

I will post up some more pics next week as hopefully I will have a least a little bit of lipstick on her for the party. Thanks again for everyone's input and support...WFO Forever...

-Chris

[Laurentius]

Re: Under way in Socal

Damn Chris,

How did you do that? Your bricks seems to be floating. Kind of cool, scary cool.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Under way in Socal

Chris,

Good luck with the curing and the upcoming party. Do take you time with the cure though and don't rush it.

[cnicholson]

Re: Under way in Socal

Thanks for the wishes of luck Russell..I think I am going to need it. I started curing 5 days ago.. I tried to keep my temps as steady as I could and so far this is what I have gotten:

Day 1- 6-7 hours at 200 degreeish at top of dome (TOD)..about 160-170 mid 1/3 and the lower 2-3 chains of bricks were about 130ish (keep in mind they are splits)

Day 2- 7-8 hours at 250ish TOD...about 190ish lower 1/3 and stayed at about 130-140 lower.

Day 3- 7-8 hours at 325-350 TOD...225ish lower 1/3 and the bottom bricks got up to 190.

The weird (to me anyways) thing is about halfway through the 2nd day you could smell the moisture coming out of the dome. The third day, about an hour in, you could smell it. My dome sat for about 2 weeks in pretty dry conditions (72-77 degree SoCal weather) before I started.

My next curing fires I'm planning are today, tomorrow and Thursday and at the following temps:

Day 4- 7-8 hours at 400 TOD..
Day 5- 7-8 hours at 500 TOD
Day 6- ?????...see what happens

My theory is that the moisture is not only migrating to the outside of the dome but also gravity is taking it down to the lower bricks and that's why I got a spike in the lower brick temps on day 3.

I plan on spending Friday doing a few practice pies (kids gotta eat right?), so as you can see I will need some luck to pull this whole thing off!! FYI..there is a woodfired pizza joint down the street that I am going to buy my dough from for my first run. Maybe the sauce too but it seemed a bit pricey for tomato sauce- anyone have any recommendations on a good recipe?

Laurentius- What part of the bricks seem to float? I'm no magician, that's for sure but the floor bricks are double layer of splits. There is one inside the dome and the dome rests on the other. The chimney simply spans the arches, minus a small thermal break between them.

[Laurentius]

Re: Under way in Socal

Hi Chris,

I enlarged the ceiling photo, because of the spacing between each brick is so defined, optically they look independent of each other. When I look at a typical thin mortar application I feel a solid wall effect, where your has an airiness or lightness to it, to me.

[aceves]

Re: Under way in Socal

Hi Chris,

Great build! Good luck this weekend with your first cook! You will enjoy it as much as you enjoyed building your WFO!!

Aceves

P.S. I sent you a PM. Please take a look at it and let me know. Thanks!

[cnicholson]

Re: Under way in Socal

Thanks gents...I haven't had time to search the forum on this yet but I think I remember this being the way it goes. My oven looks like a black and tan right now, lots of black residue on 3/4 of the dome and I can't smell any more moisture coming off it... The curing fire crept up to about 450 today..I'm getting a reading of about 230-250 at the floor/dome junction now so I think the moisture is pretty much gone?

So my thought is fire it up w/ some good ol oak and see what happens? Boy Scouts in the outback of Southern California (if there is such a thing) was a good lesson learned on how hot an oak fire will burn.

Laurentius- Thank you for the compliment. It wasn't intended but I do agree with you and I think it has to do with looking at so many full size brick domes. Gianni Foccacia sent me a pic of a fossilized, authentic Pompeii oven and it was built with, well what we would call splits. Those were probably just run of the mill "bricks" back in the day but I thought that looked "correct" for the scale of the dome, thus I was determined.

If I were to build a second one (I would definitely recruit some labor) I would do a 2/3 size full brick soldier 1st course, cut the floor to fit inside, splits on the dome and full size brick arches. I think the splits look a little whimpy in the arches but luckily mine was intended to be enclosed all along...

[WJW]

Re: Under way in Socal

The oven looks great. Coming along fantastically.

Bill

[irelande5]

Re: Under way in Socal

Congrats on curing fire, this is when the real fun begins