42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Congrats of completing the dome. Nice feeling, time to be patient with the cure, slow and sure.

There is still a lot to do and plenty of time for curing. I will take it slow.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Congrats of completing the dome. Nice feeling, time to be patient with the cure, slow and sure.

[cobblerdave]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Happy Father's day everyone. Well, I have done nothing else on my time off but build this damn oven. Progress happened today. I decided to go to third size bricks and ended up losing my battle with Gravity. It was time for a platform.

It took me about 20 minutes to solve and I was on my way to finishing. That happened TODAY....

Everyone was excited. My girls were home and my wife was excited to see it get closed.
So the dome closed.

When I got to the keystone, I was thinking about all of the great builds and kept trying to make it just right. But, as time would have it, I didn't want to spend any more of it! I kept thinking about those pizza's laughing at me and my keystone.....thinking we don't care what it looks like dumb @$$

I thought about a lot of stuff as I finished it today. It was a good day and I am happy, more than happy with the results.

I still need to get my body up in there and clean HAHA

Enjoy.

G'day
Shame you weren't in Aust . Father's Day's not till September, you could save your legs,prop them up, have a beer knowing you could clean up tomorrow as you have heaps of time
Regards dave

[Greenman]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Looks good. Congrats on completing your dome. It gets more rewarding as you go along.

I was determined to defy gravity and that made closing the dome special for me. Your build looks very good.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Front view, it felt great to clean it all out!
Sand out, plywood out and all ready to light a fire.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Happy Father's day everyone. Well, I have done nothing else on my time off but build this damn oven. Progress happened today. I decided to go to third size bricks and ended up losing my battle with Gravity. It was time for a platform.

It took me about 20 minutes to solve and I was on my way to finishing. That happened TODAY....

Everyone was excited. My girls were home and my wife was excited to see it get closed.
So the dome closed.

When I got to the keystone, I was thinking about all of the great builds and kept trying to make it just right. But, as time would have it, I didn't want to spend any more of it! I kept thinking about those pizza's laughing at me and my keystone.....thinking we don't care what it looks like dumb @$$

I thought about a lot of stuff as I finished it today. It was a good day and I am happy, more than happy with the results.

I still need to get my body up in there and clean HAHA

Enjoy.

[kbartman]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Just caught up on your build, looking good. I really like your base slab, turned out great. Looking forward to following your build.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Here is a progress update....
I have been on the saw and cutting brick as fast as I can. Today i was able to get above the arch so that is a break through. I keep learning and am getting excited to get to the end. It gets more challenging the higher you go.

So more to come as I close the dome.
Just about everyone I know is interested in this project. My issue is that I don't do well with stuff that is undone.

Either way, I am making progress.
D

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Wow, tight joints. So far your flipping back front to back has caused not issues as far as I can see. Tip I learned as you go up higher and gravity becomes and issue, last brick of the day, set one brick on the next course back center and the next day you have an anchor brick to start off on.

Good Tip.
I saw another method of holding bricks that was unique. The guy in the picture took a fishing hook and a piece of line, he put a weight on the line and hung it off the back of the brick. Hooking it over to the front first.

I can tell it will be difficult getting bricks to join the arch. However, I am up for it.
Very anxious to get this done.

My personality does not do well with unfinished projects.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Wow, tight joints. So far your flipping back front to back has caused not issues as far as I can see. Tip I learned as you go up higher and gravity becomes and issue, last brick of the day, set one brick on the next course back center and the next day you have an anchor brick to start off on.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Hey Gang,
Well I am learning yet again....I spent the weekend working on the oven. It is amazing how much time can get consumed working on this project.

Mortar and lining things up is crazy time consuming.
Everytime I moved my Jig, it seemed that I would move it too far. This caused a myriad of problems. Either way, I learned from it.

In the pics you can see my arch. It is all coming together.
I am up to course 4 after the soldier course or 5 total.

I was able to do two courses today. Thanks in part for the Mortar tool that I bought. A Mortar bag is a game changer.
I was able to keep my mortar moist as well as mix it right in the bag. Pretty cool.

Any input is appreciated.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

I would recommend to dry fit two bricks. Use the IT to set the first one and put shims under it to keep it in place. Then, do the same for the second brick. Now, look at the vertical joint between them. If the sides are parallel, you are ok. If there is a V that opens to the top, your bevel angle is too large. If the V is inverted, the bevel angle is too small. Make an adjustment and try again. Save the two bricks that did not fit well, either for near the opening where nobody will see or for when you need smaller bricks.

I think the reason why you have to flip every other brick is because your bevel angle is too high. I suspect that if you installed them without flipping, you would get a bigger right-side up V than the inverted V you would have gotten at zero bevel angle and that is why you are flipping them. If you have precut a bunch of bricks for the remainder of this course, try them one course higher. You might get lucky and have very little V.

I don't know what tool you use to set the bevel angle. I posted earlier about the method I used to eyeball the adjustment with a tilting saw head. If you use a protractor and have difficulty getting the angle right, try measuring the height of the jig at a known offset from the pivot point instead. If you measure at 4x your brick height from the pivot point, raising or lowering the jig by 2x the gap observed during dry fitting should get you close.

I noticed that you used a small brick to keep the joints staggered. To make a smaller brick fit correctly, both bevel and taper angle have to be reduced. If you don't want to change the bevel angle on the jig and can live with a small V, you can put a brick shim between the fence and the brick to reduce the taper angle without having to readjust the jig. If you don't reduce the taper you may end up with a bigger gap on the inside of the dome as the outsides contact first. Of course, if you cut all your tapers on the low side, there is probably enough gap on the outside where you don't have to adjust the taper for a smaller brick.

Hang in there, I am sure it will all come together soon.

Hubert,
Thanks for the lengthy reply, I really like how you are breaking it down for me in simple terms. That will really help.

I am more comfortable with laying the bricks, mortaring etc. The first day was a hot mess. This weekend, I will use your advice to get this right. Fortunately for me on yesterdays effort, I spent a good amount of time making sure that my inside top line was nice and level. This should make for really good transitions and smooth gaps for the next level.

It really helps to shim each brick, this I did not do the first day.
I am learning. I have never laid brick before, especially with very little mortar haha.

[hubert_s]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

I would recommend to dry fit two bricks. Use the IT to set the first one and put shims under it to keep it in place. Then, do the same for the second brick. Now, look at the vertical joint between them. If the sides are parallel, you are ok. If there is a V that opens to the top, your bevel angle is too large. If the V is inverted, the bevel angle is too small. Make an adjustment and try again. Save the two bricks that did not fit well, either for near the opening where nobody will see or for when you need smaller bricks.

I think the reason why you have to flip every other brick is because your bevel angle is too high. I suspect that if you installed them without flipping, you would get a bigger right-side up V than the inverted V you would have gotten at zero bevel angle and that is why you are flipping them. If you have precut a bunch of bricks for the remainder of this course, try them one course higher. You might get lucky and have very little V.

I don't know what tool you use to set the bevel angle. I posted earlier about the method I used to eyeball the adjustment with a tilting saw head. If you use a protractor and have difficulty getting the angle right, try measuring the height of the jig at a known offset from the pivot point instead. If you measure at 4x your brick height from the pivot point, raising or lowering the jig by 2x the gap observed during dry fitting should get you close.

I noticed that you used a small brick to keep the joints staggered. To make a smaller brick fit correctly, both bevel and taper angle have to be reduced. If you don't want to change the bevel angle on the jig and can live with a small V, you can put a brick shim between the fence and the brick to reduce the taper angle without having to readjust the jig. If you don't reduce the taper you may end up with a bigger gap on the inside of the dome as the outsides contact first. Of course, if you cut all your tapers on the low side, there is probably enough gap on the outside where you don't have to adjust the taper for a smaller brick.

Hang in there, I am sure it will all come together soon.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Hey Gang,
Well I nearly completed course 3 tonight. I changed my bevel from 5 down to 1.9 and that seemed to help. My angle looks good and the required mortar is pretty low.

Here is my challenge. As noted by Russell I was reversing each brick. This was caused by my jig setting at 5 - or so I thought.

I changed it to 1.9 tonight and that made course number 3 come in line. It is also the required bevel.

But, I still had to reverse each brick. I don't think it matters as my lines are very clean and straight on top. My gaps are pretty minimal.

For everyone using a jig, is there are right side up or down on the inside facing brick?

My jig is based on Chipsters style with a 5 degree edge angle and a 1.9 degree bevel.

The process to cut a brick is:
Put it in the jig, cut the right side of the brick
Turn over to the other side and cut the middle of the brick
Last take the brick and flip it over again 180 - move the brick to the right side of the saw and cut the 3rd cut on the left side.

3 cuts two bricks.
What am I doing wrong?

[hubert_s]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Not sure if you plan to cut your bricks smaller so that your joints are staggered on the next course. If you do, you will need both smaller taper and bevel angles. The spreadsheet is not designed for that so I ended up throwing it away.

What worked for me is the following. I always used a smaller taper angle so that about 1/4" gap would open at the outside of the dome. I found this makes getting a narrow joint on the inside much easier.

As far as the bevel angle, I cut a couple of bricks with a slightly larger angle than on the previous course and dry fit them. Then, I checked which direction the V opens up and by how much. I then tilted the saw head either to the left or right, depending on the direction of the V. I did not use a protractor. Instead, I put a brick next to the blade. If I had to increase the angle, I put the brick at a distance equal to the gap and tilted until the saw blade touched the brick. If I had to decrease the angle, I put the brick flush and tilted until the gap between blade and brick was equal to the gap of the V. This came out close enough to perfect for my accuracy requirements every time. I think you could do the same thing with a tilt jig, but you would have to offset by only half the width of the V (with my tilt head, there is about a 2:1 ratio between pivot point and brick thickness). I know this method is mathematically not really correct, but it worked for me. I found it is a lot easier to eyeball the size of a gap than an angle and messing with a protractor.