42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

What I remember is the tapers held much at abt 5 degrees for most of the course except near the top. I did my oven before DJ made his spreadsheet. As far as the tilt, that is dictated by your IT, so the face of the brick in perpendicular to the center of the pivot point on the floor. Don't cut all you bricks for each course at once, you will need to make some adjustments to tapers and bevels to adjust for out of round, mortar joint creep, etc.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Yea the reason that happened I think.....I had too much tilt on my Jig. after learning yesterday, I realized that I read the spreadsheet wrong and had 5 degrees of tilt where it should have been 1.2

This caused the result you see there. It made sense at the time but when I finally had time to think about it, I realized it was wrong.

Tonight I am going to do the next level and it calls for a tilt of 1.9 so that should put things back in line.

I also had trouble with my dome being a bit out of round, So after adjusting things and moving my IT a bit, I came to a pretty satisfactory positions for Sailor course #2.

I probably won't need much mortar on the next course as I was winging it a bit.

Does 1.9 sound right for a 42 in oven on course 2?

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Interesting brick layout, reversing every other brick. No reason I can see why it won't work. Might affect how angles and bevels are calc. farther up the dome.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Hmm that would work, in my case, I have an 18"X18" Forno Bravo tile. So that makes that a bit more of a challenge.

[Gulf]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

I replaced my "dead center" floor brick with a temporary "wooden" brick. Then covered the floor with cardboard.



That was after chunking the wobbly plywood floor for something more stable .

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Hey Everyone, today was a full day of dome building. I learned a lot today.

So many of the things I encountered today, are written about in these forums. I struggled to learn how to mortar. This is pretty challenging considering I am using a jig that I learned about in these forums. This makes mortaring pretty challenging because there is so little space to mortar. With little room to mortar, I struggled all day to get it right.

Now on to the jig, I read Chipsters post many times and had to really think about it to figure out what was going on in order to actually make one. After finally understanding how it worked, I downloaded an app for my iPhone that shows you different degrees of tilt or level. Once I had that, building the jig started making sense.

The cuts today on course number one, worked out pretty good. I also needed some Shade as it was 100 degrees here today.

Either way, I am whooped,

I made a mistake and am using particle board of the cheapest kind for my floor attached to my IT.
It flexes and twists with the heat.
Should I go buy a real piece of plywood or something nice or simply leave it?

Here is my progress....

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Here is the transition that I ended up with. 20" wide with a nice easy endpoint for each course.

That should help.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

I am going to tackle finishing mortaring the soldier course tomorrow. I have my door plan and transition ready for the first course. My door is 20" Wide. Should the door be 13" high? Is that the height of the center highest point? Or the sides?

As I build each course, should I step up the door with each course or just build the arch first?

Everything is going great and the saw allows me to pretty much address any strange cut....so that is good.

One challenge is the tiles are 2" high and the floor is an inside the dome style....This makes it tricky as the bricks are thicker than 2" but I am dealing with it.

I have my IT tool in place....any advise on tackling course number 1?

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Ok the fiber board is cut and the Soldier course is started. Dealing with my first transition and have built a Jig based on the "3 cut - 2 Brick" Design.

It's getting exciting haha.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Ok that is what I will do - I have both on hand so it will be easy.
I will likely opt for a dry mix as I just need to level things off a bit.

I am looking forward to the next step.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

If you use a fireclay/sand mix, which I also used with a notched tile thinset trowel, the CaSi suck the moisture up immediately be work quickly or put some type of coating on the bottom of the CaSi. Believe it or not some people have put margarine. You can also do a dry mix as well.

[hubert_s]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

I used a mixture of fireclay and sand for leveling. I think that's what it says in the Pompeii manual.

Great job cutting the floor tiles so cleanly.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Hey Russ,
Thanks for the tips. By turning the CaSi board horizontally, I have to make a couple of cuts to cover but the outcome is that I have plenty of board to provide the necessary 5" or so of board etc. So I have plenty.I will do the expansion joint as well. Thanks for the advice.

The tiles will need to be adjusted with a Sand mixture to make them flat. Is it a problem to use actual Sand to level the tiles or do I need to use refractory sand? ie: mix from cutting the bricks?

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Nova,

Nice job on cutting the floor tiles. Just buy looking at the pics, do you have enough CaSi on the sides to support a 1/2 brick (4.5"). If not you may need to adjust the CaSi a little. Be sure wear respirator when you cut this stuff. I used a jig saw with a medium tooth wood blade. Also a tip I learned with floor cut inside the dome. Leave a gap between floor and dome wall, I used a strip of cardboard, as an expansion joint. Be sure to cover the gap with duct tape to keep mortar from falling in during the build and plugging the gap. IMHO.

[Novaslo]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Paso Robles Ca.

Today I completed the floor and will be placing the fiber board next weekend while starting my first course. All looking good.

Cut the floor and got things laid out. I will cut the fiber board next and then we will be rolling.

What a project!!