36" in Chapin, SC

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Very nice closing of the dome, great brick work. The keystone will be a reminder of your hard work everytime the dome clears. Never thought I would be a trend setter

Russel, thanks for the compliments. Your keystone looks great! Did you fill the engraving with mortar? I was thinking about doing that, but am a little concerned about bits of mortar falling on the pizza.

[kbartman]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

I have completed the dome aside from the keystone....................... I think it won't be noticeable inside the oven and I am sure my wife will like it. I guess it's not so much about looking at it anyway, just knowing it's there.

Hubert just finished reading upon your build ....very impressed with the speed and precision and the completion of your dome. Keep up the good work look forward to following your build

Very nice closing of the dome, great brick work. The keystone will be a reminder of your hard work every time the dome clears. Never thought I would be a trend setter

Trend setter you are, your build is inspiration to all. Hubert you can teach us lesson on speed,Then Utah and myself may be completed by fall.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Very nice closing of the dome, great brick work. The keystone will be a reminder of your hard work everytime the dome clears. Never thought I would be a trend setter

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

I have completed the dome aside from the keystone. On the last course, it seemed like every brick wanted to have different angles. I cut a bunch of bricks and then used the angle grinder to fit them. The last brick needed about 35 and 15 degrees of taper on the two sides, but they were in the same direction so as to make the front line up. I'm pretty happy with the result.

I set all the bricks on the last course without the IT, simply wiggled them into place and that's where they stayed. Home brew mortar rocks. Before I started building the oven, I figured all the bricks would want to slide and it would be hard to keep them in place. Not so. Mortar is just incredible stuff and even the almost vertical bricks stayed in place without any support from underneath whatsoever.

I did have to fill some gaps in the joints on the two last courses. The trickiest part was getting mortar onto the trowel. I put the mortar bucket in the far back of the oven on its side, so I could reach in there and get some mortar onto the trowel. I think I missed a few spots and will probably have to repeat the exercise after setting the key stone.

Speaking of which, I experimented with engraving the key stone using a sandblaster. I cut a vinyl template with a heart and my and my wife's initials. That worked pretty well as you can see in the picture. The only problem is the aggregate in the bricks, it does not abrade at all, so the bottom of the grooves looks pretty rough. I think it won't be noticeable inside the oven and I am sure my wife will like it. I guess it's not so much about looking at it anyway, just knowing it's there.

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

The saw was running pretty smoothly today. I have five bricks left on the eleventh course. My oldest daughter helped me for a while, that was great. She had to leave before cleanup time, so I had to crawl into the oven myself a few times. Aside from the sand that got by my safety glasses and the water dripping on me, that was really fun. Thinking about getting a side job at the circus as a contortionist...

I was trying to keep the joints staggered, but a few are very close as you can see in the picture. I guess I did not pay enough attention. Sometimes, there is a bit too much difference between dry fitting the brick and how it actually ends up after installation.

I think I will end up with a pretty big keystone and will probably have to use two bricks. The inner opening is right about 8" at this point, so the opening will probably be around 3" after the next course. I plan to put the next course in tomorrow and wait a few days for the keystones.

[stonecutter]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Blade orientation does make a difference even with continuous rim. Glad you sorted it out.

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

I did some saw maintenance this morning. I had to take the blade off to get to the nozzles and immediately noticed that it was installed with the arrow indicating the direction of rotation pointing the wrong way. Not sure it makes a big difference on a continuous rim blade. I took the nozzle off and cleaned it. Before putting it back on, I ran some clean water through the tubes and then installed the blade with the arrow pointing in the direction of rotation. When I went to cut my first brick, the saw was a different animal. Almost like it wanted to cut bricks!

I finished the eighth course and ended up with 33 bricks of somewhat even size, except for over the arch, where I had to cheat a bit to keep the joints staggered. With the small bricks on the eighth course, it is a bit tough to keep the joints staggered on the ninth course. Some joints are only offset by about ~3/8". I should end up with 22 bricks on the ninth course. I ran out of mortar with six bricks left and decided to leave it at that for today.

If anybody has any thoughts about my vent area (see previous post #65), I would really appreciate some advice.

[stonecutter]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

If I didn't have access to water other than schlepping it up a hill, you can bet that the pump would be in the tray. I'm 99.99% sure your jets are plugged. Check any sharp bend in the supply line..if it feels hard then sediment is building up in there too.

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

It's not theory, it's experience. Stupid things always plug in the middle of the day too. What I started doing was filling a 5gal bucket with clean water, and a hose on a slow feed. Another 5 gal bucket used for waste water. No more plugged outlets now.

I put the pump in a 5 gallon bucket initially, but soon figured out that I don't get much time cutting out of a bucket. Since I had to get the water buckets up the hill from the lake, I decided recirculating was for me and put the pump in the tray...

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

I need some help figuring out what to do with the vent area. I have attached a drawing of the oven with my planned landing. The landing is about 13" deep and I plan to have two side walls to put a stainless steel vent on top. There are several things that I am not quite clear about.

First, do I need to fasten the vent using some brick anchors or such, or do I just set it on top? Does it need some sort of caulk?

Second, if it is not fastened, what prevents the brick walls (dark red in the picture) from falling over? Do I need to tie these walls to something, and if so, what do I use to do this? Should I mortar the walls to the floor, or just set them on top like the dome without mortar?

Third, what is the maximum height you would recommend to prevent excessive smoke coming out the front? The opening is 12" heigh and I plan on a 3/4" reveal around it. Can I increase the size of the opening in the front to around 15" without problems?

[stonecutter]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

It's not theory, it's experience. Stupid things always plug in the middle of the day too. What I started doing was filling a 5gal bucket with clean water, and a hose on a slow feed. Another 5 gal bucket used for waste water. No more plugged outlets now.

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Might be worth taking the nozzles off and cleaning them. Use a small wire...I've had the outlets on my saw plug when I've done a ton of cutting. If your pump is in the tray it is pumping water full of fines through it too. I've never seen outlets that are worn out....yours would be the first.

Thanks, stonecutter. Your theory makes a lot more sense than mine, since it works some times... I will bring some tools with me tomorrow to take the thing off and clean it out.

[stonecutter]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Might be worth taking the nozzles off and cleaning them. Use a small wire...I've had the outlets on my saw plug when I've done a ton of cutting. If your pump is in the tray it is pumping water full of fines through it too. I've never seen outlets that are worn out....yours would be the first.

[hubert_s]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Sounds like your water outlet is plugged up.

That was my first thought, but there is a lot of water coming out of the nozzles. I ran the saw with the blade guard open to be able to see it, and there are two streams of water that go parallel to the blade and never hit it. The saw is pretty old, so I think maybe the nozzles are worn out and too big to produce strong enough stream. I hope I can figure something out tomorrow.

[stonecutter]

Re: 36" in Chapin, SC

Sounds like your water outlet is plugged up.