40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Your brickwork is fantastic! very neat and clean. where in NY are you from, I live in Rockland county, NY.

Hi AJR,

Way up eastern shore Lake Ontario area. I grew up near Rockland county outside of Paramus, NJ so I am familiar with the area. We used to go to the Rockland Bakery sometimes to pick up bread.

For those not familiar with my current neck of the woods, Spring lasts for about 2 weeks in June, then Summer for about 2 months and Fall for another couple weeks at the end of Sept. Not a whole lot of time for cooking outdoors;> , hence the desire for an indoor oven. Although if was to redo things over I would consider redesigning so the oven was outside and the entrance came through the wall so as to have much more space for flexibility with design and shape.

[AJR]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Your brickwork is fantastic! very neat and clean. where in NY are you from, I live in Rockland county, NY.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Great job, Tony! Your oven is a thing of beauty.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

I am getting excited for sure! Still have a fair amount of work to design/build the entrance way before I can get the stove pipe hooked together and start burning inside the oven. I have had one of those small 1500 watt space heaters blowing into the dome for a few days. The outside of the brick gets warm after a while so hopefully driving out at least some of the moisture.

AJR, the kitchen is over the garage so putting a post under the stove wouldn't work too well. We did plan on the stove when we had the kitchen rebuilt and had 3 of those laminated structural beams sandwiched between the regular floor joists where the oven was to be placed. Those beams are connected to the wood on top of the block wall of garage on one end, and to a steel I beam which spans across the middle of the floor on the other. The floor sloped a bit initially so I had to do some leveling before building the support frame. I don't think the floor will bow, but wouldn't be surprised if the block wall in the corner settles a little. The whole oven stand and oven are free standing though so if the floor slope changes slightly it shouldn't affect the oven integrity other than making it slightly out of level.

[AJR]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Nice work Tony. I too am building a wfo except outdoors and using steel welded frame and heavy timber with joists. My opinion: The only concern i would have with your stand design, with respect to the overall weight, is to shore the floor from under your walking surface (joist) to the floor below with loly-columns or timber posts. This can minimize any bowing.

[kbartman]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Awesome Brick work, tight mortar joints and very symmetrical, that's a oven to be proud of.

Won't be long now.

"That's what the monkey said when they cut off his tail."....LOL....


I can smell the pizza cooking soon

Congratulations

[SteelandStone]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Great job on the dome!! Won't be long now.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Just a few more pics of the dome.

Row 10 I think.. Was getting to the point where the bricks were getting quite narrow

Row 11 and 12 I decided to make the bricks a bit wider and end with just 8 in the middle for the final course before the plug. I tried to stagger the joints as much as possible but a few kind of line up here and there when you go with a wider brick and want to make them all the same width.


Shot from inside with the plug installed.

Close up of the top, inside the dome.

Final height of the dome 20 1/4". I am pretty happy with that considering my IT pivot was 1 1/4" above the floor.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Hi John,

I take your comments as a great compliment! I have often gone back to your build thread for inspiration as it is one of the finest builds I have seen.

My corner space is more rectangular shape than square so the angles and dimensions have been rather tricky and have lead to some tinkering with the oven and entry design. I basically started with the landing area and outer arch placement that was acceptable to my wife based on the current cabinet configuration to both sides. From there I figured out the oven opening direction angle and center point. Since I knew where the outer arch would be I could figure out where the outside edge of the oven arch would be to allow for enough depth to place the plate for the stove pipe connection. From there I made several paper templates of various oven widths and kept tinkering with the oven dimensions and center point placement. As the oven got slightly larger the dome arch kind of 'sank' into the face of the oven, because the location of the two arches was fixed. This also lead to the inside edge of the oven arch bricks getting pushed into the oven space. I didn't want the inside of the arch bricks to extend into the oven space too much, so I ended up making the lower arch bricks less deep there. The dome bricks have more depth as the dome slopes inward so there are some crazy compound angles going on!

The entryway will be flared. The outer arch will be 5" wider than the inner and a little over 1" taller. I think this will provide plenty of visibility and ability to work the oven without having to be directly in line. It will also be deeper on one side than the other because of the rectangular corner and odd angles.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Tony,

You're way past the difficult part and well on your way to closing the dome. Looking fine, excellent brick work. I really like how you made the face of the oven arch flush with the front of the oven, saving entryway space.

I forget, will you be flaring your entryway?

[Greenman]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Looks good. Tidy.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Dry fitting the rest of the arch bricks and how it will tie together to bring row 7 across the top.

Arch is in and setting first brick for row 8

Row 7 and wedges between row 7 and the top of arch are in as well as working around row 8 and starting 9.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Some more photos.. trying to catch up with posting the construction to where I am actually at currently!

Row 6 and then 7 with the arch form in place. I kind of flip flopped back and forth between adding to the arch and dome. I tried to plan as much ahead as possible but there is still quite a bit that I found just easier to deal with by designing as I went, such as the dome/arch brick transitions.

Row 7 if you look closely I also started putting the little horizontal grooves on the top and bottom faces ala GianniFocaccia. Although I didn't cut the sides like John. Guessing it helped as I was able to move the IT after letting the brick sit for a few minutes, even up near the top of the dome.

[Tonyp]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

Definitely trying to err on the side of safety! Still haven't been able to figure out what the temperature on the stud side will be if the oven side is 1000 F. I have some microsil from Zircar ceramics. I might use that right where the oven is closest to the stud in one spot. I also won't be enclosing the oven until after it's up and running so I will have a good opportunity to monitor the temperatures.


Regarding blades, I've been using the Kobalt blade from Lowes. I also bought a Dewalt blade for brick. I have been using the Kobalt blade primarily, although when I was facing the floor bricks to size, I put both on the saw and it helped a great deal with deflection.

I am just about ready to start cutting bricks for the entrance way. I am still on the first Kobalt blade and have about 1/3 of the diamond matrix remaining... and I have made A LOT of cuts. So I can't complain about the longevity! I do tend to cut slowly so maybe that helps. I also modified the HF saw when I received it. I was not happy with the water flow and direction initially. I drilled out the holes a little larger to increase the flow, and readjusted the angle so they sprayed better on the blade.

[Greenman]

Re: 40" Indoor Pompeii in NNY

I bought a 14" blade from America off Ebay for $50 and it is better than the original that the saw manufacturer in Aus could supply for $350.

The postage from US is a killer though and it cost me $65 to get it here. If I had some more confidence I would have bought multiple blades and cut the rate that way.

The more rigid blades do work better for the shaving work.