Begining dome construction

[rlf5]

Well I started cutting bricks yesterday for the dome (thanks Hendo for the tips). These shown will actually be the oven floor level course. I plan on stacking them on top of the oven floor so that I can trace were to cut. I also have a box of insulating board that needs to be put in under the oven floor.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Rest of the pics

[Ken524]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks good!

What kind of mortar are you going to be using? When you are cutting and laying out your first course, don't forget to figure in the width of the mortar joint. If you lay the bricks out perfectly with the edges touching, your final result with the mortar will be a larger diameter circle than what you planned.

Edit... After looking at your photos more closely, it appears you might have left some gaps in there. I really like the way the tapered cut bricks look. I can't wait to start cutting!

Ken

[asudavew]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks good!

What kind of mortar are you going to be using? When you are cutting and laying out your first course, don't forget to figure in the width of the mortar joint. If you lay the bricks out perfectly with the edges touching, your final result with the mortar will be a larger diameter circle than what you planned.

Ken

Hey Ken I have a question related to this.

I know in the upper layers it is hard to avoid joints that grow larger, but on the bottom layers don't you want the bricks touching on the inside or should there be a bit of mortar on the inside edge?

Would it be better if you could build an oven with no mortar. If you could make it stand up! I know its probably not possible, but if you could.....

[Ken524]

Re: Begining dome construction

Would it be better if you could build an oven with no mortar.

Yeah! That would be the perfect oven I would think.

[Les]

Re: Begining dome construction

RL,

I noticed you have the saw pump in the tray. This was a source of great pain. The pump kept failing because of the "mud". I hung a 5 gallon bucket off the back of the saw and dropped the pump into that. Haven?t had a problem ever since. Just a suggestion.

Les?

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks good!

What kind of mortar are you going to be using? When you are cutting and laying out your first course, don't forget to figure in the width of the mortar joint. If you lay the bricks out perfectly with the edges touching, your final result with the mortar will be a larger diameter circle than what you planned.

Edit... After looking at your photos more closely, it appears you might have left some gaps in there. I really like the way the tapered cut bricks look. I can't wait to start cutting!

Ken

Yea there's about a 2mm gap left in there for mortar. All my joints are going to be very tight fighting b/c of the taper. If i'm lucky I should be able to do the whole dome with one bag of mortar. Oh, to answer your question I ordered two bags of RefMix, which should be arriving soon.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

RL,

I noticed you have the saw pump in the tray. This was a source of great pain. The pump kept failing because of the "mud". I hung a 5 gallon bucket off the back of the saw and dropped the pump into that. Haven?t had a problem ever since. Just a suggestion.

Les?

Les

Havn't had any problems yet, but I may just try your suggestion. Thanks!

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Finished cutting the rest of the surrounding floor bricks. I'll line them up a little better and then trace the ID onto the oven floor bricks so I can cut those.

[Kemo]

Re: Begining dome construction

subscribed! thanks for posting.

[asudavew]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks great!

I'm starting to get jealous....because I haven't started yet!

I am curious though, how many fire bricks did you buy?

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Only bought 150. Although I didn't get enough...I'll probably need 50-75 more.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Finally got a break in the rain and decided to jump on some brick cutting. I got about half of the floor bricks cut so that the wall bricks fit around them. I'll do the rest tomorrow.

[Les]

Re: Begining dome construction

Rl,

We are at the exact same stage - the race is on!

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

I actually think you're a bit ahead of me. I still need to cut the other half of the floor bricks, and I still may add another 2" of insulation to the bottom. Still deciding on the latter task.