Begining dome construction

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Cut all my bricks for the third course today. I'll cut the fourth and hopefully fifth tomorrow. Below are the pics of the beginning of the 3rd course as well as the walls of my vent. I'll be casting the remainder of the vent.

[gjbingham]

Re: Begining dome construction

I'm using the HF saw as well. I haven't had a problem with it sucking up the sand from the bottom of the water tray either. I'm not using the suction cups to attach it to the bottom, but inserting it in the pump insert section. I changed the water yesterday after 3 days of cutting.
George

[dusty]

Re: Begining dome construction

rlf,
Looks like a great start. Nice arch too... very cool looking.

dusty

George,
I had problems with the pump clogging at first. It was brand new and I was cleaning the tray everyday. After a while, I decided to wait until it clogged again to clean it. That was weeks ago! I'm cutting red bricks, fire bricks and pool table slate in my project (great sedimentary layers going on), but I've been just letting the wet dust settle and not disturbing it. May have to do somethig soon though, 'cause the dust layer is starting to reach the top of the pump area walls.
dusty

[Les]

Re: Begining dome construction

People,

The problem of your pump getting clogged has been solved months (years) ago. Hang it inside of a bucket on the outside of the saw. Then you just need to drain the tray of the junk. I only read a few posts on this thread and don't know how this issue was brought up here. If I missed it, sorry - just opened the 2nd bottle of wine

Les...

[Acoma]

Re: Begining dome construction

Les is right. Has been discussed and is a great solution. Will apply myself.

[wlively]

Re: Begining dome construction

The bucket method is a good solution and idea. Unfortunately it was posted after I finished.

I took pains to make sure and orient the pump in the best place to get clean water, but it would clog at least twice a use. I then bought a new pump at home depot, a bit bigger and then I had no more problems. After every use I back flushed the pump, unplugged and ran water into the outlet until the water that came out the inlet came out clean. Never had a clog since.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Finished the third course today. I hope to finish cutting the bricks for the fourth course, but football is getting in the way. No dome gauge, so some of the bricks are slightly off, but I'm correcting for that on the next course. Start of the fourth course below as well.

[Ken524]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks great Ron!

[sarah h]

Re: Begining dome construction

Ron, things are looking great and really starting to take shape but, hey, fire & fine food vs. football??

Good luck with your oven and keep posting pix!

Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: Begining dome construction

RLF,
The oven's looking good.
I like the way you work. Beer makes the back pain more tolerable, though a little more dangerous, especially in the later/higher rows.

Keep up the good work.
George

[Acoma]

Re: Begining dome construction

RLF, try to avoid bricks aligning. You may get unwelcome cracks.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

The bucket method is a good solution and idea. Unfortunately it was posted after I finished.

I took pains to make sure and orient the pump in the best place to get clean water, but it would clog at least twice a use. I then bought a new pump at home depot, a bit bigger and then I had no more problems. After every use I back flushed the pump, unplugged and ran water into the outlet until the water that came out the inlet came out clean. Never had a clog since.

I never had a problem with plugging, but I went ahead and started the bucket method after it was mentioned earlier. Even if you don't care about plugging, its better b/c you have a larger supply of water for cutting bricks.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Looks great Ron!

Thanks! I'm trying to get finished with everything before the end of the month, which is going to be a challenge. The wife wants me to be able to use the oven for our Christmas party. So I have about three weeks to try and at least get to a working dome. I surely won't have an enclosure by then. I also need to account for a week of curing.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

Sarah

Thanks! Well I've actually arranged it so that I can work on the oven and get play by play updates from my wife.

George

Haha! All the bottles are a bit misleading. I may have one at the most during building. The problem is I'm not too good at picking up after myself and so the empty bottles usually stay where I set them.

[rlf5]

Re: Begining dome construction

RLF, try to avoid bricks aligning. You may get unwelcome cracks.

Acoma

Thanks, I'm trying my best to avoid it. I usually only have one, or two joints at the most, that line up per course.