Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

more...

Gosh, but there's not much room in there!

[Les]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Excellent job Frances! This is why I?m trying to avoid mortar on the inside ? I?m claustrophobic.

Les?

[asudavew]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Excellent job Frances! This is why I?m trying to avoid mortar on the inside ? I?m claustrophobic.

Les?

I'm with ya there Les.... There seems to be a lack of Oxygen on the inside!


BTW -- I have to agree with Les... Excellent job Frances!
Looks great!

Congrats!
I enjoyed watching your progress.

[sarah h]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Frances, congratulations - it looks great !
I can only sigh in envy at what it must feel like to place that last brick.

I viewed this thread last night for the first time - love your songs-to-build-by. Got some more good tips from your posts to incorporate into my oven too.

How does Swiss weather compare to mine, I wonder? I see you were worried about freezing temps - I am too but our long-range forecast still looks fairly good (unless they've lied, which has happened more than once!) I hope your weather holds long enough for you to get the final mud layer and dry-out done.
What plans do you have for winter protection?

Sarah

[Ken524]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Nicely done, Frances!

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Thank you everybody! Half the fun of this project is discussing it in the forum afterwards

Winters in Switzerland (uh, the bit I live in that is) can and do go down to
-10 C, but rarely for more than a week at a time. And with a bit of luck that should hold off until January. ...or not as the case may be.

I would like to get the archway, vent and chimney up before then, and cure the oven. I think it should survive the winter then, just with being protected against the elements. I'll work on insulation, cement covering, decoration etc, as and when the weather permits. What are winters like in Canada then?

Btw, the top of my doorway has cement mixed in with the mortar, and the archway and chimney will have, too.

Somehow it's sad finishing the dome. I've been psyching myself up to it for so long, and wondering if I can actually build such a thing, and now its over

Tomorrow I'll go looking for bricks for the archway...

[james]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Frances,

Where is Allschwil? Switzerland is such a beautiful place. We need more details....

Carrie (my wife) worked in Lausanne for a year, and we still have friends there. We looked very seriously at the international school in Geneva, and really liked the school itself, but decided the kids weren't ready for a third language so quickly. Oh well. That's for later.
James

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Allschwil is a village just outside Basel. We're right on the border between Germany, France and Switzerland. Yeah, Switzerland's a nice place to live, I like it - but then I wouldn't know any better, never having lived anywhere alse.

[sarah h]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Canadian winter varies with the regions but where I am, we're generally lucky to get above -10C for much of January and February and it's not uncommon to dip below -20C, especially at night. Snow tends to get to about two feet (30cm) deep, sometimes more. As long as it's above minus 10 though, and I can keep a path clear to the oven, I plan to use it! I'll post a winter oven pic sometime in early '08.

I'm sorry you're feeling a bit low now that your dome is finished (and looking good!) but I'm sure your spirits will lift when it comes time to fire it up!
Good luck with the curing,

Sarah

[jwnorris]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

<snip> Somehow it's sad finishing the dome. I've been psyching myself up to it for so long, and wondering if I can actually build such a thing, and now its over. <snip>

There is a trade-off. You will be making the best pizzas that you have ever had for a much longer period of time than it took to build your WFO.

J W

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Thanks for the cheering words, Sarah and JW. Yep, it's onwards and upwards for me, after all, this project isn't finished by a long shot!

The next chapter in the Saga of the Swiss Pompeii oven: I got my bricks, and as I told Sarah, I will now build my archway and plonk the chimney on top (or words to that effect). Ha ha!

Turns out that Swiss bricks are a different size from German ones, ...or maybe firebricks are a different size from regular.

I wanted to stager the joints and tie in the edge of the outer entry arch with its side walls, because I already don't really like the way the opening of the oven dome is not attached to the entry arch (does this make sense? It's getting a tad convoluted here.) BUT I can't do that because the bricks are not the same size.

So either I make the sides of the entry arch out of firebrick and attach a red brick arch to the front with mortar. Which would look best if you ask me, but means that the whole weight of the chimney would be resting on four structurally seperate elements.

OR I make the whole entry and arch out of red bricks. Which would be in direct contact with the dome then, something I was advised against doing.

Advice please??

[asudavew]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Advice please??

Maybe a drawing will help.

I can't quite see what you are aiming at....

But I do have some more lyrics for ya-- Pink Floyd style.

How bout...

"We don't need no crappy pizza"
"We don't need no Domino's"
"No greasy cardboard home delivery"

"Hey dough boy, leave that cheese alone"

"All in all it's just another brick in the dome"

"All in all it's just another brick in the dome"

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Thats a good one Dave

I got a new one, too:
"How high's the archway Momma? Three rows high and risin'..."

Yeah, it was difficult describing what I meant in words. Anyway, after giving my problem a lot of thought (half an hour before gonig to sleep yesterday) I'm making the entry walls out of regular brick, but have extended the vent floor a bit, which is fine because the floor was only laid on sand. Except for one brick which is held in place by the dome doorway... Oh well, minor flaw there.

And if you look closely you can see that the entry wall is longer on one side than the other. I'm sure there's a lesson in there for me somewhere, if only I could figure it out...

You would think that after the masonry work on the dome, the entry would be a sinc to lay... turns out that not. I seem to be a lot better at going round in circles than taking a sraight line - Well, nothing new there

[Ken524]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

That oven is just looking great! I like what you did with the entry.

[Hendo]

Re: Pompeii oven in Switzerland: pics

Hi Frances,

Your photo illustrates what I thought you meant - and is exactly what I'm proposing to do! My clay bricks will be forming a divider between oven entry and adjacent counter space, and all the kitchen construction is the same red clay brick. The clay bricks will have a 10mm mortar joint, so like your scenario, they will not line up with the firebricks. I'm not worried about heat implications - some ovens are built entirely from clay bricks after all.

The only thing I was planning to incorporate which is different (and it's still just an idea in my head) is a thin layer of Cal Sil insulation between dome and clay entry bricks - more for differential expansion reasons than purely thermal concerns. Ditto between top of oven opening and rear chimney wall, which will also be clay bricks. So I'll end up with a clay brick chimney with some sort of flue inside, if I can figure out how to do it.

Your dome looks great! Keep up the good work.
Cheers, Paul.