George's Pompeii progress

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Sara, thanks for the update. I'll follow your lead on this one.

--As promised, the 3rd and 4th row pics.

The mud was a little thin on the 4th. The bricks were sliding on me a bit. I'm not sure how I'm going to make this work 2 rows from now.

Excuse my mess on the cardboard floor. I'll clean it up someday.......

Her's the wife and one of her kids, Cody (Cooter as I call him). Gorgeous, huh? (Her. He's a handfull and then some)

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Un momentito,
No pics? Let me try that again.

[asudavew]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

The mud was a little thin on the 4th. The bricks were sliding on me a bit. I'm not sure how I'm going to make this work 2 rows from now.

I used a few sticks to prop up things as I went along.

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Pics corresponding to previous post.

Sorry for the mix up.

[asudavew]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Looking good George.

Have you decided on how to approach the entry?

Are you going to use angle iron or an arch?

You are definitely getting to the interesting part of the build.

Keep up the good work.

[wlively]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

It's looking great so far. Keep up the good work.

[sarah h]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

George - nice job!
Great looking pix (and family too).

I know what you mean about the slipping - many a brick I've had to hold in place for a bit, then some just stay put the minute they're placed - go figure! Somehow though, they do hold on (except for the two I accidentally knocked off again while working today). I have found that if I place the brick a little farther back, then slide it forward, it seems to create some kind of tension between the brick & mortar that reduces some of the slippage - see if it works for you.

Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Thanks Dave and Sarah for the mortaring suggestions. As expected, I got hung up with the angle irons on the oven opening. My wife's in school during the days, about a half-time student. We've got a 6 month old child that I'm trying to watch while she's gone, and working whenever time and temperatures allow.

It's been near freezing the last couple of mornings with high humidity. It goes right to your bones if you go out and put your hands on cold wet bricks before about 10 AM. Cold nights mean clear skies around here though. It hasn't rained in about 10 -12 days. Completely unheard of for October in the Pacific NW.

Hopefully, I'll get the oven opening issue resolved tomorrow and be back to laying bricks this weekend.
Cheers!

[Frances]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

I mentioned elsewhere that I'm looking after four-year-old twins while building my oven. Looks like I'm not the only one in that kind of situation after all

Still, it makes it more of a challenge, yeah?

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Kids definitely make this project challenging.

I'd been trying to do a row a day. I may give up on that and just lay bricks when the opportunity arises and stop when it's time to feed the baby or go to the bus stop.

It's really an engaging project. You get to the point that you're thinking about it all the time. I think it's the puzzle aspect that makes it so intriguing.
G.

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Just a quick update. My wife's laptop blew its powerpack A/C adaptor. It has all the photo editing software on it, as well as the software for downloading pics from the camera. It will be Tuesday or so before I post more pics.

I looked and looked at the photos of angle iron oven openings posted by Sarah and Frances. Depending on the orientation of the first row of brick, the way you tie into the dome changes. I was really set on a 12 inch max opening, so I decided I needed another row in the dome before I tackled the opening. I laid down the 5th course yesterday.

This AM, ice in the water, 31 degrees, what the hell. I went out and stuck my hands in the water and got going. I set in what turned out to be a really ugly bit of stone work over the top of the opening, then laid the 6th course this afternoon. That course turned out pretty circular, so I'm satisfied.

All in all, it was a long, long day. 6 - 7 hours of messing around with this thing has my back hurtin'. I have 7 cuts on 5 fingers that scream at me if they get near mortar. Trying to button my pants is an incredibly painful experince.

Always wear gloves! Always wear gloves! That's my motto.
George

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

OK, I can't wait any longer. I'm using the old desktop computer to post a few pics.

The weather remains incredible for this time of year. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before the downpours begin.

The oven entrance and angle irons was giving me fits. I went back and forth between Frances' and Sarah's photos trying to figure out how to make it work on my situation. They both used a different orientation for their first row of brick which made the tie in come at a different level.

I ended up cutting one of my irons the long way with a table saw and a metal cutting saw blade. It took at least 20 minutes to make that cut. Somehow, I felt that the less metal exposed inside the dome of the oven the better, so I used the flat cut piece in notched bricks, right at 12 inches.

It seemed to me that I needed another row of brick to make sense of this thing, and to more closely resemble where Sarah and Frances made their transitions.

As I said in my last posting, it is an ugly bit of stonework, but it maintained the circle and angles that I was looking for, and the poor workmanship around the entrance will never be visible to anyone (except all of you).

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

I swallowed my pride, and set all those ugly bricks across the front. Sorry Les and Ken, I feel I've let you down )

Down goes the 6th row of brick over that, and I'm really happy that the circle and angles seem correct when I look at it from above.

The last 2 pictures are two days ago. Row seven. This is starting to look like something. I think you can still see a piece of paper with a picture of Frances' angle iron setup on my oven floor.

Please ignore my messy work area, and the leaves starting to pile up in the back yard. I am, at least for now.

Thanks again all for your help. Sunny again tomorrow!
George

[sarah h]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

George, things are looking great! I like what you did for the transition - it looks like it will work out far better than mine (my circle was flattened and I had to make adjustments for about the next three rows). ]

I hope the rains hold off for you. And keep wearing those gloves! Mine (once I remembered to wear them!) are waterproof - makes a big difference when you reach into the icy waters for another brick.

Hope to see more of your progress soon.

Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: George's Pompeii progress

Thanks Sarah,
My hands are coming around slowly. I use superglue to close the cracks that form along the natural lines of the fingers. This stuff was acutally made to close surgical wounds but they threw it out when they figured out it was water soluble over time.

I'm using gloves with rubber palms and mesh backs that allow water in but don't make my fingers scream in agony when they touch the mortar. I still find myself fingering that mortar with bare fingers sometimes, though. It's hard to leave it alone after you think you are done.
George