It's time to go Vertical

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Jim, I was not as in depth to beleling the side (top to bottom edge). I took pieces to the dome, found the gap at bottom, then marked the top of the brick to cut. I then would go to the wet saw, grab a scrap piece of brick and lift the brick to desired height on the edge for cutting. So far it works, and does not take long. Primitive but simple. You are more savvy with tools and technology, so you are more at home with your way. Love the images!

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Sometimes the terms bevel and tampered get mixed up. I have been beveling both sides using Jim's bevel and angle calulations - eyeballing it versus true measurement. When I say tampering I'm meaning cutting part of the bottom of the brick off, I did this on row 4.
I've also lifted the back of each row up about 3/8" so far. May increase this to 1/2" the rest of the way or at least tamper one more row.

RC,
Your post this morning reminded me that I owed you a graphic on the bevels. Attached is an illustration of how I took on this pain in the butt.

First I filled the saw table trough with mortar, let set over night and then ran the blade through to create a "trough slot" to hold the metal stop (to be mentioned next). Filling with mortar for me also made it easier to clean the saw and caused no problems with saw operation.

Next I picked up a piece of 3" flat steel from HD and cut it into 6.5", 10", 10" lengths using my trusty $19 grinder (with metal cutting disk). The 6.5" piece I used as a stop to the cutting edge; put it in place, shoved the brick against it, removed the metal stop while holding brick in place and made the cut. More than doubled my cutting spead.

The two ten inch pieces I connected horizontally by welding in place two hinges. This was done to create the angle guide for the last few courses when they get fairly large. The hinges were skewed in placement just slightly from one another so that there was considerable binding when trying to open and close the guide so the angle wouldn't change with multiple bricks being place against it over time. But for most courses this tool was used upside down (face down on the table as pictured) resting against the back stop of the table and slid under the brick towards or away from the pivot point of the brick to create the desired bevel angle. Once the angle was determined it was clamped in place with a 3" spring clamp (not pictured but noted - knew I forgot something)

On the same trip to HD I picked up the protractor pictured - an indispensible tool for this project and feature in many posts on this forum. I first placed the protractor on the table, used the little red arrow slide on its face to mark the angle of the table and then used it on top of the brick to determine the angle for the bevel by adding whatever angle I was looking for to the red arrow position. By the way I wasn't going for the 3 decimel accuracy as my chart might suggest just to the nearest ditdat on the face of the protractor.

Once I was happy with the bevel angle and the hinged steel was clamped in place the process was simply to put the small stop in the trough slot slap a brick against it (I was angling each brick so full flat face against steel) hold the brick firmly in place while you remove the stop and cut. Zippy quick.

One caution, at certain bevel angles inorder to hold the brick in place on the steel your fingers will be fairly close to the blade.

Also because the larger bevels are done on so few bricks you could probably get by without the hinges and use something else for the jig on the last couple of courses if you don't have a welder hanging around. So for the most part with just the protractor, a little bit of mortar in the trough, and a couple pieces of flat steel, you're good to go.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

I don't think it hurts if your a bit high.
and I ended up oblong too...

but heck.. once it's all covered up and your eating hot pizza.. only you and us will know!


dave

That's my thinking as well.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC, I will get details for my oven that you are also following. I am glad you finished 7. My children have been sick, and concerns to shape by members has me frozen until Tuesday. You are beveling the bricks too I presume? This is giving you that 1/2 in I am sure.

Sometimes the terms bevel and tampered get mixed up. I have been beveling both sides using Jim's bevel and angle calulations - eyeballing it versus true measurement. When I say tampering I'm meaning cutting part of the bottom of the brick off, I did this on row 4.
I've also lifted the back of each row up about 3/8" so far. May increase this to 1/2" the rest of the way or at least tamper one more row.

[asudavew]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

I don't think it hurts if your a bit high.
and I ended up oblong too...

but heck.. once it's all covered up and your eating hot pizza.. only you and us will know!


Keep up the good work!

dave

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC, I will get details for my oven that you are also following. I am glad you finished 7. My children have been sick, and concerns to shape by members has me frozen until Tuesday. You are beveling the bricks too I presume? This is giving you that 1/2 in I am sure.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

I've been following Robert's link ( love his work) and we're both trying to get to 20" at the top. So far I'm at 21" after row 7 and I've been averaging about 3/8" gap so far. I laid it out on paper just now (don't know how to do the CAD work like Jim) and if I go with a 1/2" gap the rest of the way I may be at 20 1/2". I quess that wouldn't be all bad, but I may taper the bottom of this next row.
I've kept the symmetry decent so far (keeping the 21" distance from center, but the arch area is a little farther Hopefully I can correct that on row 8. If not it will be a little oblong.
The drawing I did makes the keystone the 14th course. So only 7 more to go, each with less bricks but a steeper slope. Should be fun, wish me luck.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

The winds finally abated so I finished the RING . Row 6 and 7 have been tying into the arch - what fun!!! Still will have to decide on the area below this ring and the arch area.
I just looked at the second picture and I need to do some major cleanup of that excess chading. I would rather add another row than do that. I would have taken additional pictures closer of the arch but I have to clean that to. Ran out of time, we have theatre tickets for the night so I had to clean myself up.

[sarah h]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

I'm just checking back in after a few weeks' break and can't believe how quick you and some of the others are moving along!
Great work, and in a gorgeous location.
Keep havin' fun!

Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Ok, we'll paste a better body in there and we can take turns pasting our faces on it.

I think I will use Tom Cruise as my face, 'cause mine's worn out worse than your body, RC!

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

How about a photo editing program, where you paste in part of yourself to make it look like you're standing in it? Or,,,, you could paste your face on RC's body, and tell everyone that you built during high tide. OK, maybe that one won't fly....

Who would want there face pasted on that worn out body

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Oven can wait, go with B

[Frances]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Hey, give us time to answer here! I'm laughing my head off!!

Just can't quite decide which advice to follow: rebuild the oven or paste my face on Lake's body...

Hey, maybe I should do both and see which turns out better!

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Thanks Dave. Apparently, everyone else is asleep, on vacation in the tropics, or bored with my poor attempt at humor. The writer's strike has me searching for material.

[asudavew]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

How about a photo editing program, where you paste in part of yourself to make it look like you're standing in it? Or,,,, you could paste your face on RC's body, and tell everyone that you built during high tide. OK, maybe that one won't fly....

funny George!