MY NEW 42"OVEN BUILD.

[JRPizza]

Glad to help - I could not have gotten as far as I have without the help of others either. Early on, I cut all my bricks for a course per the spread sheet. I think without exception I had to re-cut every time, which is why I started cutting just a few or scraps till I knew what angle I wanted. I did not make a jig per se, I notched a piece of 2x6 to accept my blade, then used shims to make the angle I wanted. All you need is something that is stable and repeatable. Try using your new tools to find the angle that will make the sides of your brick perpendicular to the ground, and you won't have any vees.

[ivancito]

So frustrated today!!! I had to recut all 11 pieces of my arch bricks after I noticed I had cut them out of half bricks. I intended to bevel mthe back of my bricks for smoother dome to arch transition whick required a longer brick length. So I got those all cut again and then tried to cut some bricks for my second course and kept getting the inverted V on the inside brick face. Made a jig similar to Hendo but couldn't get it to work consistently, made another jig similar to Utahbeehiver and still trying to make it work, basically got nothing done.

[UtahBeehiver]

Ivan,

Just the opposite.

[ivancito]

Ivan,

Just the opposite.

I see says the blind man. Thanks Russell í will try it again tomorrow and perhaps upload pics. Would Deejayous excel spreadsheet work with your type brick cutting jig?
Thanks again
Ivan

[UtahBeehiver]

I can't say for sure if DJ's spreadsheet will work, it was developed after my build, but I believe so. I used JCG31's data as a baseline. I found the numbers get you in the ballpark, so I would only cut 3-4 bricks, see how they fit and make any adjustments as needed. Also my bricks were thicker (3" vs 2.5") so the course numbers on the JCG31 data needed interpolation.

[ivancito]

I finally figured out the compound cuts using my HF saw and no need for jigs. Thanks to DVM upload ir his technique using the saw table guide and tilting the saw head a couple degrees. My mistake with my first 6 bricks was I placed the bricks wrong side up onto the previous chain. Still not perfect but a whole lot better and tomorrow I can mortar them in.
Ivan

[ivancito]

Also very important to verify if blade is perpendicular to sliding table, I had to shim the saw base legs to get my angle finder back to zero degrees. Then I adjusted the head to show 2 degrees and set the table slide gage to 5 degrees. Hope this helps other newbies. Ivan

[ivancito]

Made some progress today. I passed up 6 hours of overtime to work on my wfo but I enjoy this project very much and also look forward to this forum. Well finished my second ring and half my third ring. Again the inverted "V" apears and disapears at will but I'm happy cause mortar helps to hide it. Ivan

[gastagg]

Your work is looking great Ivan. I have one concern...are your bricks on the entry floor mortared? Is there any possibility that water will get in there? I did not mortar or protect my entry way bricks from water. First winter, the water that got in froze, expanded the floor, broke the arch. Long story short...I have built two entryways the last six months. Here are some pics with descriptions.

[ivancito]

Your work is looking great Ivan. I have one concern...are your bricks on the entry floor mortared? Is there any possibility that water will get in there? I did not mortar or protect my entry way bricks from water. First winter, the water that got in froze, expanded the floor, broke the arch. Long story short...I have built two entryways the last six months. Here are some pics with descriptions.

Thanks gastagg for your concerns and kind words. Yes I wasn't sure if the entry floor was supposed to be mortared, I looked around the forum and didn't see any entry floors mortared. I may pull up entry floor bricks and mortar them in now that I have learned from your experience. Also I intend on enclosing my dome and entry just as many builders have done with a doggy house style enclosure, perhaps that may help.
thanks again.
Ivan

[Gulf]

Ivan,

I may have missed it, but how are you going to finish your oven? Will it be an Igloo or an enclosure? As George can tell you from experience, keeping water out of it should be on the top of the list for any oven design. Even without the damage that freezing water can cause, there is the loss of "oven efficiency". It can take sometimes weeks to get the oven back to peak performance. We talk a lot on this forum about the reveal for the insulated door. But, there is another "reveal" that I like to see designed into an oven. That should be on the outer arch imo. Especially, in Igloo designs that have no other protection from the elements. It can be designed into a stucco or a decorative brick arch. It may not be a lot, however it does give a little more cover to help shed the water from the entry. Most importantly, it will also allow for the easy installation of a storm door. A storm door is by far the easiest WFO related door that I have built so far. I do credit it with several saves, so far, from wind driven rain.

I did not mortar my entry floor brick in place. However, I did mortar a firebrick threshold that spans across the floor of the decorative arch. Doing it this way has allowed me to turn my entry floor brick over once. A second time, I was able to take them up and place them in the oven for a "cleaning cycle" .

Here is a link to my Storm Door and the threshold that is mortared in.

I hope this helps.

[ivancito]

Ivan,

I may have missed it, but how are you going to finish your oven? Will it be an Igloo or an enclosure? As George can tell you from experience, keeping water out of it should be on the top of the list for any oven design. Even without the damage that freezing water can cause, there is the loss of "oven efficiency". It can take sometimes weeks to get the oven back to peak performance. We talk a lot on this forum about the reveal for the insulated door. But, there is another "reveal" that I like to see designed into an oven. That should be on the outer arch imo. Especially, in Igloo designs that have no other protection from the elements. It can be designed into a stucco or a decorative brick arch. It may not be a lot, however it does give a little more cover to help shed the water from the entry. Most importantly, it will also allow for the easy installation of a storm door. A storm door is by far the easiest WFO related door that I have built so far. I do credit it with several saves, so far, from wind driven rain.

I did not mortar my entry floor brick in place. However, I did mortar a firebrick threshold that spans across the floor of the decorative arch. Doing it this way has allowed me to turn my entry floor brick over once. A second time, I was able to take them up and place them in the oven for a "cleaning cycle" .

Here is a link to my Storm Door and the threshold that is mortared in.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Gulf, its awesome how you can never stop learning from this forum and all its experienced builders, you guys are truly a treasure of knowledge. Gulf I like the four entryway bricks as a threshold and especially like and will also do the door reveal on my outer arch. I live in New England and the extra door will definitely help keep the water and snow out of the oven. I also plan on enclosing my oven doggy style house like Hodgey from Pennsylvania. Thanks for looking out for us newbies!
Ivan

[david s]

My daughter and son in laws oven (pic) fired their oven up a few weeks ago following our wet season when it's way too hot to be thinking about fires. Although the oven is totally undercover it still sucked moisture from the atmosphere into the dry refractory from our really humid weather. Consequently on firing the oven exterior was quite hot to the touch although it performed ok. It is the moisture that conducts the heat making the insulation less effective. I like to leave the door of the oven completely off when possible so air can circulate inside the oven. One wet season a few years ago I opened the oven and found mould growing on the inside of the door's insulation panel.

[ivancito]

Hello everyone, need your opinions please. I did a dry fit of my new inner arch and think they are still 1/2 short on the length where they will transition into dome bricks. Picture shows the arch pushed further into the dome to meet up with the dome bricks but now í am left with a 1/2 lip at the vertical support bricks. Will this cause more problems or should o make the arch face flush with the support bricks. Thanks Ivan

[UtahBeehiver]

Ivan,

This is common when the IT pivot point is not directly at the floor level. Ie the centerline of the bolt on the castor is probably about the offset you are seeing. I had a similar situation as well. I left my arch so it lined up correctly at the base. I had to do some shape transitioning (slighltly oval to round over a couple courses above the arch to get back to round (I adjusted the IT length). Otherwise you will have a lip between the IT slope and the dome slope (not the end of world since no one will see it) but I think you will be happier adjusting the dome shape to address the 1/2" out of round.