Block Stand Question - Pompeii 42"

[RandyJ]

Hey Yeager it is looking great. It won't be long before you plug the dome. It feels good to get that far. Then the rest of the work begins to finish everything else. Keep up the great work. I can't wait to see it.

Randy

[ivancito]

Yeager, very nice job on your WFO looks great. Our builds are progressing nicely and I too did not encounter the dreaded droop, although I am out of level by a 16th". I think that beveling the arch bricks for smoother dome transition was the ticket.
Looking forward to the rest of your build, good luck.
Ivan

[Yeager]

I'll happily make that final custom cut! I had to head out of town for a few days, so probably won't get back to it until next weekend!

[JRPizza]

Looking good! As soon as you clear the arch the rest of the dome will go fast until you hit the plug, where you get to do some more custom cutting

[Yeager]

Made some good progress this weekend building the archway and integrating it into the dome. I didn't get the angle right on the archway, and am improvising. I am not sure if I will finish the sixth row by custom cutting the 3-4 pieces or using a grinder down the archway (after a week of letting it cure - I think it should be solid enough especially with the form still underneath?). On a good note - everything is level and don't see any drooping!

[thomasmn]

I did see that part.. and I cooked two pizzas from Aldi today! Since the rain had gone away I had to put in 4 hours of work on the oven after work and not cook yet another meal from scratch..

[RandyJ]

I don't know what happened to my thread. It was there yesterday. I don't know if I made someone mad or what. I guess I shouldn't have posted about cooking a frozen pizza in there yesterday.

You are looking great. That front lip looks very familiar. Good job I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Randy

[thomasmn]

I had the exact same thing on my build. I ran my bad as far down as you too. It is pretty amazing how much you can cut with one blade, but then it is all gone and it seam like where did it go. Here is mine. I love the rigid segmented blades. They work great and last a long time. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see it when you are done.

Randy

Not so much where did it go, I saw mine wore down.. but suddenly it was wanting to rip the bricks apart. Was a bit scary until I sorted it out. I was happy I bought an extra blade.. I ordered another blade yesterday as well so I can keep going tomorrow so I won't run pout.

I think I managed to avoid the droop on the oven vent as well as I built and tried to custom fit the bricks as I went. It looks okay but if I had more time I would have spent it here. Tonight I poured the lip!

Btw, what happend to your thread Randy? Did it get deleted??

[Yeager]

Looking great! Looking forward to see how waiting to do the arch and the adjoining rows at the same time works.

Hi Gastagg,
You got me thinking about this statement after looking at some other build threads. Are you thinking I may hit "droopiness" if I havent been building it all together? You have my spider senses tingling that I may have done something wrong!

thanks,
Yeager

[RandyJ]

I had the exact same thing on my build. I ran my bad as far down as you too. It is pretty amazing how much you can cut with one blade, but then it is all gone and it seam like where did it go. Here is mine. I love the rigid segmented blades. They work great and last a long time. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see it when you are done.

Randy

[Yeager]

Kinda funny story... So I kept on having to lower my HF blade height because I thought it was popping up. Take a look at the blade size below - I think I likely needed a new blade a few rows prior! The picture on the right is the old blade inside of the new blade. Ironically - It still cut through the Brick fairly good. I have to head away for a few days for work, but looking forward to trying out some cuts on the new blade. I am guessing it will feel like butter!

[RandyJ]

Hey Yeager I would think that you should be just fine with the 1\8" mortar line. I had very few joints that small. But that was just my construction style. I didn't worry about having thick joints. I know that if you use heat stop or simular mortar you have to keep to that or less or it will crack. I hope that helps or gets someone else to comment.

Randy

[Yeager]

Hey gang, hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend. Any thoughts on my question above?

[Yeager]

Hey Guys,
I am getting ready to mortar my arch, but have a question. Right now, I barely have spacing for 1/8" gap with the "Arch No 1" bricks I bought without cutting any bricks. I am worried about getting a consistent thin 1/8" mortar joint and wondering if I should plan on cutting some of the arch bricks down? Should I just shoot for 1/4" mortar joint or is a 1/8" sufficient? I know very little about the physics of mortar joints (i.e is a 1/4" joint stronger thana 1/8"?), so this may be a silly question. Am I ok with putting in a few one day and the rest another or should they all be done at once?(I have a form) I get between 15 minutes and a couple hours a day to work on it, so hard to judge things sometimes!

Thanks,
Yeager

[RandyJ]

Yes that would be a lot of fun to all get together. I also have not heard from Chip in several months. I talked to him on the phone a few months ago to ask a few questions I had. But we would have to get him in on it too. You are right George our builds went to late in to the fall last year to have time after that to do a get together. I need to do the last few things on mine to finish it up.

Randy