Block Stand Question - Pompeii 42"

[Yeager]

Hey All,
I am putting together my plan for my outer arch and trying to figure out how much of an opening to create to lead up to my brick box that will lead up to my 8" flue. Does 5x13" seem reasonable or should I go bigger? I have 13" from the outer side of my inner arch to the outer side of my outer arch to install.

[JRPizza]

You are going to want to feed an 8" flue with at least 50in^2, so 5"13 should work, but I recommend thinking about how you are going to transition to the shape of flue you have. If you are using a round pipe, you want to get to a square(ish) shape so you can fit your adapter and attach it without having short edge margin in your bricks. Starting with 5" wide seems smallish to me. I think you also might want to make the opening as wide as you can initially and taper it up, as a long narrow vent might not catch as much smoke exiting the oven as a wider one. If you study vents on the forum, I don't think you will see too many (if any) long narrow vents.
PS, re-reading your post makes me think you were already considering a wide vent, so excuse me if that was the case. Are you planning a heat break and using an inner vent arch, or are you going to incorporate the oven inner arch into the vent?

[thomasmn]

Hey All,
I am putting together my plan for my outer arch and trying to figure out how much of an opening to create to lead up to my brick box that will lead up to my 8" flue. Does 5x13" seem reasonable or should I go bigger? I have 13" from the outer side of my inner arch to the outer side of my outer arch to install.

I did a very similar thing to this, I wanted to make sure I had at least half a brick on each side of the vent so I did a vent opening about 4.5 x 12 as I shaped the brick on each side of the half bricks to let more of the smoke up into it, then transitioned with my bricks to what is needed for the 8" super vent adapter.

[Yeager]

Thanks everyone - extremely helpful. I do have a 1/4" heat break built into the inner and outer arch. It wraps around (L shaped) and keeps that 1/4" separation that I'll fill with rope and high temp sealant. The flue will use the external arch. I think I'll try to plan for 6x13 or 7x13 for the wide brick vent leading up to the 8" flue similar to how Thomasmn did it!

Whats the super vent adaptor (outer square) dimensions? I have mine on order, but won't be here until next week!)

Also, I have my daughters birthday party on July 3rd where I would like to cook up my first set of pizzas. I'll have time to let oven cure and progressive fires, but may not have time to get the insulation on. Will I be able to get the oven hot enough if I keep wood burning in the oven to cook the pizza? I could throw some insulation on pretty quick, but won't have a structure built to protect it or keep it from blowing around.


thanks,
Yeager

[JRPizza]

Yeager, check out post #51 of Joeykramer's build thread - I recently posted dimensions for the adapter. https://community.fornobravo.com/for...er-build/page4

I did my curing fires without insulation, and got a pretty big crack running up the back of my oven. Don't know if insulation would have helped or not - hopefully others can pitch in and share their experiences.

[Yeager]

Hey All,
I finished up the brickwork today and am now starting to plan out my structure. I am thinking of building a roof with a 4/12 pitch - is that the norm or any suggestions otherwise? (I am in Minnesota) The other question I have is it appears many on the forum are using 2x4 steel studs for walls and 2x8" metal studs for the roof. Where is a good place to get them that stocks them? Is 18 gauge what I should purchase?

thanks,
Yeager

[RandyJ]

Hi Yeager I got my studs at I believe it was called drywall supply. It is on 13th ave and Hwy 169 across the street from a uhaul storage center. Yes I would go with 18 gage studs. I think 16 gage is over kill and 20 is not enough for Minnesota winters. I did do 2x4 for the walls and I think it was 2x8 for the roof. I would go at least 2x6 for the roof to give it a little extra strength. If you have any questions just let me know.

Randy

[thomasmn]

I got my studs at a place off of Highway 13 by Burnsville on the way to Shakopee. They didn't have the 6" ones in shorter than 12' which was a pain as I have a pile in the garage of cutoffs now. If the place Randy mentions actually has it in the size you need definitely go with that. I'm going to try my hand at applying rapid set stucco today.. Had to go to Woodbury HD to get it, but they didn't even know they had it in stock. I also managed to get a decorative arch cut from some leftover stone a neighbor had sitting around.

[thomasmn]

On the pitch, I didn't worry about it as much as getting something that looked good. I put an outlet (weather proofed of course) so I could hook up either obnoxious Christmas lights off of the thing or a heat thing to keep the snow off the roof. My thinking on the roof was that I didn't want to hit it so I put it 1' higher than my height at the top so 7'4", and it is about 5'8" in the back above my slab. And btw, I love that the deck of the oven is high enough that it is no work for me really to move stuff in and out. It is 48" off the ground I believe which is right at my elbow height.

[Yeager]

Great advice guys - thank you. I have some good thoughts going. I also need to come up with a strategy to bridge the 7" distance from my top of oven floor to top of concrete stand. These photo's don't show it well, but my concrete stand has a curved lip that overhangs 6" the full width. One of my thoughts is to do a 7" monolithic pour up to my heat break (inside of the arch), but not sure if I can have concrete directly up against the brick external entry or if I need to put in 1/4" expansion foam and caulk the top. My gut tells me I wouldn't need to since this would prevent any (or at least 99.9999%) water from getting down there. I'd like to have the oven floor flush with the counter so this sounds good. I think I'd have it match the existing curve and overhang an additional 4"''s (using rebar tied into existing structure of course!).

Couple other points - My oven floor height is 50" and the concrete would be poured level with oven floor after the heat break. In retrospect I should have poured this and then put the external arch on top, but... here we are!

Thoughts?

[thomasmn]

I did something similar to what I believe Randy did - I poured right up to the heat break and put my brick for the vent right on top of it, but left the brick in the entry to the arch lose (set in clay) so I can replace them later. I think the way you did the insulation in the floor is very interesting, much more efficient use of the insulation board. I spent 11 hours outside yesterday doing two layers of stucco. Just need to paint and trim the thing now!

[RandyJ]

Hey Yeager you might want to poor up to the. Top of the insulation and then put fire bricks on top of it. That way you can have the coles in the vent to cook out there. I am not sure how the concrete would hold up to that. Then poor your counter tops in front of that.

Randy

[Yeager]

Hey Yeager you might want to poor up to the. Top of the insulation and then put fire bricks on top of it. That way you can have the coles in the vent to cook out there. I am not sure how the concrete would hold up to that. Then poor your counter tops in front of that.

Randy

Hi Randy,
Haven't thought of that use case. Are there times when you'd cook things not in the dome and under the vent with ashes? Probably my newbie side asking this question.

[Yeager]

I did something similar to what I believe Randy did - I poured right up to the heat break and put my brick for the vent right on top of it, but left the brick in the entry to the arch lose (set in clay) so I can replace them later. I think the way you did the insulation in the floor is very interesting, much more efficient use of the insulation board. I spent 11 hours outside yesterday doing two layers of stucco. Just need to paint and trim the thing now!

I mainly did the insulating brick so I didn't have the Ceramic board touching the concrete (avoiding moisture wicking while getting insulating properties!)

We're actually neighbors! I am right down the road from you in Burnsville! We'll have to meet up for a beer sometime!

[deejayoh]

Hi Randy,
Haven't thought of that use case. Are there times when you'd cook things not in the dome and under the vent with ashes? Probably my newbie side asking this question.

I've cooked steaks that way, and used coals around a paella pan. There's so much heat in the vent of the oven, you can generally saute stuff there without even having any coals. it's pretty cool. I was cooking italian sausage in the entry just last week.