Joe's 42" Corner Build

[UtahBeehiver]

There are several brick jigs that are on the forum that allow you to cut a combo angle, ie taper and bevel in one pass. It is worth looking at.

[joeykramer]

thanks guys, i'll be going with the alternative, it gives me the elevation i like and protection i need and saves some money.

[joeykramer]

I have / am using only a 7 inch tile saw. things will be tricky, but hoping i can make it work without the need for a bigger saw. the clearance is tight, so i cant lift the brick off the table like you did with the wood underneath it. the blade of the saw actually rotates like a mitre saw, so i can adjust as well.

[joeykramer]

With regards to cutting the bricks for the first 2-3 chains, i saw some spreadsheets where you cut them at 5 degree angle. I have 8 1/4 bricks, and just trying to confirm the final dimensions of the bricks after they are cut. my jig worked pretty good last night. bricks are 3 5/8 on the front and 4 1/8 on the back. does that sound about right?

my philosophy in building this oven is that there are a few 'must dos' and a lot of variables. mortar, weight distribution, insulation being some of those.... whether the bricks mentioned above are too big or too small, doesnt really matter in the grand scheme of things. because youre going to mortar them in place. i could have just cut them in half and used them that way. am i right? i think that is the beauty in all of this. on the outside it looks to be a massive, precision needed project, but once you study it and understand it, you can make it to what you want to be and in the end we're all cooking pizzas.

[JRPizza]

Joe, this was my brick cutting philosophy. I wanted to minimize mortar exposed to flame, so wanted to have as much brick to brick contact as possible on the internal surface of the dome. The only "shaping" I did other than cutting bricks in half (to give a half brick dome thickness) and trimming some bricks to make the circle work was to increasingly bevel the sides as the courses went up so I would not have interior triangular wedges of mortar at the sides of the brick (which is what you get with straight sides). The gaps I had along the exterior of the dome I just filled with mortar, which UtahBeehiver taught me (mortar) is my friend. If you taper your bricks such that they would fit without mortar, you would end up with mortar exposed inside when you used it to stick your bricks together. If you read the "what would I do differently" thread, several builders say they would not bother with anything other than the bevel. It's like you said, one of the beauties of these ovens is the multitude of ways there are to build a functioning one.

[RandyJ]

I started off doing the angle and bevels and quickly decided it was not going to happen. And also switched to half bricks with a bevel. Much easier and just as strong and pretty on the inside. Unless you want your build going on for years don't do both.

Randy

[joeykramer]

I'm getting cracks. Mortar too dry ?

[Larry P]

Bricks too dry? Firebricks will leech a lot of moisture out of the mortar. I soaked my bricks in a tub of water overnight, then cut them, then let them sit and drip dry for several minutes before installing.

[RandyJ]

Are you soaking the bricks for a minute or so before you mortar them in?

Randy

[JRPizza]

Joe, not sure if your mortar is too dry, bricks too wet, or what, but here is what I "learned" during my build. If your bricks are too wet, the mortar won't stick, and if they are too dry, it will suck the moisture out of the mortar really fast and and cause adhesion problems. On the other hand, if the mortar is mixed too dry, there isn't enough "flow" into the irregularities in the brick. I suggest you read some of the threads on both mortar consistency and brick moisture. Here is one -

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...ing-the-bricks

There is a guy Tscarborough that talks about getting just the right amount of moisture in the bricks - the bonding works best when the bricks draw the mortar into their surface. LarryP said he used bricks that were "drip dry" but I had trouble with bricks that were too wet. If the bricks were freshly cut and "waterlogged" from the saw (or from sitting out in the rain), I needed to set them in the sun for a few hours or overnight under cover, to let them dry a bit. If they were dry, what seemed to work for me was wiping the faces a few times with a wet sponge where the water was soaked in to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4, then using mortar on the wet/sloppy side. I also watched a few youtube videos to get an idea of how wet to make the mortar - you want it where it will just start to hold ridges if you run your trowel through it and you can get some to stick on the trowel when you tip it sideways.

[deejayoh]

looks like your mortar was too dry and it never really adhered to the brick. You don't need the bricks to be soaked, or even really wet. you want them to absorb moisture from the mortar as JR says. That creates the adhesion.

[joeykramer]

turned out better when i had wetter mortar. i soaked for a few minutes while i was mixing up some more mortar.

[JRPizza]

Joe, I'm trying to understand what you are doing with the inside of your arch. You have one brick tapered and looking like it will match the slope of your dome bricks as you come around towards the top of your arch (like I copied from others), but your other bricks aren't tapered. Do you know how you are going to match up your bricks from the lower courses into the arch? I attached a pic of my arch so you can see what I am talking about. I have not studied the flatter arch types like you are doing so maybe that is normal?

[joeykramer]

Not normal w flatter type arches. Just the way I did it. Im expecting to take a grinder to it when I get to that point. I did one bcthat's the way I saw it done before. But didn't understand how the lower ones get cut so left them whole and will cross that bridge soon Enuf. We'll see if it's a mistake or not

[joeykramer]

Should i be worried about the cracks ? I really do think it was bc of the brick bein dry. On some bricks where I needed to shift moments after setting, the mortar was real dry already.