36" Midwestern Pompeii

[Saluki]

You must be going broke on HS50. I bought one bag of that stuff and switched over to homebrew when I saw that a bag didn't go very far.

Its certainly not cheap, I'll think I'll be at 4 bags by the time the vent/arch is complete.

[Saluki]

[Saluki]

[Saluki]

[Saluki]

Finished up the dome, man, it really speeds up once you get past that arch. Now onto the landing/arch/vent. I think I need to do some deciphering get all this to come together. I ordered the anchor plate for the stainless chimney so once I get that I can see where I need to be.

[ivancito]

Saluki, Very nice job on your dome, the brickwork looks great. Wish my last course before the plug looked as good as yours. I look forward to the rest of your build and good luck with the vent.
Ivan

[Saluki]

Working on the vent and taking Beehivers advice, trying to cut these bricks at a taper.

Do you guys think I need partial bricks on the outside of the dome arch?

The outside of the vent arch will naturally be brick but I've seen it done both ways on the inner arch. Some double up against the dome arch and others don't

What are your thoughts?

[JRPizza]

I think you are asking if your vent structure should have it's own rear arch or if you should incorporate your inner arch into the vent? You need to decide whether you want a heat break and how much isolation you want from the oven heat, how long you want your vent/landing to be, how big of a reveal do you want to seal a door against, how much exhaust area do you need, and how you want to incorporate your chimney buildup. This is an area that took a bit of thought on my part.
If you want to retain as much heat as possible a heat break is the way to go. UtahBeehiver built a heat break and used his inner arch, but I could not figure out a way to copy his design as my bricks were different size than his, and with the 1.5" reveal I wanted my bricks adjacent to the inner arch would have been cut pretty thin (3" "tall"). I ended up with three arches allowing for a full heat break, and 4.5" tall bricks in my arch vs the 3" I would have had to use. Not knowing enough about arch strength, I wanted full height bricks for strength and stability. I used my cad program to play with a few designs in an attempt to get both enough exhaust area and brick width while using all of the landing space I had available. I also checked out many, many vents in different builds to see what was previously done.

[Saluki]

I think you are asking if your vent structure should have it's own rear arch or if you should incorporate your inner arch into the vent?

Yes, well said. That is the question. Perhaps this info will help; I dont plan on a heat break, the opening into the oven is roughly 19Wx12.5H, I plan on a 1.5" reveal and a landing of 13.5".

[JRPizza]

The world is your oyster - 13.5 (a brick and a half) is enough room to do a free standing vent arch like I did (with heat break) or an integrated one like UtahBeehiver did. I'd really encourage (and you will probably get this from several others) putting in a heat break of some sort. The break on the vent floor can be as simple as a 1/4 inch gap you let fill with ashes (what I did) and the arch break can be as simple as cutting an angle (like Russell) or notching the bricks like I copied from other builders. You've put so much good work into your oven to date - it would be a shame for you to wonder how much longer you could cook if you had put in a break. I have seen their usefulness debated, but if you put one in you never have to look back.
Since you have enough room to go either way on the arches, think about how you want to transition to your chimney and hopefully you will be able to visualize which way makes more sense to you and your build skills.

[thomasmn]

Yes, well said. That is the question. Perhaps this info will help; I dont plan on a heat break, the opening into the oven is roughly 19Wx12.5H, I plan on a 1.5" reveal and a landing of 13.5".

I did a 1.5 brick wide arch with about 1.5" reveal, I think you can see how I did the heat break in the two pictures I've posted. The separation between the arch in the dome and the vent is 1/4" and lined with fire rope. I caulked the outside of the separation with Fiberfrax caulk today as well as set the stainless chimney adapter with it and some tap cons.

[UtahBeehiver]

There are a bunch of ways to skin the cat with arch and floor heat breaks and without too much effort can be accomplished relatively easy. You spent all this time and effort into the oven, consider some form of heat break but it won't be the end of the world if you don't. With 1.5" reveals, this gives you lots of brick material options on the vent chamber to work with, ie "L" notch spacer stuffed with ceramic rope is one (look at Gulf's build).

[Saluki]

Thomas. Do you have any additional pics from inside the vent arch or a link to an album?

[thomasmn]

Thomas. Do you have any additional pics from inside the vent arch or a link to an album?

Anything in particular you want me to post? I haven't gotten a thread together yet, but the next two days of rain may change that..

[Saluki]

Those are prefect. Just looking to see what size others have left open in the vent arch. I hope to get that closed up by the end of the weekend.