Building The Dixie Darling

[WarEagle90]

The easy part is done . First course is in. Today was the first time I have ever actually laid brick. Not the best looking job, but its a start. Hopefully I'll get better as the build progresses. Plan to give the mortar a day or two to set and then I will clean up the floor and install some cardboard to protect it for the rest of the build. Question: What's a good procedure to keep the interior face of the brick clean as I go? I cleaned them the best I could with the trowel, but they still need a little work as will future courses. Gonna be a tired puppy before this is over. Climbing up and down the ladder, walking to the saw and bending over laying brick is all hard on the back and feet. But, that's OK. The food that will come out of it when completed is well worth the effort. Later ...

[plokuta]

Use a damp sponge to clean the face of the bricks as you go. Its much easier to clean when the mortar is wet.

[UtahBeehiver]

Agree, clean as you go but don't over saturate sponge. Remember to do your best work on the back half of the dome, the front half will not be seen once the dome is complete. Make adjustments on the front half, IE cut narrower or wider bricks to ensure staggered joint bonds,.

[WarEagle90]

Thanks for the feedback Plokuta and Russell. My plan was to work from the back around to the dome and stay a course or two ahead of tying the dome into the arch. That is, I will lay the second course this weekend and stop a couple bricks from the arch and give that course time to set and then come back and tie it into the dome and then start the next course and do the same. I want to give those bricks near the arch time to cure so when I go to working with the odd bricks at the arch I don't accidentally knock them loose. Been getting ready for my son's 18th birthday this weekend so not much progress in the evenings. Will hit it hard Saturday and Sunday.

[WarEagle90]

Weekend Update ...

I think I have been referencing the courses of the oven wrong. Last week I said I had placed the first course, but in reality I had actually placed the soldier course. Yesterday, I cut and laid the real 1st course to within a couple bricks of the arch. Yes, there is a gap in the brick at about 3 O'clock. I was starting to drift off bond so I moved to the next brick to get back on track. I will cut and lay the missing brick before I start mortaring the 2nd course. I had hoped to get more done, but we had a crawfish boil for my son's birthday Friday evening so I spent most of Saturday morning cleaning up and putting away pots and cookers. Today I started cutting the 2nd course after completing a few honey do's around the house. I built a jig for the wet saw very similar to the one Russell built. Well, it's actually not similar, its identical save for the tilt adjustment that I added to mine. I failed to take a picture of it before I put the saw away. I'll get one the next time I have it out. I think I've said this before, watching you guys cut and lay brick looks very easy but when its time for me to do it, somehow it gets complicated. With the 2nd course I started cutting compound miters and it took quite a few minutes for me to wrap my head around it. Now, I do quite a bit of woodworking and make these types of cuts a lot, but for some reason with the brick, I just couldn't see it. The ol' brain finally got going and figured it out though. I only cut one brick wrong . I think what was throwing me off was the very shallow angle of the tilt. It was hard to see and visualize. Now just hope I remember how to do it next weekend. Dry stacked a few just to verify that the cuts were correct. More to come. Thanks for following along.

[WarEagle90]

One other comment/question. Take a look at the first photo above. Can anyone see the first screw up? You'll probably have to zoom in to see it, but its there. For now, I'm calling it my signature, lol. I'll post a close up next time I have the tarp off so I can take a better picture of it. Ok, that's all for tonight.

[UtahBeehiver]

Coming along nicely. All said a done, when people look inside the oven while it is firing they focus on the pizza and the flames. Only you will know where the signature brick is.

[Sharkey]

Hi WarEagle.
I think you may have worked it out but your arch bricks need to be cut so that the normal dome bricks just butt up against them without any fancy cuts. The red line I have added to your picture gives you the shape required.

[WarEagle90]

Sharkey, you would be correct about the fancy cuts and I hope that is the last one like that. Wishful thinking on my part probably . My plan is to stop a couple bricks short of the arch on each successive course and work out the tie in with the arch before I cut the last few bricks.We'll see how that works out. Wish me luck

[Sharkey]

Just remember - on every one of your arch bricks that red line is the projection of your IT and the width of that cut is a half brick width for the dome bricks to be placed against. The inner edge of the arch brick is just another piece of the inside of your dome. If you remember those two things you will manage the tapered arch.

[WarEagle90]

...... The inner edge of the arch brick is just another piece of the inside of your dome. .......

Thanks Sharkey. Your statement above may have turned the light on. Although it now appears obvious, I just never thought of it that way. Finished up the 1st course last night including tying into the arch and cut most of the bricks for the 2nd course. Getting ready to go lay those and then cut #3. More this evening.

[WarEagle90]

Its starting to look like an oven and I'm tired. Finished up the 3rd course today.... well kind of .... I stopped short of the arch. Now I know why someone said on another build to be sure to keep the arch at least on brick above the dome. I started out planning to lay a course up to the arch, place the arch brick and then complete the course. BUT, that won't (didn't) work. Because of the way the arch bricks sit, they intersect more than one course. Once I saw it, I was like, darn Dan, you should have realized that before now . Have I mentioned that when I build my NEXT WFO that will make 2 I've built? Anyway, I worked myself out of that little issue. That's why when you see the photos, I stopped a couple bricks short of the arch until I get the tapers cut and catch up with the dome. Before I finished up for the day today, I laid 3 "anchor bricks" for course #4. That's one piece of advice that I have taken to heart and thankful for it. Much, much easier to lay the bricks when you have something to push against that won't move . Question for the day: How do you clean the interior joints of the arch up against the form? I just used my finger by reaching through the form. That was really the only thing I could get in that space. Thanks for following along on this journey.

[WarEagle90]

I promised last week to provide photos of the "Russell" Jig I built for the saw. I call it the Russell jig because I saw it in his build log. I did add a vertical angle adjustment knob. If anyone has any questions or wants more information about how I went about building it, let me know. Anyway, photos are below.

[JRPizza]

Dan, don't forget to kick the bricks up a little that intersect your arch, or you will end up with the dreaded droop. As the dome gets smaller towards the top, the bricks are at an increasing angle to horizontal, which is where the inverted vee comes from. If you keep the vee the same size as you approach the arch you won't get a droop but lots of folks (I'm one) make that last brick too horizontal and by the time you get to the top of the arch you are too low. I tried to make a sketch of what I am talking about but I'm not sure it helps or not, but you can see from my build pic that I failed to kick up the last brick and ended up with having to do some custom cuts. I used a level across my bricks (side to side) and was fooled as everything was level, but they were level too low. If I would have placed the level from the arch adjacent brick pointing back to the rear of the oven I might have detected the drooping.

[WarEagle90]

JR, thanks for that reminder. I've told myself over and over to keep an eye on the droop issue, but it has not crossed my mind while laying bricks until you mentioned it. I saw where Joe (Gulf) used a laser level to help with the droop so I assume that the challenge is to keep the top, interior edge of the brick against the arch in the same plane as the adjoining brick's. Looking at the pictures, it looks simple to prevent but I know it doesn't quite work that way in practice. Now let's hope I don't forget between now and the weekend. That's a long time for my feeble mind .