New Build - 42" with Santa Maria Grill in So. Cal

[Brick Oven Nick]

Hi,

i am about where you were in this picture (post #22) 4 courses built) (although, my arch and landing work is not yet built). How much tapering did you do on your bricks? I did the first 3 course without any tapering, just a straight cut down the middle to make equal sized bricks and I'm using lots of mortar. Also, the gaps between the brick on the outside are pretty wide. Did I see somewhere that we want to limit the gaps to 1/8"? Anyways, just curious how you did yours. I'd like to avoid having to do too much tapering of the brick because it sounds hard and time consuming to make all those cuts.

Thanks!

[Damer419]

Hi Nick......RandyJ gave some excellent advise when I was about on course two that I took to heart. He said if he were to do a build over again he would miter but not angle(taper) the bricks (Ive since heard JRPizza echo the same). I bought the fancy new HF brick saw and had every intent on tapering and mitering, but after attempting it a lil I took Randy's advise and just mitered all the bricks. Used up a lil more mortar but I built my whole oven with 6 bags of sand, 1 bag of cement, 1 bag of lime and 1.5 bags of clay. So mortar expense was not an issue.

I have no regrets what so ever. I cannot comment on the functionality w/o tapering, but as far as the build goes, I would do it again that way in a heartbeat. I basically wanted the dome built in 3 months and it ended up taking about 6 weeks. Mainly working on weekends and a few days off during the week.

The angle for the miter was basically the number given in the dome spreadsheet calculator in the column labelled "Side Tilt (if using Chipster's Jig)"

Hope this helps.....im in the middle of curing and might even get to cooking temps this weekend. If it does not rain too much

[Damer419]

Thank you Ivan for the kind words. I often looked to your build for reference.

I have a question for you or anyone else that wants to chime in........The angle support you used as buttresses are they just heavy duty shelf brackets?? I think I want/should/need to support as well but not sure if I should use something to what you did or just use brick. I am building a house, so it doesn't have to be pretty. If I use brick would it just be a "brick stack tower" abutting my inner and outer arch verticals? Any advise is appreciated.....

BTW the first fire felt pretty damn good......i was kind of giddy watching the flames. more to come......

D

[ivancito]

Yes the brackets are heavy duty shelf brackets bought at Lowes, and í just used the ceramic fiber board against the side vertical wall and í used tapcon screws. I did this to provide extra support for my arch. Glad to be of help.
Ivan

[ivancito]

Questions: I plan on doing an enclosure and is a 36" chimney long enough? I am sure it varies based on style of roof and what not, but can it be pulled off with 36"? I found a deal for 88 bucks on amazon (see link) but dont want to be short. Saw a few builds with 36" but i think mainly for igloos. I am alreqady WAAAAAY over budget and if I can save 150 bucks, I need to jump on it. I guess I could build an extra foot of brick chimney to make up the difference??

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...A22BC1FJGECFCG

Damon, I'm sure you already know but I thought 36" would be enough for my build but after I got the roof trusses in, I realized I needed another 24" to clear the chimney and also increased the draft in the oven.
The smoke exiting the front arch into the entryway looks like a mini tornado, really cool to look at.
Good luck.
Ivan

[ivancito]

Holy crap I cannot believe that I am starting a build thread. After literally years of lurking, taking notes, and day-dreaming the time has finally come! Don’t know if I am really excited or gonna soil my britches……or maybe both!!!! So my plan consists of a 42” oven flanked by a 48” Santa Maria (it is a California thang) grill that I had made in Santa Maria a few months ago and an equal length counter on the other side.

Here is my original sketch that I did a few years ago. Few things have changed with regards to the house, but overall the concept is the same. My son and I made an awesome lego model too J

Damon

Wow! The Santa Maria Grill looks awesome, I was thinking of adding one to the side of my oven as well. Any chance you could share any construction drawings?
thanks
Ivan

[Damer419]

The grill is awesome Ivan.......can feed an army and is easy on the eyes. I had mine built in Santa Maria by JD Fabrications. Google them. They ship all over the US.

They have pretty simple engineering and with minimal welding experience I am sure it would be easy to make. I have never welding anything so I didn't go that route. I can PM you some detailed pics of the components if you want to get a closer look.

Damon

[Dino_Pizza]

Hi Damon,
I just went thru your build this morning and it looks awesome. Great job and congrats on closing up and starting your fires.

I do want to let you know that I used a 4' (48" x 8" inside, 10" outside) double wall duravent, not a 3'. So you might want to look into extending it as Ivan (per his post above) did. Then again, I haven't been on this forum for a while so I don't know if most are having a good draft on the 36" or not. Might depend on how large the "flue-box" area is at your landing as it transitions to the 8" duct.

Great job, your going to love your oven.
-Dino

[Damer419]

Dino - Thank you for the kind words and a big thank you to your build thread and your many CAD drawings. They were the baseline for my build and proved to be invaluable to me. Your build certainly lives on through many ovens that followed yours.

and thank you for the confirmation on the chimney length.....................

[Damer419]

Was a monumental weekend here for me........Felt pretty surreal to watch the dome clear and the first pies go in the oven. No insulation on the oven yet so temps were hard to hold up for too long. Cleared dome back to back days and no noticeable cracks in dome (I know I just screwed myself) .....so I better wrap it in insulation before I notice any.

Made a few different pizzas and tested a few different batches of dough. My wife and I LOVE the Thai chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen and I found their recipe online so I gave it a go and wow was it good. The favorite in the house by far.

On to the next

[Gulf]

Great looking pies, Damon.

Pic number 3 is one of those type pics that hypnotizes and hooks others into building an oven . Now that you have taisted food from the oven, it is going to be very difficult to finish. Once I did, all I wanted to do was fire and cook. I'll eventually get around to hanging the bottle opener one day .

[Damer419]

Question: I'm in the process of framing my house. A piece of 18ga steel studs fits across the top of my outer arch but it is touching the chimney. Is that a no no? My chimney the double lined duratech. I can't image it getting crazy hot to melt or catch fire. I know there are standoff requirements on flues with wood construction, but unsure about steel construction.

Thanks in advance

D

[Damer419]

So I was able to figure out how the steel wouldn't touch the chimney so I am good there. Here is my hybrid wood/steel house construction. I am sure with experience it would be easier to work with, but I hated that steel stuff. Maybe the 18ga made it harder, but it sucked to cut. And was hard to keep square. Framing is over soon the the finish!

[Damer419]

Slow progress here as since the oven is usable, I find my self playing with it more than working on it......from what Ive read that is a common problem.......here are a few pics

This has to change, My wife wants her backyard back.....it has looked like a tornado hit it since Thanksgiving weekend!

[cnegrelli]

Damer - It appears you have the drop-in version of the SM Grill, that doesn't have a steel firebox. Did you use firebrick? How do you clean it out? From above? Is there any mechanism to control oxygen into the SM grill? Trying to figure out how to get the grease cleaned out...