Finally getting to building WFO in Calgary, Canada

[shanxk8]

Also worked on the inner arch this past week and weekend. Fun story there, my neighbour visited a friend in Naramata BC back in June, who also built a WFO from a precast kit. The friend in Naramata sent him home with his arch template, which I've modified to re-use in a second oven.
He also sent my neighbour home with a box of cherry tree wood for my first oven firing. (I'll have to decide if I want to use it for curing or for actual cooking, i'm leaning toward the latter).

I recut the front piece of the "Naramata arch" to fit my arch shape and worked this weekend to get my inner arch bricks cut, chamfered (for dome curve and vent side), and notched for the outer arch/heat break. All that test layouts and cutting occupied all my available time this weekend without any progress mortaring (which was disappointing). (Also dulled my diamond wet saw blade so need to get myself another ).

[shanxk8]

Photos after Course # 2 complete

[shanxk8]

Photos from Course 2 (partly complete)

[shanxk8]

This past week was able to work through a couple of courses, so here are a few update photos. Course #1

[Apaulo13]

I just found this. Lots of pictures but not in English. Similar flue idea.

https://www.grillsportverein.de/forum/threads/bau-eines-folly-englische-ruine-mit-pizzaofen-grillkamin-kombination-und-foga.152374/page-27

[JRPizza]

Even with my 10" saw, I still had to use the angle grinder on each brick - a good masonry grinding wheel makes short work of those firebricks.

[shanxk8]

That answer makes sense. Cutting only one set of arch bricks does sound smarter in that it is less cuts to make. If i'm making a 3.25" deep cut i will have to break out my grinder because my wet saw (for tiles) will only make a 1.25" deep cut.

[JRPizza]

I started with half bricks, so they were 4.5X4.5 looking from the side, and I made my cuts 1.25 inch from the right side (in the pic) and 3.25 up from the bottom, to give a 1.25X1.25 projection that went above and over my inner arch, if that makes sense the way I explained it. Have a look at the first picture. The second pic is the L cut bricks for the upper part of the arch, and the last pic shows the lower part of the arch and how I angled those bricks. When I did it, I thought I had it all figured out, then remembered I had to shorten the bricks to account for the mortar.
Let me know if this answer makes more questions

[shanxk8]

JR, if I were to modify the reveal to 1", I suspect I would not want to cut the "L" to leave only a 1" ledge on the inner arch bricks, correct? Better to make equal size "L"cuts out off both the inner (cut from top) and outer (cut from bottom) arch bricks?

[JRPizza]

Yes. There is quite a bit of opinion of reveal size, but I find my one inch to be just fine. Your mileage may vary, as they say.
I had some concern, as although my bricks were full height, I had some that were just over 3" fore/aft to keep my landing at 1.5 brick total and obtain the vent opening I wanted. I was worried I needed "deeper" bricks for stability, but it came out fine.

[shanxk8]

The reveal i have on the inner arch is 2" currently. Rereading your post, it sounds as though you suggest I could reduce this reveal to 1" (this would increase outer arch to 4", at which point I might as well just leave a full 4.5" wide brick if it fits.

Did I understand your post correctly JR?

[shanxk8]

Here's a cutaway picture, red = inner keystone, blue = outer keystone

[shanxk8]

The 3" tall brick is to due to thought in my head that my arch with exterior finishing (insulation & stucco or brick) will extend past edge of my hearth if I use 4.5" tall bricks (that become 4.5" wide at bottom).

I will pull a cross section from my sketchup to illustrate the 3" brick.

[JRPizza]

Can you show a side view? I'm having a little trouble visualizing what you are doing? Not sure why you want to make your bricks 3" tall. You probably want to build a reveal against/above your inner arch, so if it is around an inch you can accommodate the reveal and the "L" and still do a full height (4.5) brick - you can see my L bricks in the picture. They extend above the inner arch to provide a reveal, a heat break, and an overlap/extension over the inner arch.

[shanxk8]

Before I progress too far with laying my courses, i wanted to seek input if my vent & inner outer arch makes sense to the experienced builders. My inner arch (attached to dome) is planned to have straight sided that meet a semicircle arch with a radius of 11.5". These will be full width (4.5") bricks, cut to the taper to make ~3/8 inch mortar joints.

I intend to cut an "L" out of the front outside corner of the inner arch. I am thinking this would be 1 to 1 1/4" deep (in horizontal direction) and 2.5" down in vertical direction. The outer arch would sit on the "L" cutout with ceramic rope for thermal break. I plan that the outer arch will be a full semicircle, with radius of ~13.5". This would require a cutout similar to the "L" on the vertical portions of the inner arch, to accommodate the outer arch. The outer arch would be made from a 9" & 3" length bricks, but use 3" width (in same direction as 4.5" for inner arch). The 3" wide brick is where my question resides and is to try to make the vent landing more compact.

My current plan would make the outer arch 11" deep inside the cavity and 12" deep on top. The top 12" depth to accommodate chimney mount on top of vent.
I then tried to sketchup my thought on how the s-shape vent/flue would work. The s-shape part that deviates from the outer arch would be ~6" deep to match the 6" chimney pipe ID. The front decorative arch will likely be plain red brick (not in sketchup drawing).

I am wondering if anyone thinks that having an outer arch of 3" wide (?tall?) bricks as i have planned will be an issue?

In the attached sketchup, red brick would be inner arch keystone and blue brick would be outer arch "keystone".

Thanks,
David