A new Folly at Full Moon Farm-- build thread

[rwiegand]

We have an oculus! Unfortunately it is too big for a two brick plug so I'm going to try to fashion two pieces that hit most of the angles then a wedge in the middle to lock everything in place. Cutting a conate heptagon ought to be an interesting challenge. I decided to take it on first thing in the morning rather than when I'm tired.

(Yes, I cleaned up the inside of the dome before the mortar set, after I took that picture)

[agrasyuk]

You will not need to support bricks if you do your mortar right , even on the very last row. Tap them in, hold in place for 5-10 seconds and they will just magically float in the air defying gravity.

As for the saw, try to push it less perhaps and give the blade a chance. HF saw is of sufficient quality for the job. Maybe a luxury even, many here built with an agle grinder and I seen some chisel-hammer builds .

[ubcpsyc]

Looks great! I ended up using an exercise ball and putting a garbage bag on top.. I know others have supported a round piece of plywood from below.

Good luck!

[rwiegand]

Two more courses today. Going surprisingly well given the steep angle now. I'm not sure at what point I'll need to rely on a physical support to hold the bricks up until a ring is complete.

The angles required at this point are much steeper and the brick count much lower than the spreadsheet would suggest. I'm going to jump a course for the next round to try to get a better side angle. It doesn't help that the HF brick saw flexes so much in use. I'm just gritting my teeth to get through this, telling myself I'll probably never have need again for protracted use of a wet saw. For every other purpose I long ago gave up on buying cheap tools, this saw is constantly reminding me why that was a good choice.

[rwiegand]

Speaking of the mouth of the dragon, I just (10 min ago) finished a sketch for the proposed exterior. I've been wanting to use that dragon tile someplace for a long time, I made this to share with the potter to talk about colors and how he might do the bottom half of the circle.

[Gulf]

The "engine" is looking just fine. And, I'm sure that what ever "chassis that you place it in will look mighty fine too!. All that said, they won't see nothing but the "mouth of the dragon" when you fire it up .

[rwiegand]

I'm writing a bit tongue in cheek, but people have way better examples to look at than mine on this site. My respect for the other builders who did such beautiful work has gone up dramatically, having now tried it.

Now to get my outer, more visible arch to be beautiful.

[agrasyuk]

Transition area of the inner arch is probably the most complex task in this project. As with all things practice makes it better, but not being a pro I sure know where I could improve on that if I ever to build an oven again. As such no one on here going to grill you to much so you could have easily posted your pictures.

[UtahBeehiver]

Nobody looks inside the oven after it is done and you are are cooking. They are more interested in what comes out..............

[rwiegand]

Haven't posted for a while, but have been making progress. I have to fess up and say that I have given up on ever being inducted into the pantheon of FB beautiful oven builders. In trying to cut the bricks for my arch I found that I simply could not look at at a three dimensional space and cut a brick to fill it exactly. No amount of measuring and marking seemed to help. I knew what I was trying to accomplish, but couldn't get the hands and eyes to do it. So the inside of my arch is fugly. And I'm not going to show any pictures of it because it's embarrassing. I think it will not fall down, and I'm hoping the pizza won't tell. If anyone wants to come inspect that inner curve with a mirror or inspection camera they're welcome to, but will get no pizza.

Looking forward to closing the dome in the next several days, and then on to the vent.

[rwiegand]

My brick work isn't nearly as nice as many I've seen on this site. I keep telling myself that as long as it is structurally sound the pizza won't care how neat and precise it is. I think I'm finally getting the arch integration geometry in concept; cutting the bricks to fit exactly is still giving me fits.

[rwiegand]

Progress! After staring, measuring and fussing I completed cutting and installing my soldier course equivalent. It went pretty well, though I didn't manage to keep my bond even around the circle, for reasons I don't fully understand-- all the bricks were the same for all three courses. Minor variation in mortar thickness, I guess.

What's the usual pot life of mortar? I'm using Heat Stop 50 and I could barely get around one circle before it seemed to be starting to set up, maybe 20-30 minutes. For the future I'll be doing one ring at a time probably, so this will work out fine, but it seems short to me.

Using the spreadsheet calculated brick angle it wasn't going to be possible for the bricks to be touching at the interior of the dome, I ended up with ~1/8" mortar lines.

[rwiegand]

Progress was slow this week due to other aspects of life taking priority and analysis paralysis over placement of the door. With Russell's help I hope that is now behind me and I can get on with it. I built my inner arch form and my IT, which now make it pretty obvious where to put the door. I've cut and placed the insulation, laid out the floor, and installed the IT. I've been talked out of the traditional soldier course and will lay a couple of sailor courses to give me about 4-1/2" of vertical before beginning the hemisphere. Next up is to build a "Chipster" jig for compound the bricks

[rwiegand]

OK, got it, thanks!

[UtahBeehiver]

The two left and right upper corners of the vertical stacked arch bricks should intersect the ID arc of the dome, in version 2 the lower left and right corners of the arch intersect the OD of the dome, Still need to move the vertical bricks back a little more. The IT sets the ID of the dome.