36" Pompeii Dome Chicago

[RandyJ]

Looks great. I don't think i would mess with anything. It is what proves it was hand made and not out of a crate.

[Chach]

Looks great. I don't think i would mess with anything. It is what proves it was hand made and not out of a crate.

hahaha thats what a friend of mine said. how long do you have to wait to start curing? or should I build my vent arch first?

[Karangi Dude]

Well done Ricky,

Looks great you have got good symmetry on the last few courses.
IMO I wood put some insulation on first before you start the curing, I always suggest no flame just use what we call heat beads (briquettes) spread them out over the hearth and keep them going as long as you can I just did my oven for 14 hours straight I will do it another couple of times before I have the first small fire

Cheers Doug

[Chach]

Well done Ricky,

Looks great you have got good symmetry on the last few courses.
IMO I wood put some insulation on first before you start the curing, I always suggest no flame just use what we call heat beads (briquettes) spread them out over the hearth and keep them going as long as you can I just did my oven for 14 hours straight I will do it another couple of times before I have the first small fire

Cheers Doug

I will for sure do that...should I have the vent and outer arch done as well before I start? Im guessing yes.

[Karangi Dude]

Not necessarily, but you want to get some heat into that area as well so I would at least build the vent arch the decorative arch can be done afterwards

[UtahBeehiver]

Nice work, congrats on completing the dome. PS, agree with KD. You can use briquettes to start, more transitional heat and you can cook something is a dutch oven. Do insulate dome before curing.

[Chach]

I can't stop looking at it...I was goimg to build am enclosure aroumd it but now i like the shape comepared to the rest of the structures give it a little contrast there are squares rectangles and now a dome...I really have to think what I want to do. What does everyone think? I need some opinions.

[Chach]

Thanks everyone for your help on my build so far. In all honesty it really wasn't that bad better than I thought it would be because I was expecting to be frustrated more than i was lol. but being in the trades helped me a ton plus I've done a little brick work but nothing like this dome. I ended up with 18 1/4" on my dome height...not to bad I must say. if you stumble across this post and your thinking of building one...do it you won't regret it...I'm already happy and I didn't even use it yet.

[Chach]

Nice work, congrats on completing the dome. PS, agree with KD. You can use briquettes to start, more transitional heat and you can cook something is a dutch oven. Do insulate dome before curing.

I will for sure insulate before i cure and also build my entry arch and vent...when im curing and rain is coming and the oven is hot how do you protect it feom rain if its 500 degrees? tarp may melt on the flue im guessing maybe not the insulated dome. Im guessing I meed some good weather before I close her up.

[benthewhite]

I will for sure insulate before i cure and also build my entry arch and vent...when im curing and rain is coming and the oven is hot how do you protect it feom rain if its 500 degrees? tarp may melt on the flue im guessing maybe not the insulated dome. Im guessing I meed some good weather before I close her up.

I have been using one of the pop up tailgate tents. I keep it over the oven when I'm not working on it. It keeps the majority of rain off of it and limits the amount of moisture to just what I am putting in my homebrew. Obviously on days you decide to fire you'd want to move it out of the way.

Sounds like the move for these curing fires is to use charcoal briquettes for a long slow spread out firing.

[Chach]

I have been using one of the pop up tailgate tents. I keep it over the oven when I'm not working on it. It keeps the majority of rain off of it and limits the amount of moisture to just what I am putting in my homebrew. Obviously on days you decide to fire you'd want to move it out of the way.

Sounds like the move for these curing fires is to use charcoal briquettes for a long slow spread out firing.

We had some crazy winds here and storms so I have been using a tarp to keep it out of the elements. I was worried the tent would fly away even with staking it down. I may change to that now that the dome is complete and the oven can cool underneath after the fire is out

[RandyJ]

Hey Ricky it is looking nice. I understand what you are thinking of for the igloo shape. But i am always leary of that in our climate. It may work great out in the desert but wet and freezing are a bad combination with the dome as they seem to always have water infiltratetion issues and can be frozen apart.

[Chach]

Hey Ricky it is looking nice. I understand what you are thinking of for the igloo shape. But i am always leary of that in our climate. It may work great out in the desert but wet and freezing are a bad combination with the dome as they seem to always have water infiltratetion issues and can be frozen apart.

I agree with you it looks cool but you can never be too careful...im so torn.

[Chach]

I was planning on going with an 8" vent but now im thinking this may be overkill and change it back to 6" Is there a benefit to upsize the vent?

[RandyJ]

I know that there is some science behind the reason that a certain size chimney is recommended for a given size oven. But i do believe that a 6" is big enough for a 36" oven, maybe someone else will verify. I don't know if i have the original set of plans anymore. I may need to buy them again when i build the next oven.