36" WF Pompeii Oven in Maryland

[UtahBeehiver]

Depends on your height, everybody is different. Typical rule of thumb is elbow height.

[bentedesco]

I've been working on designing my base and trying to ensure the correct height for the oven.

Right now, it's looking like my oven cooking surface will be about 44" high, is this too tall?

I've worked the calculations as follows:

Base: 32" (4 rows of 8" blocks)
Hearth: 4"
Cement Pavers: 2"
Fb Board: 2"
FireBrick: 3 1/2"
Mortar + Margin of Error: 1/2"

Total: ~44"

[bentedesco]

To make it moveable wirh a brick chimney? Id consider designing/building the chimney to be independent of the dome. The chimney would be piece #1. The dome and dome slab would be piece #2.

The more I think about what you and Dave S have said, while I like brick chimneys, it makes sense to go with a stovepipe here. Also reducing the bricks would take some weight off the base & the flatbed when I attempt to move it. Great ideas guys, thank you so much!

[mongota]

To make it moveable wirh a brick chimney? Id consider designing/building the chimney to be independent of the dome. The chimney would be piece #1. The dome and dome slab would be piece #2.

[bentedesco]

No doubt you will also encounter similar difficulty tapering the chimney using brick units.
Because of the extra weight of a brick chimney over an arch it is recommended that the arch walls be buttressed to handle the extra stress.

Good call there david s, regarding the buttress. I like the look and durability of brick, however, I haven't considered the need to buttress a brick chimney.

JRPizza did a nice chimney build on his unit where he had a nice brick stack with an 8" pipe at the top

[david s]

[QUOTE=bentedesco;n40690

Also, I'm planning on using brick to build my chimney up and it will be tapered at the end (I just couldn't figure out how to do that in the Cad program)[/QUOTE]

No doubt you will also encounter similar difficulty tapering the chimney using brick units.
Because of the extra weight of a brick chimney over an arch it is recommended that the arch walls be buttressed to handle the extra stress.

[bentedesco]

Hi Everyone! I've been planning my build for a while and finally I poured my slab yesterday! It feels great to be getting started! While I'm anxious to continue the build, with all the rain we've had in Maryland over the past few days, I want to wait to make sure its solid enough to start building up. I'll probably start laying my base mid next week, in the meanwhile, I figured I would start documenting the process.

One unique aspect of my design is that I am going to try and attempt to make this oven semi-permanent. My Grandfather is in his 90's and is from Italy. We've wanted to do a build together, however, I probably will only be in this house another 2-3 years. Given that we don't know what the future holds, We decided to try and attempt to design our oven in such a way that I can use a skid loader + flatbed to take this with me when I move as this oven will have special significance for me family. (I'm sure I will need to go back and do some patching with after transportation, but its worth at least attempting this while we can).

Right now, the idea is to pour an incredibly reinforced slab and then float the first layer of cinder-blocks horizontally on the slab to allow the skids to pick up the oven. I'm thinking that I might have a 50/50 shot that it could work, however, given the significant to my family, it's worth a try. (Once I get to my future home, I'll pour a new foundation and mortar the bottom cinder blocks down, I even don't mind rebuilding the base and just reusing the hearth/oven). If any of you have ideas how I can further reinforce this oven, I'm more than open to your thoughts, but I am pretty determined to at least make this attempt with my grandfather. If nothing else, at least we will be able to still enjoy the oven here before I move in a few years.

Also, I'm planning on using brick to build my chimney up and it will be tapered at the end (I just couldn't figure out how to do that in the Cad program)