36" WF Pompeii Oven in Maryland

[bentedesco]

OH! Thank you, for differentiating the insulation but not stucco before the cure.

Also, I saw you mention adding a breather vent for steam, is it ok to just use a plastic vent for this?

I was thinking of using a 1/2" Brass Swing Check Valve capped off with a 1/2" Brass Pneumatic Air Breather Vent Silencer



UPDATE: I think I'm going to use a copper soffit vent like this one, slightly $$ but I think it will lol great in the end.
4" Round Louvered Copper Insert Vent with Screen https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKMNZYG..._sw7ZCbDDHPNQE

[UtahBeehiver]

Kinda spendy with both a check valve and plug, you can get by with this and 1/2" pvc bushing. Then rain will not ingress in. Can find and most car part stores for 5-6 bucks.

[bentedesco]

A lot's been happening over the past 2 weeks. I built the hearth and yesterday insulated the dome with 2, 2" rolls of insulating blanket. I was pleasantly surprised that the blankets had some stiffness so they could be shaped. The most annoying part really was securing the mesh over top of the insulation. Last night I ran sterno cans for 6 hours and had ~115 degree fires. Today I plan to run my remaining sterno cans 2 at a time- this should bring a constant low 200 degree heat (a friend gave me a dozen cans for free so I figured I might as well use them). Tomorrow I plan to use some lump charcoal from my smoker in a cast Iron pot to get a 300 degree fire, then I'll start using wood on Tuesday.

Hopefully next week I can then stucco the dome with quikwall. I'm planning 2 coats of stucco; 1 scratch coat + fortifier, 1 top coat with fortifier and crushed stained glass that I'm going to polish.

I must say, it's quite rewarding to be this close to the finish-line, I'm already looking around for a few stacks wood to start cooking with!

[bentedesco]

A lot has happened since my last post- I was able to do a number of curing fires and I built my door. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to throw some sourdough in the oven and put my initial coat of stucco on. Also, I found some really nice copper vents that I think I'm going to use to help any steam escape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Chach]

Very nice work...Looks like your enjoying it the right way with a bunch of delicious food

[fox]

Looks great, exciting times for you!
I normally just use a short piece of copper pipe for the vent and seal it over once the oven is cured.
I think some form of insulated door is a good idea especially if you want to cook the next day.

[david s]

Looks great, exciting times for you!
I normally just use a short piece of copper pipe for the vent and seal it over once the oven is cured.
I think some form of insulated door is a good idea especially if you want to cook the next day.

I think there is merit in designing a vent that allows the release of moisture but not allowing water entry. After going to the trouble of installing one it seems counterintuitive and counter-productive to seal it up again. Depending on your weather conditions and if you have roof over the oven, but torrential downpours and prolonged humidity do result in moisture in the highly absorbent insulation layer. The vent not only helps as a safety valve to remove excess steam pressure, but also assists in removing moisture faster. Regarding the oven curing, I believe it is far safer to drive out the water after the insulation has been applied, but before doing the final render, if building an igloo style. For a dog kennel style, which is rarely totally sealed, there will probably be many gaps in the roof so a vent is unnecessary.

[fox]

Well I guess people have their own ideas and I personally prefer to seal the vent during the winter and open it up for spring when I light the first few fires.
Once I am satisfied the oven is dry and working efficiently, I re plug the vent .
Perhaps if I lived in a warm dry winter climate I would leave in open all year.
I did in fact install a 4” vent on the first few ovens I built, this allowed a screw down dome top to be fitted so it could be closed off with a twist.
However that sort of vent spoils the oven appearance so I use a 3/4” piece of copper pipe, I just use a wine bottle cork to seal it off.
Some customers like to have the dome coated with GRP in that case I would still install a 4” vent.
I don’t have a picture to hand of the twist down vent but I have one showing the vent hole.

[mburham]

I found the same bronze/copper 2" vent as inspired by your previous post! I am going to put one on either side of the entry on the outside, assumption is most moisture will enter there from rain etc.

[david s]

Well I guess people have their own ideas and I personally prefer to seal the vent during the winter and open it up for spring when I light the first few fires.
Once I am satisfied the oven is dry and working efficiently, I re plug the vent .
Perhaps if I lived in a warm dry winter climate I would leave in open all year.
I did in fact install a 4” vent on the first few ovens I built, this allowed a screw down dome top to be fitted so it could be closed off with a twist.
However that sort of vent spoils the oven appearance so I use a 3/4” piece of copper pipe, I just use a wine bottle cork to seal it off.
Some customers like to have the dome coated with GRP in that case I would still install a 4” vent.
I don’t have a picture to hand of the twist down vent but I have one showing the vent hole.

Yes, that’s good. When you said “seal it over” my understanding was that you rendered over the hole permanently. Dry ovens still get wet again if exposed to the weather. In our case extreme humidity (we live in the tropics) for a couple of weeks, even if there’s no rain, is enough to wet oven and insulation enough to impair performance, the oven requiring at least one long slow fire to restore normal functioning.

[bentedesco]

Just wanted to post a progress report. Yesterday, I was able to run a coat of quikwall over the dome and test various stains.

Today, I was able to run another coat of quikwall on my dome and began to decorate with the stained glass. Even though we are only partially done, I am VERY pleased with the results. I think I'm still going to skimcoat over some of the rough edges and come back with a polishing brush, to give it that finished look (an added bonus of the stained glass is that it hides any imperfections of the dome form geometry)

[bentedesco]

Busy day, completed all the stained glass mosaic- pretty much worked from 7am - 7pm only stopping for lunch. Overall, I think it went well, I need to figure out how to polish/buff the glass as there are some mortar streaks on some of the pieces. Only thing left is to quikwall the base, buff/polish the dome, and install the chimney! Looks like we are on track for a Memorial Day Pizza Picnic!

[bentedesco]

Almost done!! We've been able to do quite a bit of cooking in the oven and I've used acid to clean up some of the stained glass. The crack in the back of the oven is frustrating (pictures 1 & 6) , but it looks like this is just due to thermal expansion (https://community.fornobravo.com/for...ne-crack/page2). Hopefully today, I can get the chimney laid and tomorrow cap it ...I can't believe that after almost a year this project is almost finished!

[UtahBeehiver]

The cracks could of been caused by the joints lining up. But as long as the shell is good then all is well. I build mine in 2012 and I still have a few things to do on my oven, so the work is really never over....lol

[JRPizza]

If the oven wants to crack it will crack. I didn't have joints lined up so the crack in my oven just went right through a couple of bricks. I think it was david s that said you want your mortar to be weaker than your bricks - apparently not mine