42” Pompeii in San Felipe, MX

[modified9v]

It sounds like you may need to put a bee bath a little ways from your oven

That is a great idea. These are the good bugs after all. I think the neighbor an 1/8 mile away needs a bee bath.

[JRPizza]

You were asking about pre-mixing your dry mortar with the sand. That is what I did, and I used my cement mixer to tumble all the ingredients together. I filled up a 5 gallon bucket that I had a tight fitting lid with rubber gasket. Never felt like I had any separation of ingredients. If I remember right I wet mixed in another 5 gallon bucket and usually ended up with about 4" in the bottom. My inner faces fit tight but those big gaps in the back sure did eat a lot of mortar.

[david s]

I’d caution against this idea unless you can guarantee that there is absolutely no moisture in the sand, otherwise the brew is going to start going off. Cement should be added fresh to any mix for this reason. When I buy a load of sand it’s always moist and it’s difficult to get it dry if used for a bagged up mix to be used at a later date.

[modified9v]

Thanks for the tips on pre-mixing dry ingredients guys!!! Now that I think about it, I have 4 sacks of pre-mix concrete in the garage for my horseshoe pit stakes and they are getting hard just from the little humidity that we have here. I’ve seen bags like that turn to solid concrete before.

I really don’t know how wet the sand is... it is in bags and it feels dry, but like David S stated even a little moisture and the brew could start to go off. It’s not killin’ me to mix it one batch at a time and it seems to work... was just hoping to expedite things and gain a little space in the garage.

Again, thanks JR & David...
Mikie V.

Oh, wanted to mention that I’m taking today off after all. My hands need to heel up some. Those bricks are unforgiving knuckle busters. I’ve been wearing latex mechanic’s gloves (It’s what I know) at least when mixing and working with mortar, but now I wear them even when handling and cutting bricks. I put lubriderm on my hands before I slip on the gloves.

Remember that this stuff is really not good for your skin, or your lungs for that matter... use proper protection.

[modified9v]

Oh, one other thing... I had asked earlier about taking the grinder to some ugly mortar in my inner arch to clean things up. After knocking those bricks off (intentionally) yesterday I found that it was more the vibration that knocked them loose rather than the hammer blows. Therefore, I believe that the vibrations from the grinder wheel could do potentially the same thing to mortar joints that are critical to the strength of the mass. I will leave the mess at least for now.

[UtahBeehiver]

David is right if you get bulk sand which is most of the time washed. I used bagged quartz sand.

[Chach]

I used a 1 quart bucket and used that to make my 3-1-1-1 mix in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid so I had 3 quarts sand 1 quart each of lime fire clay and portland i sealed the bucket and shook it. this took a few minutes to make then I scooped out what I wanted of the dry mix for mortar and mixed up small batches until it was all gone. I kept doing this. My sand was bagged but kept indoors in the store so was pretty dry. I used quickcrete masons san but I still mixed all the ingredients in small batches in the 5 gallon bucket with lid. i would do this twice or three times everytime i worked on the build

Ricky

[modified9v]

Good info on working with mortar. Thank you.

I didn’t bother taking any pictures today... nothing to see but pieces of brick and a lot of dust. I have cut all the bricks going over the arch. Not seeing the droop but I will be super careful when they are placed. I checked it every way I could and if the IT is right, it will look decent. Took a long time to get those suckers that intersect the arch. I think it’s going to be real good.

Working with these 3rd bricks takes a long time. I’m going up and down a lot to cut. Can’t seem to find a happy angle for the “V”... There really isn’t much consistency in the ring below so jigging only gets me close... I did consider just trimming the edge but the saw just does a better job. If anyone has experienced this if you could chime in. A solution would be better.

Thanks, maybe tomorrow
Mike V.

[modified9v]

Well, I made it over. This really feels like a major accomplishment but I know there is a lot of work ahead.

It’s not the cleanest and it is a little lumpy... ehhhh, we can clean it up.. but you get the idea,

Mikie V.

[UtahBeehiver]

Nice job clearing the arch. Looks good, it gets easier now.

[modified9v]

Thanks... I really appreciate you guys convincing me to do the tapered arch. As much of a pain in the butt it was I’m sure in the end it saved time vs not doing it... and a lot cleaner too. It should draft very well. I think it looks pretty cool and was satisfying to complete. Like you say, it should get easier from here. Just a bunch of cutting and mortaring until the dome is finished... not a lot of head scratching for a bit.

I am thinking about the vent area, outer arch and chimney thing. The plan has always been to have heat breaks between the floor (cooking surface) and dome and the inner arch to outer arch. Pictured is the square ceramic fiber braid I plan to use as a gasket material between the “L” cut section of brick and the inner arch. I want to tuck one rope in from the top of the “L” and two ropes in from the underside of the “L”. I will also use some of the rope between the oven floor and the landing. There will be a stainless steel “U” channel on top of the ceramic rope as part of the heat break. I wasn’t planning on insulating the landing floor or the outer arch. The plan has been to cut out the ceramic fiber board flush with the outer edge of the inner arch... that would be the termination of the oven floor area and the beginning of vent floor area (no insulation under the vent floor. Also wanted to mention that I’m planning for a 2” reveal so I will have a nice sized vent floor area and plenty of space to work a door.

My question here is, well, does this sound okay... and if so when I start this outer arch should I mortar it directly to the oven stand (slab) or leave it to float (unmortared). Also, I will need to build up the vent floor area to a point where my tile for the vent floor will be level with the oven floor. I guess I could form up and pour it with concrete to the desired height pre-tile? Thoughts?

Going to be taking a little break for a bit as the busy season is here for us. We have friends visiting from the States and then we travel north to visit our daughter in Arizona. Going to spend the day cleaning up the build site.

Thanks again for all the help and for those that have followed along so far. Without the help there is no way this thing would be coming along this nicely.

Mikie V.

[modified9v]

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post. It’s been almost that long since I’ve done any work on the oven. But, I’m back at it. 9th chain is complete and I got 2 bricks down on the 10th to work off of.

The 2nd picture is of a piece of stainless I was able to get that I will use for my heat break. The door will actually sit on it. I will put ceramic board or brick under it to place it at the correct height... the door should be flush with it when it is all said and done. The 1st picture is of the progress today.

In my previous post just before this one I asked about mortaring the outer arch to the oven base. The ceramic board will be cut out in the vent landing area and where the arch will be place. If you can, please check my previous post... I’d really appreciate the input.

As far as the 10th chain, my bricks are down to 2” wide and I’ve been really good about not lining up the vertical joints... I’m ok with this for now, but I really don’t want to make them any skinnier if you know what I mean... maybe I can go back to 3” after this and just live with the horizontal gaps between chains... Thoughts on that???

I have to say that the month off was good for me but it was hard to get going again. So much going on this time of year as we all know. I do have to take another break for travel at Christmas but I hope to have the dome closed in before that.

As always, thanks for checkin’ in and the input in of great value to me,
Mikie V.

[UtahBeehiver]

My last course before the plug the inner brick width was less than an 1" wide. See attached pic.

[modified9v]

Skinny bricks! Bunch of work for sure.

[modified9v]

Progress today: Finished chain #10 and set one for #11... i have #11 pre-cut.

I really like the first picture. The joins on #10 are nice and tight and it’s pretty round. Most of the bricks were 2” at the base.

Wanted to take the selfie while I still had some light coming in from above... that light will disappear real soon. I went back the 3rd bricks for #11 where I can. Not too bad on the horizontal gap and it should make it a little easier to do the course. Pretty fun stuff.

Still hoping to get an answer on whether or not to mortar the outer arch to the base.

Thanks for following along.
Mikie V.