42” Pompeii in San Felipe, MX

[UtahBeehiver]

I am assuming this is the TDC. There is no problem cutting along the dotted line. Remember, each brick is different right and left of the TDC. So once the TDC is cut. Using the front view of the picture of the TDC, moving left down the arch. The front view of the TDC will now become the back side template of the next left arch brick. Then you mark the front side of the next left brick with the IT and brick like you did with the TDC. Just the opposite proceess with the arch bricks right of TDC. Bricks each side of TDC will not have right angle curs but rather skewed.

[JRPizza]

I could not open the link to one of my posts that Russell attached, but here are a couple of words and pics that might help.
I built my arch as I built up my dome, and did not cut arch bricks till I was ready to tie them into the dome. I did do what you did in your second picture of post #102 above, and that is placing a brick @TDC to make sure the arch is in the right location and subsequently that the arch form is set at the front of the arch to help with brick placement. The first attached pic shows the arch being built/cut as the dome rises. The second pic shows the TDC brick in it's uncut state - after I took the pic I pulled it out and cut the curve representing the inner surface and the upper slope for the corresponding dome brick to sit, then mortared it into place. I did not do any custom flow inducing shape on the inner curvature of my arch bricks and my oven seems to draw/burn/vent very well. I think what you have already mortared in will work fine as long as you can tie into them with your arch. I did quite a bit of custom cutting at my tie in and that is what the saw and mortar are for

[modified9v]

JR & Russell... thanks for helping me through this... I really do thank you. I will do the best I can.

Yes, the brick with all the writing on it is my keystone /CL... I will follow as you say, working from the CL down... I’m sure I will struggle along the way but if it was easy....

We were feeling the need for some pizza and a local business owner wanted me to test his sauce with my sour dough crust (he wants to put me to work... ahahahahaha ) So, I revived the starter and the following pics are the outcome. Only natural yeast, flour, water & salt... I can’t wait to up the hydration and put some heat on this culture.

These are the first pizzas out of our new, Mexican, oven.... This think has some balls!!!

Oven temp measured at the stone was 575f. Hydration at 61%. Cook time 5 1/2 minutes.

Pizza was very good, very good. Thank you,
Mikie V.

[modified9v]

OK... I was at it from sun up to sun down. All the arch bricks are cut... good, bad or indifferent. I think it came out pretty good. After placing them on the template and mocking up the subsequent chains 2 things became obvious. One, I will have to mock up each chain as it intersects the arch and round the most inward point with the angle grinder before mortaring it in. In a way I kinda like that as it should smooth out the flow of the exhaust gasses. Reminds me of porting and polishing cylinder heads on the race cars. Two, having a tapered arch is going to make this soooooo much easier. I’m glad I took the advice of members and went this way. As I go up the adjustments to arch bricks will decrease... not sure why, but it is what it is. I’m OK with it as it is really minimal.

So, how did I get here... going from a babbling idiot to finally “Making the Cut(s)”? First, I had to just go for it. I’ve heard “Analysis Paralysis” is real... yep, it is. I Had to come to grips with the fact that if I screwed up 8 bricks (half the arch, did one side first) it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I went back and read everything that everyone posted again and again... and again. I knew I was missing something. Several things needed to stick. First was “Working from the keystone down and side to side” was a big HELLO. I think Russell must have mentioned it 5 times... and it finally hit home. “If I can get the keystone cut, the rest should be easy”... and it was, sort of. One of the other things that really helped was “Tracing” the previously cut brick to the face of the next brick... then, finding the intersects, mark it and cut it. By the time I was 3/4 done I was marking and cutting each arch brick pretty quickly. Also, I did the left side first and it shows... you do get better at it as you go. Here’s another little gem. It was easy to trace the previously cut brick to the one you are preparing to cut... but you can’t cut them straight across. That is, after all, the point. The higher you are in the arch, the further the reach... as you drop down the arch, the reach gets shorter. It just seemed weird to me. If you look at the 3rd picture posted you can see how each brick is a bit different from the previous brick.

The pictures below... I made some notes in the pictures... hope they came out. 1st picture shows the how I’m trying to get everything back in line with the arch bricks I had previously mortared in... I will get it sorted out. Probably won’t look ugly when it’s done, but it will take some grinder time to get things right. I see a lot of grinder time in my future. 2nd pic illustrates some grinder work to blend in the new work with the old work. More of the same to follow I’m sure. 3rd, most of the arch bricks cut and in a row. 4th pic is of the indexing tool I attached to the IT.

Whew... a mouth full. If there is interest I have a few more pictures with explaination on how I made the cuts on the arch bricks... if there is no interest I will skip it. I don’t know if other builders struggled with this like I did, but if so, I have a few more pics that explain it pretty clearly.

Thanks everyone for following along and helping... I think for awhile anyway, it should go smoother. I will post pics of progress. G’nite all.....
Mikie V.

P.S. be careful with the angle grinder... the son of a gun is mean and will cut to the bone. ;-)...

[UtahBeehiver]

Looks like the light bulb went on.

[modified9v]

Looks like the light bulb went on.

I think I said the light bulb FINALLY went on... come on, you at least thought it .

Today’s progress is illustrated below. Things went pretty smooth. Funny how one brick kinda sticks out in the day. Third picture, the little brick left of the arch on the 3rd chain. I’ll bet that thing took me 30 minutes to get it to fit when I mocked it this morning... well, it was the last in the chain and it was still too big. I was glad I had put some power out there and and the angle grinder handy. I mortared it up and drove it in. It took a lot of tapping to get it home. I really like the tight mortar joints. I was worried I might knock something loose but NOPE. Even with all the little cracks in the joints on the outside of the dome, I think I have the mortar consistency and the brick soaking times down for THIS climate. She is glued together! However, in the future I will try to be more gentle. I have a new found respect for the builders that went soooo tight with the amazing brick work. That custom cutting and fitting takes forever!

I did spend some time trying to clean up the bricks facing inward. I’ve tried a sponge (changing the water frequently), using a wire brush (copper and plastic both) and also tried not to get any mortar on them... ahahahaha. Yeah, none of it is really helping to get the residue out of the tiny nooks and crannies. But hey, it looks good when it’s wet. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like at 950 degree.

One last thing... please treat that angle grinder, with the diamond blade, with complete respect. It’s still dangerous as it’s slowing down. Hell, it’s dangerous when it’s not spinning. Please be careful. I know I will be in the future. Didn’t get cut bad, but it was a good wake up call!

Thanks for following and the help, Mikie V.

[UtahBeehiver]

Tip, when fitting into the tapered arch. leave a brick or two adjacent to the fitted brick unmortared. Then you can dry fit easier.by sliding towards the dome to make measurements. Then you can always straight trim the adjacent brick to fit. Also, at the end to the day, mortar in a brick on the next course at the back of the dome to set over night. It will give you an anchor to start from the following day, especially when you get highers up in the courses.

46 Course 8 Finished with Anchor Block for 9 7.17.12.JPG

[modified9v]

Well, today was “Moving Day”. Soooo tired of the walk of shame. I have one hell of a mess to clean up and that brick dust stains everything. I think I have it set up pretty well. I can step up onto the table the saw is on and quickly be on top of the done. I think this will be a major time saver. Shade is good after about 10am and the mornings have been cool enough lately.

Pretty satisfied with the mortar. Trying to keep everything moist and out of the sun is a challenge. The bug spray unit converted to brick spray unit works great! All in all another great day on the Baja....

Mikie V... is headed to the golf course.

[modified9v]

Tip, when fitting into the tapered arch. leave a brick or two adjacent to the fitted brick unmortared. Then you can dry fit easier.by sliding towards the dome to make measurements. Then you can always straight trim the adjacent brick to fit. Also, at the end to the day, mortar in a brick on the next course at the back of the dome to set over night. It will give you an anchor to start from the following day, especially when you get highers up in the courses.

46 Course 8 Finished with Anchor Block for 9 7.17.12.JPG

I got an “invalid error” message on the link.

I follow you on the second part... mortaring in a couple before the next day. Man, that makes sense. I ran outta mortar (that I trusted) before I could do that on the last course.

Russell, the first part of your post... are you sayin’ to mock up the chain brick that intersects (major custom cut) and leave it long and work towards it?

Thank you, Mikie V.

[UtahBeehiver]

What I am saying try not to lay the course so that all you have left in space for one brick that ties into both the tapered arch and the brick course, Then you have no ability to scribe the tapered side of the course and the arch. If you leave the adjacent brick unmortared until you get you fitting done then you can adjust the course brick joint a lot easier since that arch side has already been fitted.

[Chach]

I think what Russell is saying is don't end your course with the brick that touches the tappered arch set the one next to it and before you mortar it in scribe the one next to the tapered arch and fit that in then put that last brick in.

Ricky

[modified9v]

Chach & Russell... not sure I’m following this “Scribe” thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my plan was to custom fit both the right and left side chain brick to the tapered arch and mortar them in place along with being sure not to stack the joints with the chain below... at the same time I wanted to fit and mortar the next set of arch bricks after mocking them with the chain that intersects them... at the same time I wanted to fit and mortar the chain bricks (about 3 of them at least) in the the back of the oven... you know, the ones you can see through the opening. I want to do all cutting and then mortar that all down. That is about 7 bricks which is my typical mortar mix. Then, let them set. Finish the chain either later in the day after a round of golf and some pool time.

I’m finding that this next chain is going to require some nibbling of the bricks to minimize the vertical and horizontal “V’s” at the join... not a huge deal, but it will take some time.

Next day, rinse and repeat.

Please let me know if I’m missing something in this.

Thanks, Mikie V.

[Chach]

Chach & Russell... not sure I’m following this “Scribe” thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my plan was to custom fit both the right and left side chain brick to the tapered arch and mortar them in place along with being sure not to stack the joints with the chain below... at the same time I wanted to fit and mortar the next set of arch bricks after mocking them with the chain that intersects them... at the same time I wanted to fit and mortar the chain bricks (about 3 of them at least) in the the back of the oven... you know, the ones you can see through the opening. I want to do all cutting and then mortar that all down. That is about 7 bricks which is my typical mortar mix. Then, let them set. Finish the chain either later in the day after a round of golf and some pool time.

I’m finding that this next chain is going to require some nibbling of the bricks to minimize the vertical and horizontal “V’s” at the join... not a huge deal, but it will take some time.

Next day, rinse and repeat.

Please let me know if I’m missing something in this.

Thanks, Mikie V.

I don't see a problem with that. I would keep going though and not stop unless the bricks are moving on you. I did a few courses a day with no problems. I did always leave one or two bricks to set for the next day as it gives the next bricks something to stick to.

[modified9v]

Thanks for the reply, Chach!!! I’m getting better at mortaring one or two down in the next chain. It sure makes it nice to have a solid brick to start with.

Not too much to report other than I’m i’m Working the 6th chain. Staying at least one ahead on the arch and finding that as I go up the arch the tie in has gotten easier. I’m getting better at my cuts in regards to the inverted “V’s”. Interesting that they are both horizontal and vertical. I have a quick method to jig up the the vertical but so far I’ve been just nibbling at the corners to minimize the the horizontal ones but those nibbles are getting bigger. I just don’t see how I could make those cuts with a jig as they all seem to be a little bit different.

All in all pretty satisfied with the way things are going. Tomorrow will be a long day as I’ve used up all my cut bricks... gonna be back on the wet saw again tomorrow. I did have a little setback with my easy-up shelter. Winds picked up for a minute this afternoon and bent the crap out of it. It doesn’t take long for the wind to do it’s thing around here. Also, the flies and bees are a major pain in the butt!!!

I am curious about one thing... the stuff that ends up in the bottom of the wet saw... the guts from the firebrick... if I dry that out and sift it through a screen would it be a good substitute for the fireclay? There has to be a good use for the stuff... and I’m starting to accumulate a good bit of it.

Hope to have some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks folks, Mikie V.

[modified9v]

OK... progress through today. Had an arch tie-in brick slip on me a little. No one will see it so it stays. Other than that, it’s just very slow going.

One thing... prior to starting my build I looked at so many others on this forum. Soooo many times posters would say, “Watch that you don’t line up those mortar gaps/joins”. I always thought that was a no brainer... man, you really have to think ahead and those reminders are priceless.

Mikie V.