36" Pompeii in Chicago

[Chach]

Congrats! Feels good to finish the dome and a sense of accomplishment. Looks great. I agree get the sand out you don't need it in there anymore.

Ricky

[Chef_Marsh]

Finally making some more progress. Cleaned out the sand and inner dome looked pretty good. I pointed some mortar in the cracks the best I could. I then moved to the outer arch and flue. It's not perfect by any means, but learning as I go. The second oven will be much better....
I am planning on using a 8x8 clay flue. I will wrap in fire blanket. Do I need to buttress the walls leading to the flue because I am using clay?

[UtahBeehiver]

Depends on how tall and weight of the 8 x 8 flue. You don't have too high of vertical arch walls so not nearly as much outward pressure from arch. Are you enclosing the oven or not.?

[Chef_Marsh]

The flue will be 2 feet tall and I will enclose the oven with steel frame and cement board.

[UtahBeehiver]

Then you can easily add some brick or a cmu buttress behind outer arch and not be seen from the front, that said, 1 feet of 8 x 8 clay is not extremely heavy. So it is your choice.

[RandyJ]

Your oven is looking very nice. You are also making quick work of it. I plan to do the same when I get around to my second oven. Took me 3 months to do the first be nice to cut that in half or more for the second one.

Randy

[Chef_Marsh]

Thanks again Russell! And thanks Randy!

Kevin

[Chef_Marsh]

Moving along on the kitchen build. I poured the grill hearth at about 3.5 inches with weep holes and 1/2" rebar. Then placed fire blanket on and started with the walls of the enclosure. I also got the roof trusses made. Also, I have a 250W lamp in the oven for 3 days which peaks at 150 degrees. I will start with banhxeo76 method of slowly curing the oven with sterno cans this week. Getting pretty excited to start cooking soon!

[UtahBeehiver]

Charcoal briquettes work very well for the first few fires, heat is transitional and low (200-250 F) and you can do a dutch oven while you are at it.

[artistadimattoni]

I am at a similar place with the chimney base set up on the vent arch. I plan to reinforce it a bit under the base before installing the 8" (6" inside diameter) clay flue liner. I could use some direction in the best procedure for installing the flue liner. I plan to use two or three 12" sections. What is the best install for these? I will have bricks surrounding the first 1 1/2 feet of the liner and decorative stoneware cylinders above the bricks for a total of about 3 1/2 feet.

[UtahBeehiver]

You probably need to insulate the clay liners since they are prone to cracking due to thermal differential. Pcrete will work or left over ceramic blanket between the liner and outer brick/clay vessel.

[Chach]

Moving along on the kitchen build. I poured the grill hearth at about 3.5 inches with weep holes and 1/2" rebar. Then placed fire blanket on and started with the walls of the enclosure. I also got the roof trusses made. Also, I have a 250W lamp in the oven for 3 days which peaks at 150 degrees. I will start with banhxeo76 method of slowly curing the oven with sterno cans this week. Getting pretty excited to start cooking soon!

Have you started your cure fires at all?

Ricky

[artistadimattoni]

Hello! I have my fire blanket and perlite ready to go for my insulation layer. I plan to have 1" blanket and 4" of perlite/concrete. Should I vent the blanket somehow on top? I can't find a concise method on the forum for this part of the project. What is best to use to tie the blanket to the chicken wire? Thanks for any advice here!

[Chef_Marsh]

Hi Ricky,
Yes, I have finally started fires. I wanted to give at least 2 weeks. Started with 5 sterno cans which got to about 200. I thought a couple of more sternos would get to 300 (~8-10), but added 13 and still was only getting to 230; so I threw in a piece of cardboard and it got up to 320. Next day got to 410 with a small kindling and scrap 2x4 pieces. I need to look around the forum for lighting fires more efficiently in the WFO. Any advice would be appreciated!
artistadimattoni , not sure about the blanket venting, but chicken wire is the most popular. I have seen a vent plug mentioned here an there. I just used some left over mesh, but I am doing an enclosure so didn't need to be so precise.

[Chach]

Pizza cooking will soon be in your future. Goto Rubino's in Tinley Park if you need to get 00 flour. Looks good. just use thinner pieces of wood and you can control it better and you should be fine. after a few of those fires you should be good to use a few normal pieces of firewood.


Ricky