DANTE - 36" (92cm) Pompei oven - Luxembourg / Italy

[MarkDLxu]

DYI cutting machine ready to eat some dust

[MarkDLxu]

Yesterday afternoon I started laying the floor and the first course.
Many emotions in that moment, I hated but I loved it !
I used an Italian refractory mortar and follow the ratio written on the bags, small batch of 1 kg each is perfect for laying around 4-5 bricks ( put bricks in water 1 hour before) .
I finished around 9pm and this morning at 10 was already there, completing the 2nd course .
Now I’m approaching the entry arch

[Kvanbael]

Cool! It has begun.
You might want to fixate your IT with more than tape and weights. But you are probably waiting for your first course to be fully set before doing so.

[MarkDLxu]

Cool! It has begun.
You might want to fixate your IT with more than tape and weights. But you are probably waiting for your first course to be fully set before doing so.

I’m fixing the IT board as soon as the first course is sufficiently dry and cleaned ( lot of mortar went on the floor lately )

[MarkDLxu]

Hello Guys, having some confidence problems approaching the 5th course and the arch.
I honestly don’t understand how to calculate the right angle to Bevel a bricks and all the step in order to avoid inverted V.
I’m on holiday and I’d like to prepare a list of the cutting course by course , In order not to improvising too much.
Second issue is about the arch, I understand how to lay the bricks but no idea on how to cut them on the long side (8”).

Any help would be really appreciated

[Kvanbael]

you could use an online calculator, like this one: https://www.blocklayer.com/masonry-arch.aspx

But it's not so hard to do it yourself:

You first need to know how many bricks you will need, you want as few as possible, but you also want to keep the joints nice and thin.

You should realise that the dimensions at the top of the bricks are proportional to the ones at the bottom (see attached illustration)

R1/R2 = L1/L2

So, in practice:

1. You know your arch radius (R1). To know the radius of the top of the arch R2, just add your brick height. Use a flexible measure on your entry shape to determine the length of the arch (L1). Now, the length of the top arch can be calculated using that ratio:

L2 = L1 * R2 / R1.

2. Now that you know L2 (in my case it was 755mm), you can determine how many bricks you will need: My bricks were 55mm wide, and I wanted the joints to be around 5mm. Together that's 60mm. Dividing L2 by that number and rounding up to the nearest integer number (or to the nearest odd integer number if you insist on a central keystone). In my case, the result of the division was 12.58, so I decided for 13 arch stones.

N = L2 / (brick_width + joint) rounded to nearest (odd) integer

3. Now that you know how many bricks there will be, you can divide the arch lengths to find the individual brick widths:

W2 = (L2 / N) - joint
W1 = (L1 / N) - joint

[MarkDLxu]

Hi Guys, I ask your opinion on one of the most difficult part of this journey: the arch.
I already tapered all the bricks and read a lot of theory, but now I’m a little bit stuck .
In order to be aligned with the dome courses, should I:
1) cut the arch bricks in order to be aligned with the 4th course (red line) , but leaving smaller bricks for the arch
2) be aligned with the 5th course, a bit prominent inside the dome but less work and bigger bricks ?
thanks for your opinion

[UtahBeehiver]

First, the arch form is too far in. The bottom of the form should intersect the inside ID of the oven. Second, you cannot use 1/2 bricks on any of the tapered inner arch, they are just too short. Here is a pic of a tapered inner arch similar to in design to yours.

[MarkDLxu]

Thank you UtahBeehiver . I made the form 22cm deep in order to sustain a full length brick and for the moment is aligned to where the door will close the dome.
if i try to translate the picture you sent on mine i think it's more the second solution, the "green bricks".

[UtahBeehiver]

You are missing the cut back to the ID of the dome as shown by the red line. You do not need to support the entire full brick , in fact the form is in the way to scribe the ID of the dome on the arch bricks.. .

[MarkDLxu]

My little Colosseo is rising...

[MarkDLxu]

Hi Guys,
Most of my pictures lately are taken at night because that’s the only time I can lay bricks, from 8 to 10 pm.
Yep I know this is not the best time and with the dark I miss some details but otherwise I cannot make any progress during the week.

Now I’m at row #9, i can still lay bricks without any other support, just mortar, but I think I’ll put inside the oven a dome of sand soon.

When did you start , in your experience, to put a row only with 1/3 bricks ?

Thanks and keep mortaring

[MarkDLxu]

PS. Is it necessary to fill all this back gaps?
Could be done with normal mortar or must be refractory?
Thanks again

[MarkDLxu]

Not so a great picture but it means a lot for me !
Keystone ..: done ✅!

[MarkDLxu]

I come back after a while and rush the work because winter is coming ..
i stayed almost the whole weekend cleaning the inside dome ...
thanks God I decided to go for a 1 meter diameter , I could barely fit in
looking at the picture, do you think is ok?
Can I go for the first curing fire ?