Pizza History in the Hammer Continues

[Neil.B]

Barry, I know it's hard but try not to worry and overthink. I know it looks lovely in pictures to get the perfect joint, but everyone will appreciate the work you have put in even if there is slight imperfections.
My build is all over the place as the bricks are slightly different heights due to my poor cutting skills(cutting one brick in to six). I'm still amazed how it is turning out, especially once the dome starts curving.

It might sound a silly question, but are the bricks with the inverted v up the right way? You could also try putting a non cut brick next to the angled cut. It won't be perfect but the gap should close more.

Neil

[RandyJ]

Hey there Baza , if i were you i would not bother with the angle on the bricks. It makes it greatly more difficult for no real advantage.

[UtahBeehiver]

Agree that an angle (aka as a taper) cut is not needed but a bevel will be necessary to minimize what is called an inverted "V" mortar joint which appear in the upper courses.

[Baza]

Thank you gentlemen!
I'm SO grateful for your support and help to see where to put my efforts.

Neil.B thank you for your ideas - I noticed the same - when I put an angled/beveled (or at least my attempt at it) against a flat uncut brick - it narrowed the inverted V greatly - this may be a hack when things go wrong from time to time (and they will! )

RandyJUtahBeehiver yes - I have had much guidance on this and many indicated doing a bevel cut only (if they were to do it again) and dummy me mistook bevel for angle. So, now that I get that the bevel is the cut vertically Not horizontally that allows the bricks to squeeze up against each other as the rings tighten - I see that I need to work on HOW to make such cuts (angle cuts are easier given the brick is lying flat - bevels are harder and need a jig of some kind to get the proper bevel angle (how do I do that??)

Much to work on for the upcoming weekend!
Hoping to get the Arch sorted and build so that I can close the sides of the oven against it.
Wish me luck! (and any supportive ideas on approaches to both FINDING and CUTTING the bevel - I'm all ears!!)

Take care everyone
Barry

[RandyJ]

All i did was use brick cut offs as shims to get the angle for the bevel i was looking for. I wish I had a better explanation for you but I typically just do things by eye at work and it works nicely for me. That is what experience gives you. I am use to bending conduit at work so am fairly good at judging angles and distance. Good luck.

Randy

[deejayoh]

Hoping to get the Arch sorted and build so that I can close the sides of the oven against it.
Wish me luck! (and any supportive ideas on approaches to both FINDING and CUTTING the bevel - I'm all ears!!)

Check out this post on how to make a Jig https://community.fornobravo.com/for...-table?t=16780

And this spreadsheet will calculate the angles: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

[Chach]

Thank you gentlemen!
I'm SO grateful for your support and help to see where to put my efforts.

Neil.B thank you for your ideas - I noticed the same - when I put an angled/beveled (or at least my attempt at it) against a flat uncut brick - it narrowed the inverted V greatly - this may be a hack when things go wrong from time to time (and they will! )

RandyJUtahBeehiver yes - I have had much guidance on this and many indicated doing a bevel cut only (if they were to do it again) and dummy me mistook bevel for angle. So, now that I get that the bevel is the cut vertically Not horizontally that allows the bricks to squeeze up against each other as the rings tighten - I see that I need to work on HOW to make such cuts (angle cuts are easier given the brick is lying flat - bevels are harder and need a jig of some kind to get the proper bevel angle (how do I do that??)

Much to work on for the upcoming weekend!
Hoping to get the Arch sorted and build so that I can close the sides of the oven against it.
Wish me luck! (and any supportive ideas on approaches to both FINDING and CUTTING the bevel - I'm all ears!!)

Take care everyone
Barry

I used a compound miter saw with a diamond blade to make the inverted v go away. I didn't bevel the whole brick I just did the first 1/2" because I didn't taper the brick anyway so putting a full bevel on the brick didn't matter. I just put a brick in the IT set it without mortar and shimmed it so I can take a level and mark a straight line on both sides of the face and went to the miter saw and set the angle on the saw and made sure it was cut straight with the line and if not I adjusted it until it was. I then did 2 bricks this way and set them with mortar and if it worked I continued cutting that same angle for the course. Once the saw it set you can cut both sides of the brick by rotating the brick.


Ricky

[Baza]

DISASTER!

I built Chipster's jig and dowloaded deejayoh's spreadsheet. BOTH are FANTASTIC!
I tuned in the angles and cut a couple of bricks - wow - awesome!
They lined up perfect with NO gaps in a dry fit! Delighted - I cut some other already cut bricks to correct them and put them in place (see pic)

Today, went out excited to finish dry-laying the 4th course and started cutting - what the HELL HAPPENED!?
My cuts were on the exact same set up - nothing moved - but, as you can see from the pics, the beveling and angling was causing the course to RISE from the one below!
How can it work 12 hours earlier and be a disaster today???

Warping
I looked at the top board in the jig and you can see (yellow line in pic) that the board warped. So as I was cutting - flipping over 180 degrees as suggested - it was not producing a similar bevel or angle and caused the gapping as I moved the brick across the warped jig!
I am gutted ---

Thought to rebuild the jig with a 2x6 instead of 3/4 ply and varathane it to protect it - but the 2x6 doesn't create enough clearance for my 10" saw!
I'm a complete disaster - I'm really bummed

ChachRandyJ I think I may not continue with the jig as it is providing me no end of headaches and my first 3 courses were built without it - to use the exact measurements now may not reflect the build I've been doing and should probably take your approaches to bevelling 1/2 bricks a few at a time for fit (Utah's indicated that he, too, would not have gone the pure route if doing again)

I will eyeball from a level and shim the brick to get the angle and not get caught up in jigs and the like as they are really slowing me down (AWESOME as they ARE!)

Here are some pics of the disaster - now off to try a couple of bricks from level and shims and then attempt the arch build ---- give me strength
Barry

[Baza]

UPDATE: POSITIVE!

I asked for strength and got it!
GreenViews ideas regarding measuring to the brick edge from dead centre to find the part to shave and -Chach 's suggestion above (and reviewing his build) about shaving a couple of bricks at a time 1/2 way WORKED (see pics) dry lay is FANTASTIC!

I laid a brick, then another beside it, noted the inverted V - laid metal meter stick from dead centre to edge of brick where inverted V was - eyeballed the line along the ruler to about mid-brick and drew a line
Removed the brick and drew a line straight down to the nearest corner on the face - this gave me the small piece to shave off
Shimmed and lined the brick up on the saw - cut and placed back - worked a charm! Did other bricks to see if I was on to something - I was - all worked out (See pics)
Took ages to get to this point and figure something that could work for me - I was ecstatic!!

So - after a long afternoon of figuring and testing - only time left to build arch template and measure/place it
Tomorrow (pending rain) will lay arch, mortar newly cut course and declared victory on a confident next few steps!

Been a day ----

[Chach]

Glad to hear your moving forward. I used a miter saw and swapped my wood blade for a diamond blade. Once I found the degree I was all good to get rid of that nasty inverted V. Try and keep your non full width bricks out of the view of the oven opening. You will get a better look when you look inside the oven...this part is just aesthetics. Looking good!

Ricky

[Neil.B]

Well done Barry, looking forward to it taking shape. Its looking great so far.

[Baza]

Thanks Ricky and Neil! Looking forward to it coming together as well - today felt like such a day -- Ricky, looking back to that small brick with the massive mortar joints -- I remember trying to work the angles I was fretting about above and afraid to break the running bond - so newbie'd a quick fix and got a bit sloppy - though the fire will likely be pushed up against it - any time I do see it - it will remind me to have PATIENCE

Today was a good day - the bricks cut from last night were mortared down as the 5th course - I used a number of bricks I screwed up on from the previous course, so shaved them down using the method above - worked really well and got, mostly, tight joints with the mortar! Very, VERY happy with this - having learned from this forum from MANY wonderful people who shared their approaches that informed my solution here! I built the arch template, stacked and sketched out the arch walls and put in a heat break!

Like I said - a good day (certainly in light of yesterday's feeling of disaster)
Barry

[Baza]

HEAT BREAK!

So - decided upon putting a heat break in the floor. After reading many pros/cons/nah-don't-even-bother I decided to give it a go - what could be the worst? A few degrees slower bleed of heat from the oven floor. And gave a chance to try something new! Pics included!

• Only local stuff I could find was gasket tape for a kamado oven rated 700 degrees.
• I pulled the bricks from the herringbone of the floor and to follow the route of the tape
• I applied two strips, totalling 1 3/4" high - down 3/4" from the surface of the brick - this meant cutting a lip out of the brick for the tape to ribbon through the hearth floor without creating a gap at the surface
• Measured the height of the cut to make around the appropriate sides of the removed bricks
• Set saw to cut down 1 3/4" and made 2 passes with the width of the saw kerf = the width of the gasket
• Snaked the material through for a dry fit - perfect!
• Laid notched bricks with insulating tape running through it from one end to the other - looks like nothing happened to the surface!

I don't know if it will work terribly well (when I finally fire and get a thermometer test - I'll let you know!)
In any event - it was fun to get it to work and fingers crossed that it helps keep heat in the floor a bit longer
Going to put ceramic rope around the inner arch and lip over it with the structure to the outer arch as a second form of breaking heat from inner oven to outer arch --- for what it's worth!

All the best,
Barry

[mongota]

Nice work Barry. You're always going to hit a roadblock somewhere, you've done a terrific job of keeping the project moving forward. Meaning upward!

[P3 Stoaker]

G'day Barry,
Nice going, progressing well. I haven't logged in for quite a while. I've just read your build since around post 40, and quite enjoyed the entertainment value, and certainly had a few laughs (with you of course, feeling your pain).
I guess we all have build issues to work through, at least while gaining experience, I've only just started my build and I have. I read a comment from Russell some time ago, "these ovens are not a precise structure", or words to that effect and as I struggle with results not really up to the image I had of accuracy and looks I keep this comment in mind.
It doesn't happen often but as I read your post where you were having issues with the offset, or gap to the IT when positioning the first course on the soldier, I think I could see what was going on. I know it's old news now, but I had a similar issue and believe it would be a similar cause in that because the soldier inner face travels around 2 bricks high, that face is not following the arc and the higher it is, the further outside the arc it becomes. When the next course is positioned the lower edge is a lot closer to the true arc radius and therefore presents a gap, or mismatch where the bricks meet. I had a similar issue with the inner arch bricks being offset where they meet. I won't bore you with the details, however should you wish to read they are on my build.
My build was all covered up around 3-4 weeks ago and won't see daylight for a few more months. Work circumstances are preventing any chance of any work. I will however post the latest photo's taken a few weeks ago and update the build shortly.
Good luck moving forward
Regards
Greg