37" Pompeii Build, 2nd Half - forum assistance needed!

[Whackers]

Mortar is your friend, I would not waste the time resource to cut the bricks to achieve a smaller joint. I did this and although it looks nice if I were to do this again I would only do a bevel near the top front interior to eliminate the Inverted V in the upper courses. Personally, I would skip the foil, raise the CaSi off the hearth surface with some cheap ceramic tile with spacing that leads to the weep holes..

Thanks, I've got some cheap old ceramic tiles which will come in handy, will set that all up and the weep holes whilst I wait for the fire clay delivery.

[Whackers]

Cutting the firebricks is going to be much tougher, but today I cut the CaSi board to shape. I also cut a few of the landing area bricks at the front to be square to the face of the build.
Next task is to drill 3 weep holes in the concrete slab, lay down tiles with channels pointing to the weep holes, and then lay the CaSi board back down on top of them.

Then it will be the 50/50 sand and fire clay mix to bed the oven floor firebricks evenly with no raised edges. I am in need of advice on the best sand to use, both for the layer to mix with fire clay and lay the firebricks down on, and for the mortar later on to lay the dome. I have traditional standard building sand, but I read a fair bit of support and recommendation for a finer, silica sand for the mortar mix. Not urgent, but I am coming to the point where I will need to decide and if building sand is no good for the simple bedding of the oven floor, I'll need to know soon.

On the subject of the IT and the wheel being off-set, I'm aware and upon further investigation it seems that it isn't too bad a situation. The measurement is taken from the point where the metal rod leaves the caster wheel. From above, that point is also devilishly close to the centre of the pivot point. So - whilst not perfect - and slightly raised still from the floor - it's not as bad as at first it seems.

[UtahBeehiver]

As I mention, you just need to be aware, the errors induced by the offset both horizontal and vertical are cumulative and you just need to know whats happening as the brick courses go in and you adjust as needed gradually and not all at once. I just used plain old construction sand with fire clay for leveling.

[Whackers]

Short progress update, I've now got some old ceramic tiles in place under the CaSi slabs and three weep holes drilled through the slab, without hitting any of the rebar, which was a result...!

Fire clay should arrive tomorrow - at which point I can mix it 50/50 with building sand and be well set to do the levelling of the oven floor fire bricks (and swap out a few with dodgy corners where possible). I just have to cut the curves around some of the perimeter firebricks, which will definitely be a challenge for me and the angle grinder. Plenty of patience required I suspect...

[Whackers]

Thinking ahead to the flue, I plan on having a clay liner surrounded by brick with the gap between bricks and liner.

Two questions.

1. For the size of oven (37inch diameter) is there any problem with selecting the following middle sized option of these cavity liners (by my calculations it has a larger surface area than a 6 inch circular flue) and would work well. *(see photo) they are 215mm x 140mm https://www.selcobw.com/products/bui...er-215-x-140mm and would be easier to connect to my intended rectangular exit through the oven entrance archway than a 6 inch diameter circular alternative. The 215mm x 215mm flue seems far to big for the purpose.

2. What height should I go to for the chimney, I've read a few thoughts and was planning on having three of these, connected with home brew mortar which would take the height up to 600mm from the point of connection with the arch, could/should I just opt for two and 400mm of height in the chimney?

Thanks again for all the support

Tim.

PS Fireclay arrived today...levelling time.