42" In South GA

[edonovan]

Getting back in the groove of things here...planning on attacking this arch soon...here is my solution to my weird cut area on that first layer and then I have just been filling in the inside gaps and sponging them. It is still hot here and we have been getting A LOT of rain...so....bugs bugs and more bugs!!

[edonovan]

Well, I must say that thing called life sure does get in the way sometimes of things we WANT to do. I have been away for a bit, due to the fact that I just didn't want to keep seeing pictures of more pizza ovens and mine be at a standstill :-(...but that is me just pouting...
first...back in feb I had a renter move out and trash the place...quite a bit of elbow grease and DIY complete flip and 6 weeks later I had the place sold (don't have time to be a landlord right now)
now...18 year old graduated highschool...got into embry riddle (aerospace engineering) , he leaves in about 3 weeks for Daytona (not too far)
last...to those here in the south...my hat goes off to you that you continued to work through this type of heat, and to those in the winter areas...I understand the feeling of "closing up" for a season...but just wanting to work on it so it is finished...so here I am, hoping, just hoping I can find some time to start back up soon, maybe once school starts back up and some type of "normalcy" comes back, but then my head goes to the fact then hurricane season is knocking on our door...sooo...who knows...1 layer at a time..right!?
Hope everyone is well, and has been enjoying building or their pizza if they are done!

[edonovan]

@markjeling and I think I know who that one friend would be...I won't invite them over too often LOL

[MarkJerling]

Thanks @markjerling...yeah as I keep walking out to it and looking at it I get mad at myself for "going for it", even thought about taking those bricks out for a quick minute, then asked myself "what am I thinking?" LOL...but hey, I am in line with IT now and working upwards!

Don't worry about it. As often with these sorts of things, no-one else will notice anyway. They'll all be complimenting you on your fantastic pizzas! But notice a little step in the oven walls? No way. Except probably for that one friend.....

[edonovan]

Thanks @markjerling...yeah as I keep walking out to it and looking at it I get mad at myself for "going for it", even thought about taking those bricks out for a quick minute, then asked myself "what am I thinking?" LOL...but hey, I am in line with IT now and working upwards!

[MarkJerling]

It won't hurt function, but I would have eased into it. I have found with my rudimentary bricklaying skills that gradual corrections are almost impossible to spot later. (And I made lots of gradual corrections. LOL)

[edonovan]

SLIGHTLY less frustrated...... Thank you both @ plastered and UtahBeehiver I have re worked my IT per the drawing from plastered. I feel much better about the new version, and intersecting the brick as close to center as I think I can get. The other good photo is nice tight joint lines, maybe the beginning of a slight inverted V (still figuring that one out and playing around with some scrap bricks) and the other photo is the new frustration . As I am coming up and laying course 4 I had already thought what you just mentioned UtahBeehiver, about things compounding...so I figured what the heck...lets just follow this IT and see where it takes me, so I am back on track...well that there is one FAT lip...I think this is largest on that course of what I finished and just under a 1/2. Is this just aesthetics? will it hurt oven function? I figure I can *kinda* get over this ugly part if it still works and I keep moving right along.
I may be rushing some of this a little as long as it all works as best as possible due to the fact that it is almost March and I know "the oven" known as S. GA summer (we really don't get any spring ) is coming.
Thanks again everyone

[UtahBeehiver]

As plastered showed in his diagram the green line is correct alignment for the IT pivot to brick face. The line from from the pivot point along the rod must intersect the center of the face of the brick. By adding the spacer mid point the intersection is off and does not allow the correct tilt of the brick face to be perpendicular to the center of the oven. This error is cumulative and get worse as you go up. I would step back and adjust IT now.

[edonovan]

Thank you plastered, yes I do know it is not perfectly 42" all the way around. I will double check that intersection point. I have to say your intro of "never having done masonry" and did it all with chop saw and angle grinder is definitely one of my biggest motivating factors.

[plastered]

t could be that your circular floor is off a little bit, that is not perfectly circular. I definitely had some issues where it wasn't perfect on the 3rd or so courses, where there was a tiny lip, and I think this was because my circular floor wasn't perfect. It shouldn't be a huge deal in my opinion. In my attached pic on the right side your can see some of the overhang.

I'm assuming your IT was measured appropriately, but I'll note that the center of the wood coming out of the pivot point should line up with the center of a brick. I drew a picture to explain. X is half the height of a brick. So half of the thickness of the green stick plus the whole thickness of the purple should be equal to half the height of a brick.

[edonovan]

Alright, got my pivot point as close to floor level as I could...it is no more than 1/4 to 3/8 above floor level. Now, as I was staring at my thrown together IT (no access to welder and plastered IT looked easy enough) is this block of wood messing something up? I still am having to slowly creep the next two courses inward as to not have a huge lip...but it does start to match up around the 4th course (once I have crept inward). This is really starting to frustrate me (again possibly looking for perfection), I had already started 3 course before several days of rain, going to finish that today and possibly cut heat break in entry and lay /plan arch some more.

[edonovan]

Thanks @markjerling...I will see what I can do and update when I can.

[MarkJerling]

Thanks MarkJerling, yeah if you look at post #46 you can almost tell that the fork bolt that I could find is fairly long...I will see if I can recess more to get it closer to floor level, but am also afraid of any extra play when pivoting. If I can't get it lower do I just make incremental adjustments to stay in line with my "dome jig"? and not end up with a 43" high dome? and how would I "estimate" the "joining" of the inner arch?

I think the best fix, at this point, is to get a shorter "bolt", or shorten the bolt. The difficulty with incremental adjustments is that, unless you set those to a jig, it's pretty hard to make the correct adjustment at every brick course. For the joining of the inner arch, if your IT is working as it should it will guide you both with placing your dome and lining up your arch. I also built a formwork for my door arches so that made life easier too.

[edonovan]

Thanks MarkJerling, yeah if you look at post #46 you can almost tell that the fork bolt that I could find is fairly long...I will see if I can recess more to get it closer to floor level, but am also afraid of any extra play when pivoting. If I can't get it lower do I just make incremental adjustments to stay in line with my "dome jig"? and not end up with a 43" high dome? and how would I "estimate" the "joining" of the inner arch?

[MarkJerling]

The problem is that your IT hinge point is higher than the floor. So, yes, with the IT pivoting there, it will continuously make the whole thing to tall. If you're able to, set your IT into the floor so that your pivot point is level with the top of the floor. Most people do that by removing the centre floor tile and replacing it at the end.