42" Pompeii Oven in Jamaica

[wthwaites]

Thanks a lot guys!

**Update**
Today I leveled the cooking floor with a slurry mix (sand & fireclay). It ended up taking a lot longer than expected because I realized that I didn't have a perfect circle for the cooking floor . Did the best I could and re-cut some bricks then leveled again. Its still not a perfect circle, but I think I can live with it now; it's not terrible like how it was at first.

Moved on to starting the first course
I laid out the first course as rowlocks instead of headers. If I did them as headers the bricks were only going to be 3/4" above the cooking floor; as rowlocks they are 1 1/2" above the floor. This won't cause any issues in the future will it? I can change to headers if that's the better option. Just need to know before I start the second course. I have no issue with starting over at this stage; easier now vs extremely hard further down in the build...

[Baza]

wthwaites congratulations on your start - you have begun well and well begun is half done!
Happy to see your progress and you clearly have great help there!
It is amazing how your skills develop as you go along - good luck on the sourcing of things - I found, even in Canada, that things taken for granted on the forum here are not necessarily as ubiquitous as suggested - so local sourcing and alt-crafting is the game!

Interesting bricks - haven't seen such bricks with the tabs on the sides (?) -
Your dry lay looks good - solid foundation - all the good start stuff - you will find you have AMAZING support on this forum - keep sharing photos, questions and triumphs - you have lots of folks cheering for you from all over the world here!

Glad you broke ground ... have fun!
Barry

[mongota]

Coming along nicely! Congrats on getting it going. The learning curve about materials and methods is steep at the start, but things resolve as the dome grows higher.

[wthwaites]

Pics of the oven floor...So far so good!
This is only a dry fit to see how things will look. The floor has not been leveled yet. Won't be able to do the slurry mix and level properly until the weekend.
After that I'll set the headers on the outside of the floor before starting the dome. I read in other threads that headers are a better option than soldiers. Thanks UtahBeehiver for that nugget - go that from you! The orange bricks seen in the pics will be cut to size and used for this (i believe they will be 3 3/4" deep).

[wthwaites]

This is the thread I started seeking feedback on the bricks I sourced...

[wthwaites]

Hello All!

I've been reading up on the Pompeii oven build for a few years now. This year, I figured why not try and build one for myself and my family. It's been a great project so far and I can't wait for finished product.
After reading all of the wonderful builds within this forum, I decided to document my own build too!
I'm using the Forno Bravo ebook as a guide along with other videos I watch on YouTube. On top of that, I must say that the assistance has been great so far from the members here within other posts that I made prior to this one. I'll also link those in this for easy reference (both for myself and others who are interested).

On with the build! For this first post - Foundation + Oven Stand! (I'm about to start my oven floor, but I'll post pics of my progress so far )