Simmental Farm 36" Pompeii and 48" Rumford Style Fireplace

[Gulf]

That done, it was time to prepare the ingredients of the 3-1-1-1 homebrew.

I'm not sure how many do this step, but IMO it is very important to screen all the ingredients. Bagged fire clay, sand, and fresh Portland cement will have some larger particles that can be better used for other purposes. Even hydrated lime can have some small clumps that are easier mixed if they are busted up through the screen before mixing. The large particles can make fitting the brick a little more difficult.

The most important to screen is the sand. All masonry and general purpose sand that I have screened so far had small rocks. In some cases pea gravel and larger. I don't know if they will crack when heated but, I don't want them in my mortar.

[Gulf]

If all the ingredients are dry they can be premixed for later use. Don screened all his ingredients as he was as adding them to be dry mixed. I have found that a child sized garden hoe is just the right size for dry mixing the ingredients.

It really helps to have an easy to make screening box that fits right over a project tub for this project. It's fitted with 1/4" wire mesh. A scrap of galvanized window screen is placed on top for the fine screening. I have used this setup also to process brick cuttings. We did some of that too, later in this build.

[UtahBeehiver]

Either Ither, it looks great but I think you are right and it is called an "Axed" arch. Also you old boss has a great mentor and his second oven for his daughter will go up quickly.

[david s]

If all the ingredients are dry they can be premixed for later use. Don screened all his ingredients as he was as adding them to be dry mixed. I have found that a child sized garden hoe is just the right size for dry mixing the ingredients.

It really helps to have an easy to make screening box that fits right over a project tub for this project. It's fitted with 1/4" wire mesh. A scrap of galvanized window screen is placed on top for the fine screening. I have used this setup also to process brick cuttings. We did some of that too, later in this build.

I agree and use the sifter pictured. I get bulk graded sand for use in concrete, but dry sift out the coarse grains for mortar or render. My screen removes anything larger than 3mm. A range of grain sizes is actually preferable to a uniform size.

[MarkJerling]

Edit: to replace post 26

Another dry stack after cutting. We placed the ID and OD tools in this pic for clarity. I hope this gives a little more perspective on a brick segmental arch.

Very tidy Gulf. And great explanatory photos.

[Chach]

Married with a wooden brick this creates a no offset pivot point.

Don drilled a 5/8" hole and a slight 3/4" counter sink hole underneath in my old wooden brick at the exact center of the dome floor. We had to rout a counter sink in the top to allow free swing of the IT for the first course and scribing the floor brick.

The exact center point is easy to find for the rough placement of the wooden brick before cutting to find where the wooden brick needs to lie with the full scale template. For the final placement it is easy to mark the direct center on the wooden brick with the center point hole provided in the template. Just line the template up with the center line marks front and back on the concrete hearth.

That sweet. I pretty much made the same thing with a fork bolt. I put the threade part in my wood brick and used square stock for the IT and welded a nut at the end and used all thread to secure my unistrut L bracket to the square stock. Very Nice.

Ricky

[NewEnglandNewb]

This is a great build thread. Are there any updates? How did it turn out?