Pdx 42" update

[Macrinehart]

Can't wait to use the oven next year! I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner now and thinking about how can use my future oven! This is definately my top holiday of the year! Today's menu, roasted Turkey - this year with a herb mayonaise spread on the bird - homemade stuffing with dried cranberries and toast hazenuts, featuring my sourdough bread for the crutons! Cranberry sauce with a bit of orange juice and a cinimon stick, mashed potatoes, giblet and pan dripping gravy, homemade Parker House rolls, and blanched green beans (because something has to be green), and pumpkin pie with no-shortening crust. Traditionally our family has creamed onions too, but we took a vote this year and they didn't make the cut.

This year I'm a bit ahead of schedule so I'll get a couple hours to work on the oven! Yesterday I managed to breakaway from Thanksgiving prep to take care of a couple oven action items - first doing a little upgrade on my IT...the original had a pivot a little above the plane of the oven floor, the new one should be pretty flush. I will remark the opening arch and with this change it will probably have to move an inch or 2 inside the oven. Finally, based on @Gulf's guidance I now have a very clear idea of how to mark the radial lines on the bricks so I'll get that done (I was definately over thinking it before). If I have time I'll start cutting the back of the bricks. I'll send pictures and an update later!

In other news, my dad had some alder trees blow down in a fall storm, so I've been invited to cut my fill of alder and start drying it for oven fuel.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[UtahBeehiver]

What I do not see is the internal curvature of the arc bricks (red line) only the ID and OD of the bricks. See attached. A tapered inner arch is one of the difficult concept to visualize but your IT is key to setting all the angles.

[JRPizza]

What also worked for me is to think about the surface (plane) you are talking about as the bottom of a dome brick, not the top of the arch brick. I cut the angle on the arch a little shallower so the dome brick would not sit flat but touch along the ID and have a gap on the OD for mortar like the other dome bricks.
Just think - next Thanksgiving you will be able to cook your meal in your new oven!

[Macrinehart]

That makes sense! Thank you Gulf!

[Gulf]

The best cut is not a ray from the center of the dome. The best cut imo is a line drawn from a set reveal on the inner arch brick inside the dome out to where the outside diameter of the dome brick will intersect the arch. A ray shot from the center point of the dome will yield some over cutting and some under cutting of the inner arch.

[Macrinehart]

Thank you Gulf.

Unfortunately the laser level I planned to use is missing so I ended up using a different level that has an alarm when the base is out of balance...that was a little anoying .

Since I could rotate the level I ended up just using the vertical line to paint a plane that intersect the pivot point and IR mark on the brick. I've attached a photo sequence that shows the lines I've marked so far.... first picture illustrates lining the level line up. Picturs 2-5 show the resulting lines. With each brick the point where my plane intersects with the outside of opening arch moves further forward. This seem like the opposite of what I expected.

If these look incorrect to experienced eyes please let me know. Thanks!

[Gulf]

Here is a link to how I did it on a segmental arch, but, the concept is the same. Simmental Farm 36".

[Macrinehart]

Haven't been able to work on the oven for the past couple days but I've been thinking about cutting those arch bricks where they intersect the dome and wondering about the process for marking the lines I need to cut. This is probably a challenge that's been solve 1,000 times but I've had trouble visulizing how to mark the plane I need to cut through the back of the brick.

I think I have the approach. Borrowing this picture from JRPizza, I'm visualizing the radial line as a laser line aimed from outside the dome to intersect with my arch brick at the point where the back of the brick intersects the dome and also centers on the pivot point of my IT. If I get all this lined up correctly I should be able to use the cross pattern on my laser level to mark the plane of this cut on the surface of the brick as shown in this 2D view. The only other thought I had is that my cross sight should, as close as possible, be tangetial to the opening arch where it intersects the oven dome to mark the correct line on the brick.

Of course, this has to be done on each side of the brick to mark the correct plane. My thought there is to just use the laser to mark the line on the top face, while using the cut edge of each brick to mark the opposite face.

Hopefully this ramble makes sense. I welcome other thoughts if this approach is over complicating things

[Macrinehart]

Back at it this weekend, with sunny, windy and cold weather in Portland, just a few degrees above freezing! But with long underwear, hat and waterproof gloves there were no problems operating the wet saw! Still going through the blades, though...I bought 2 new continuous rim diamond blades from HF and used one completely just to nearly finish cutting the wedge bricks for the opening arch. I wonder if my bricks are extra hard, or if I'm doing something wrong. But I've decided not to worry too much about it.

I have a question on the inside of the opening arch before I continue. Notice on the photo below I've drawn a pencil line marking the 21" radius from the center of my oven, and that line is about 1/8" above the bottom edge of my keystone brick. Does that represent a problem? Is my opening arch too far forward?

As far as next steps are concerned, my next step is to cut the backs of the opening arch bricks according to illustrations provided by mongota & JRPizza around post 132 in my build thread.

[Macrinehart]

I've been reading up on this and it may be that I am being too agressive on my cutting and overheating the blade.

[JRPizza]

I just went with the HF blades. Think I went through two of them for my 39" oven. It was back when you could get 20% off coupons any time you needed them

[Macrinehart]

Hello fellow builders! Today's question is wet saw diamond blade selection - namely, is there a recommended brand that balanced blade longevity and price?

I am back working on my project after a long pause, and today am focused on cutting bricks for the opening arch. After working for a few hours I am back on hold again as my 10" continuous rim diamond blade purchased at Harbor Freight is worn out. That's the second blade (first was lightly used) so at my present rate I estimate maybe 10+ blades to finish my 42" oven. At $40/each, its ok, but would I be better off buying a higher quality blade?

Appreciate the advice!

[UtahBeehiver]

As long as you are aware of what happens by having the pivot point off the elevation of the floor. If you use as is, the dome will be higher at the apex by the distance the pivot point is off the floor elevation. This config will make a tapered inner arch interface not mate very well . If you make sure the IT is adjusted to meet the internal radius consistently (IE 36" ID oven = 18" radius) on each course, then you probably get away with the current IT setup. Don't let impatientness cloud your work. Once the bricks go down it is difficult to correct.

[Macrinehart]

Hi guys -

Managed to break away from work early today to picup materials for my home brew. Thanks for the tips!

UtahBeehiver - I was reading your guidance on the IT for Michele Enrico and realized I could face a similar issue due to the design of my IT which uses the magnetic door stop for a pivot point. Based on another design I saw on the forum.

So I have a couple thoughts on how to proceed. First, I could do nothing and just adjust the length on the IT with eav course. .ight have to cut my IT down a bit but it's no trouble as the rod is coper pipe, which is pretty easy to work with. The threaded extender is pretty long so lots of flexibility.

Other option is to pull the center floor brick, which I plan to do in the end anyway, and then cut the plywood based down to brick dimensions and set it on the CalCil directly so that the pivot point is closer to floor level.

I'm thinking I'll just use option 1 as I'm impatient to get on with the project, unless someone see's a crisis looming.

BTW - with the magnetic door stop the base is mounted to spin, which allows for the horizontal rotation, while vertical rotation is accomplished on the magnetic rails in the pivot point. My welder friend made the bracket for me. The rest is done with standard plumbimg materials plus the threaded rod, nuts and wing nuts. The pivot end of the IT has a transition fitting that is perfectly sized to fit a 1.25" wooden dowel (discovered that through trial and error around at the Home Depot). The dowel is glued in, and then I used that as the base for the rod side of the door stopper.

[UtahBeehiver]

HC Muddox is a west coast producer of fire or brickies clay or call a brick/mason supply house. Fairly cheap but you have to search around for it.