Oven floor insulator materials and process…

[mnagy]

I debated whether to do a fourth course of block for the stand, but opted to go lower. I’m ok to bend over a bit if it keeps things at a standard-looking height. I’m at around 29/30 for the stand. Add 4” of vermicrete and 2” bricks, gets me to about 36” to the oven floor (which I’m happy with.

i can definitely make the chimney opening more like diagram B. I can come out a bit more if I have to, but I’m hoping to get away with just 4” beyond the dome line for the entry.

[mnagy]

Another question: I found someone selling fire bricks cheap, but they are a slight wedge shape (see pic).

if I got these, I was thinking I could cut them in half and just use them for the dome (making sure not to mix the big/small wedges within a course.

would that be helpful? Or would it just complicate things and I should just get flat bricks.

[UtahBeehiver]

I used tapered bricks that were wedged in the opposite direction and they worked fine. These are bricks are wedged front to back vs side to side. So it will be more difficult to control the angle determined by the IT. The internal face of the brick MUST be perpendicular to the center point on the floor. But is possible to work around as long as you know the dome parameters. These are possibly superduty bricks which means extremely hard and will take a tow on diamond wet blades. I went through a dozen on my build so it this it the case you need to weigh blade cost versa brick cost.

[mnagy]

Wow. Good point. A dozen blades would be like $400+. Would you rather have heavy dusty bricks that stay warm longer? Or lighter bricks that heat up faster?

[UtahBeehiver]

I suggest you read the "brick primer" in the FB plans and make your decision.

[david s]

Apart from the brick's form make sure they are dense firebrick not insulating firebrick. If they are super duty bricks they'll chew up diamond blades like crazy. Medium duty dense bricks are probably your best choice.

[JRPizza]

I debated whether to do a fourth course of block for the stand, but opted to go lower. I’m ok to bend over a bit if it keeps things at a standard-looking height. I’m at around 29/30 for the stand. Add 4” of vermicrete and 2” bricks, gets me to about 36” to the oven floor (which I’m happy with.

i can definitely make the chimney opening more like diagram B. I can come out a bit more if I have to, but I’m hoping to get away with just 4” beyond the dome line for the entry.

Going from rectangular to round is a piece of cake - I did it with bricks so casting or welding should be trivial. Also if you decide you want more height to the oven floor you can always (at this point) pour a thinner overhanging hearth over the top of the existing one giving a bigger footprint and adding some height. Or if you decide you are totally screwed on room for the entry you could add a "shelf"/extension in the front like some folks have done or even drop to a 36" ID to gain 2 inches. Due to the weight of these ovens you kind of need to know what your final configuration will look like before you start or you can easily end up with too big or small of a hearth and/or sub-optimal placement. On my cad design I indexed all my plan form dimensions from the oven center point which made it easy to locate everything on the hearth.

[mnagy]

How do I go about making a build thread? I made a video of me building my stand. Was gonna make a separate video for each step and put it in a thread on this forum for feedback. Thanks!

[UtahBeehiver]

Go to the section where you want the thread (suggest pompeii construction) the hit "new topic"