42" build in Arizona

[Giovanni Rossi]

No worries. It's always good to post your solutions so others can benefit from the collective knowledge. I too did some demo, albeit for cosmetic reasons; but it was only 3 bricks.

At the end of the day you have to feel good about the final product! Happy 4th!

[xvandish]

Thanks for the encouragement Giovanni, much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed the 4th as well!

Here's some progress:

[UtahBeehiver]

Just need to point out something you need to be aware of. In order for the IT to work properly and the internal brick face to be perpendicular to the center point on the dome. The IT shaft from the bottom floor center point needs to intersect the middle of the brick face or the brick will not have the correct angle to be perpendicular. It is cumulative as you go up and the brick face will start to step at the bottom joint.

By using full soldiers, there will be quite a bit of outward forces at the dome and top of soldiers. Do you have any contingency to buttress the soldiers?

[xvandish]

Thanks Utah,

Ah, I think that explains the stepping I was getting dry fitting the next row! Hmm. I attached a diagram of the current iteration, and the proposed version, does the proposed version look more in line with what you'd expect? How exact does that center point need to be? Should I make it so that the center/middle of the wood IT rod/block meets the brick face exactly in the center? Written description of my current iteration: Wooden stick bolted to a caster, caster is attached to wooden block that is sunken relative to the floor.


I do have a contingency yeah! I've attached a picture, with the source as a caption. I'm planning on something like a cord/ribbon of some type wrapped around the soldiers, attached to something embedded in the counter on the left and right sides of the oven. I'm thinking a stainless steel ribbon at the moment, and maybe some cast iron fluer de lis rods embedded into the counter. I tried to add a URL for the image source but I think that's against posting rules. Let me know how best to give credit. I think it's Tscarborough's oven.

[UtahBeehiver]

Sorry for the delay. To answer your question(s) the where the IT rod or line (from the center of the dome) needs to intersect the internal face of the dome brick the middle vertical axis of the brick. This makes the face perpendicular to center of the dome so if you not intersecting the face at the right point the error keeps getting worse as you go up. In a perfect world a fixed length IT works but there are lot of variables that throw things off. So an IT that can shorten or lengthen gives you more flexibility. At the other end of the IT where it mounts to the floor, best is rotation point is right at center of dome and at floor elevation. Any different placement primarily affects the diameter of the dome as you go up and this is where and adjustable IT comes into play.

PS - I do not believe the posted picture of banding is Tscar's, he did a barrel oven.,

[xvandish]

Thanks Utah, no worries at all! My apologies for my delayed response, I had a draft I though I posted.

I changed the IT to be similar to the "proposed" section in the digram in my last post, it's working much better, at least in the dry-fits that I've done. Appreciate the thorough explanation.

Ah interesting, maybe it was a reference picture he posted and I didn't read closely enough.

[xvandish]

Progress since the last update -

Built up the walls a good bit, and this weekend just built the inner arch. The arch took forever took forever for lots of reasons. I first tried freehanding the curve lots of different ways and wasn't happy with it, so drew it with a computer and printed it out on a large sheet of paper. Then traced the entry onto some plywood, then cut it out with a combination of a miter saw and a wood chisel.

For the actual arch, I was just going to do half bricks without tapering, but while I was there decided to switch to full-bricks with a taper to make my life easier. My IT tool isn't extendable so I just had to freehand and eye things up. Somehow while building it, the arch got a bit out of line, which is fine but is going to make making the door a flush fit a challenge later.

[xvandish]

Pictures a bit out of order, sorry.

[xvandish]

Hello all.

The oven has been completed for quite some time and has worked great, we've had lots of small and big pizza parties!

It heats up quickly, 40mins to 1hr. I'm still yet to make a door, but if I fire the oven for around 2 hours, 12 hours later it's at around ~300deg, and after 48 its still around ~150. I don't think I'm anywhere near complete saturation yet, I've been firing pizzas almost as soon as the dome clears and only bringing back a flame for later rounds. I can comfortably do 2 ~16" pizzas at a time.

The oven was rendered with stucco - scratch, brown and a white color coat. I'm still planning some final decoration with tiles at the front chimney area, and need to do some waterproofing.

Random stuff:

* Clearing the arch and keeping things level was the hardest part of the build for me. I didn't get it right even though I went super slowly and and redid 2 levels. The oven bricks now have a cool spiral like shape from me fighting to get back to round.
* The absolute worst part of the build was trying to get the chicken wire to nicely cover the insulation. I was covered and masked up while handling the insulation, all while it was 110deg outside. I should have used lathe, or done the very first layer as stucco + fiberglass. That's what I made my brown coat out of, worked nicely.
* I actually love the extended landing I made. I made it without a heat break, so it gets to around 200degs at the upper parts and 100 at the very front. But, this makes it absolutely perfect for warming things. I put terracotta tiles there (think saltillo tiles) to heat up, then serve the pizzas on those stones and they don't get cold! It's also great for cooking, you can easily fry/sear food on a cast iron, or lightly brown by pulling things back, all while the heavier food is cooking in the main dome.

Any questions let me know - Thanks to all posters and responders around! All the knowledge from various builds helped immensely.

[xvandish]

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[xvandish]