Dragan's 900mm brick Pompei oven build. Melbourne Australia

[Gecko245]

Completed Dome. I've finally completed the Dome brickwork. I will start on the gallery shortly as I'm still trying to work out exactly what to do. I also need to find a vent to install into the top of the dome once I've competed the insulating Layer, thanks for the tip Utah Beehiver.

[Gecko245]

Outer Insulation layer completed.

I've sketched up my chimney manifold and will send it out to my steel supplier to laser cut, hopefully getting it back in a week or two. This also gives the dome a chance to dry out a little before I start the SLOW curing process. The chimney manifold will also act as a lintel to support the arch bricks as suggested by my father who as an old school builder insisted it is needed. He's probably correct. Once I get it back I am looking forward to cutting, bending, welding and painting it in preparation to installation.

Any advice or suggestions for considerations and/or improvements are appreciated.

[UtahBeehiver]

Great job, you can start the cure slow by using what you Aussie call heat heads (aka charcoal briquettes for us Yanks) this will get the oven up to about 200 F, very transitional heat with no flame impingement to the brick. When you do start to use wood, like you stated, SLOW is best, that one extra piece of wood will spike the temp very fast. This is the point where we see builders get impatient and heat there ovens too hot and too fast and crack them. Plus you can cook a dutch oven meal while you use heat beads.

[Gecko245]

Thanks UB,

Iv'e tried researching the curing section regarding temperatures. Should I use an infrared thermometer on the floor, wall, dome top? Or should I be using some other method for measuring temp?

[UtahBeehiver]

temp gun is fine. Top of dome will be the hottest.

[maniotas]

Looks amazing. Good idea with the heat gun. Can you let me know where you sourced the firebricks from? Looking to build one at our new place

[Gecko245]

Completing the dome.

It was nice to finally complete the dome brickwork. The final couple of courses proved a bit tricky but with some timber supports inside the dome they stayed in place while the mortar cured. We thought about the final centre brick section and thought we would cheat a little by installing 4 x parallel bricks rather than many cut ones. We also cut some shallow lines into the underside to give the appearance of individual bricks. As the brick courses got higher there was more cutting and grinding to the vertical edges as well as to the underside of each brick. I would use any left over Denscrete mix to coat the dome bricks, filling any larger voids in the brickwork.

[Gecko245]

Completed Dome.

Here are some additional photos once we completed the dome. I've also included the photos of the 4 x centre dome bricks referenced in my last post

[Gecko245]

Insulation layer going on.

I've use screws in the bottom Hebel layer to help secure the wire holding down the insulation. There are 3 layers of 25 mm blanket wrapped in a way to avoid overlapping joins.

[UtahBeehiver]

Nice work, you can start curing the oven with what you Aussie's call heat beads, gets you about 200 F with no flame impingement. When you start to use wood, be careful, one extra log will spike the temp quickly. Remember the turtle wins this race, this is where we see many builders get impatient and go too hot and too fast.

[Gecko245]

Gallery construction.

When I started my oven build I wasn't sure about all the details for my build. As I went on I would search through this forum and get ideas discussing things with my father. when we got closer to the gallery construction I new I wanted to separate it from the main dome so as not to make it a heat sink drawing heat away from my cooking area. I ended up putting in some Cal Sil board between the dome and the gallery as well as between the floor bricks and the out floor work area. I had the idea to make the metal chimney manifold not only to help guide smoke up through the chimney( the manifold is the full width of the gallery and 200mm deep) but to support my face arch bricks as they were only half a brick deep.

[Gecko245]

I recently received an email from David S regarding my chimney manifold but can't seem to see it here so I have cut and pasted it here.

Do you plan on welding that together? I hope it's stainless, what thickness did you get? I presume you intend to connect the front decorative arc to the outer rendered shell, in which case some wire ties embedded in the brick joints would be advisable

Yes, I have bent and welded the manifold together. It's mm mild steel and not stainless steel, and am a little concerned after receiving your reply. It has been painted with high temp exhaust paint and my oven is protected from the elements with a roof so I'm hoping it won't rust out anytime soon. I have attached small cleats to the front to help hold the front arch bricks in place as well as attaching 6 x long cleats (which may be a little difficult to see in my picks) to secure the manifold to the outer dome rendering. The whole piece has bent flat sections to either side which sit on the gallery brickwork for support. What might be your concerns David?

[david s]

I posted (not emailed) those questions, then saw on the pic on your post that you’d already welded it up, so I deleted my post.
My concerns are that it might rust away. As rust is accelerated by moisture, heat and oxygen, it is vulnerable. The thinner the steel the quicker the deterioration.
I bought a ridiculously cheap Chinese cast iron pot bellied stove many years ago and a stainless flue pipe was going to cost me more than the stove, so I had a thin 0.5 mm galvanized pipe made up and fitted it. By the second season the pipe had rusted so badly it needed replacement. Still being too stingy to go stainless I obtained some steel boiler tube which was around 4 mm thick, some 8x thicker than the 0.5mm galvanized pipe. I can’t say how long it lasted because I sold the property two years later.
You might be ok if you’re careful to avoid any flame impingement and if you haven’t built over it too much it shouldn’t be too hard to replace. Regarding the heatproof paint, I have no idea what it contains, but if zinc based could be a problem as zinc is highly poisonous if there’s any off gassing. My own opinion is that any steel, including fixings, doors etc for a WFO should be stainless to avoid corrosion.
I think your solution is a good one because it has the advantage of being well funnelled and light weight, avoiding the heat sink issue of most heavy brick built galleries, as well as simple and quick fabrication.

[Gecko245]

Thanks for your tip David although you have frightened me a little with the paint. I'll look into it tomorrow in the hope it is zinc free.

[Gecko245]

Completed Pompei oven.

We fried the oven at suggested temperatures for the first 3 days and then i suspect my father let the fire get to around 450 C on the forth day. No cracking at all in the oven and I'm unsure if we were just lucky or the fact that I had the heat gun on for about 3 weeks on a time helped. My son and I fixed some chicken wire to hold in the insulation and then covered that with 3 coats of cement render, with each coat about 10mm. We added some oxide to the final thin coat for a coloured finish without painting. Fibreglass fibres were added to all render coats.

The door was made with 3mm steel welded together by me (spent more time grinding then welding I think). It is about 50mm thick with Cal Sil board on the inside and timber to the outside face. The thermostat helps with cooking while the door is closed.

It takes about 90 minutes to heat up the oven for pizza cooking (450 C). The internal temperature was 100 C 48 hours after removing the fire from the oven, so perfect for slow cooking. It is winter here with an average dailt temp of around 12 C.

We have had a couple of failures with cooking meats and pizzas and breads, but are happy to experiment with our new oven as we learn how to make best use of it.