37.5" corner build in SoCal

[Zimmy]

The dome arch is complete and didn't fall over when I removed the form! The taper angles were pretty variable as I dialed in my technique, but I figured it's a good place to learn as most of it will be obstructed by the vent arch. I want to make sure I have a well-centered keystone for the decorative arch, but I don't think its critical on the other two.

I finally started getting some droop in the dome near the top of the arch, so a few custom shim bricks brought things back to level for course 10. The numbers on the bricks are my reference for the bevel angle.

I took inspiration from some builds here and asked my potter buddy w/ a kiln to glaze and fire a simple decorative capstone.

[Zimmy]

Last week the countertop fabricator came and picked up the two partial slabs of quartzite from our kitchen remodel that have been sitting in the dog run for the last few years. They will get cut and polished into a prep counter and bar top with a 2" drop edge to hide the two layers of 1/2" cement board board being used as underlayment. The cement board was leveled and supported with 50:50 sand:fire clay bedding mix that the hearth bricks were bed in with, then secured in place with masonry screws. The bar has an overhang on two adjacent sides, so to increase stiffness I laminated the two cement boards together with adhesive using a notched trowel to get an even layer then piled 5 left over bags of cement and mortar, a 100lb bag of mortar sand and several 5 gallon buckets of water to squeeze the bond line tight. There are welded rectangular steel tubing brackets supporting the 9" and 12" bar top overhangs, with purse holder hooks per the wife's request. They were recessed flush into the CMU base with the diamond grinder then bedded in with the 50:50 mix and masonry screws.

The IT has been retired, as the small bricks for the upcoming last course will no longer fit or allow removal from it. It has served it's purpose well and deserves a lazy retirement in the garage rafters. All the bricks holding its plywood base in place and lots of spilled mortar have been removed from the oven interior as well as the IT pivot base, and have been replaced with a yoga ball to support the last course and capstone placement. Before the ball was installed, I crawled in there on my back and touched up any visible mortar gaps as best I could. Three layers of roofing paper were put between the yoga ball and the bricks to stiffen/flatten the shape and to prevent wet mortar from ruining the ball for its original purpose.

It looks like the capstone plug will be bigger than expected, maybe 4" in diameter at the inside, so I think I'll layer two bricks to give a larger continuous area for my buddy to paint something with glaze. I checked the sight line and if you squat down in front of the opening, you can see where it will go. So no need to stick you head into the oven to see it.