Dome Form

[amber]

What's the easiest way to descern the slope of the inside of the oven dome in order to create an appropriate form?

[Modthyrth]

Re: Dome Form

Well, it's a perfect half-sphere, so it's pretty easy to mark the center point and use a string or other measure at the appropriate length as the radius and trace the shape. What kind of form were you planning?

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Dome Form

A true napolitan oven must be a elipse in place of half-sphere. Or low dome oven, as you could call.
When I went to mine, I use the half-sphere model and styrofoam vanes, as in pictures.
Today I could go shorter...

Luis

[staestc]

Re: Dome Form

Amber,

I have not built anything yet, but have been spending a lot of time on this forum trying to go through what everybody has done, to determine what I want to do, so in that respect we probably have something in common

I like what Mike used, which is an idea he got from Les, which may have been his idea or one he got from somebody else, I don't know. But the basic idea while building is to use a single piece of plywood that is the shape of half your dome arch and just rotate it around the center of your oven. Picture of Mikes is here:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/21/m...fo-4832-8.html

I have searched Les' posts and have yet to find a description, but to me it seems like the best of all worlds. With the foam forms and sand forms, you pretty much lose access to the inside of the dome during the build, which means you cannot clean the inside as you go, at least very well. With this single piece, you can use it to hold up a brick while the mortar sets enough to hold the brick, then move it to hold the next brick and allow access to clean what you just did.

You should be able to create any dome shape using this method as well.

Just my two bits, but I am leaning towards that method.

Travis

[staestc]

Re: Dome Form

Luis,

I meant to put this in the previous post, but your oven just looks fantastic! Very nice job!

Travis