4 years in the making - 42" dome

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

It has been a year since the last post. I think I am getting close to the longest build in history for a pizza oven.

I poured, partially torn out and re-poured the vermiculite pad.
I cut a floor template a month plus ago after my other one was moved outside by one of my kids, got hit by a rare storm.
Borrowed a saw from a friend (yahoo, not another purchase to make!)
This morning I cut the floor bricks.

So why the delay - well, My previous job had me traveling way too much. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. Couple that with a make hormone deficiency, I was crashing big time.

So, I took a new job where I am home every night. Got hormone replacement therapy (wow, do I feel much better!0 and got to work as the weather has been breaking. I had a ton of house errands to get to before the oven or C5momma would take the cleaver to me!

Some learning points: Having cut furnace brick - this stuff cuts real easy! Also, for the others out there, don't worry about mis-cutting bricks - you can reuse the other portions later.

Hoping today to get my indispensable tool made as well. Just need to find a knuckle joint for the floor.

I scored some high temp, mineral fiber mud from the mine I work at. Plan is to use the fire-clay cement for the brick attachment and then use the high temp mud to cover the dome. I should also be able to score some refractory blanket as well! I did purchase the floor bricks and a few others - but a vast majority of the brick will be from work - a 100 year old furnace was demolished and I have as many as needed - corners are ugly, but when you are cutting in half, who cares!

Question: How does everyone grind the floor down to level out - many of the firebricks have small lips on them!

Here are some pics to update

[eprante]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

C5,
I used a belt sander to knock down the uneven edges on my floor. Used a tie down strap around the floor bricks to keep them steady. Worked like a champ
Eric

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Eric:

Great idea! I got plenty of that stuff. I was hoping to avoid the use of the grinder, and you have provided one. Thanks

Chris

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Sorted brick today from the demo of a boiler built in 1912 at the site I work at. Some of the corners are chipped, but when cut in half, they are awesome. Will give the oven a feel of history. Bricks tested out as non-haz, so life is good. And to top it off - my 14 and 17 year old boys said they will cut bricks -> I have a 4 day weekend coming up!

Also am scoring some high temp mortar from work that is laced with quartz fiber. Plan on using it for the dome cover. I spoke with an old firetender/brick mason and he said the recipe used here is pretty similar to what they used for repairs and what the old timers assembled the boilers with! Since some of the bricks have the same mix still sticking to them (along with a few bricks still stuck together), it cannot be bad!

The Tool should be ready early next week - have a guy doing some drilling on a part. Will post the pics when completed. I will be glad to share the tool when I am completed. I will post a parts list when completed. No welding, just a tube cut and a drilling of a long throw nut.

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

One other question - does anyone have the angles used on the brick courses (using 1/2 bricks) to get a tighter fit??? I know on the soldier it is 20 degrees. Seeing that I have slave brick cutting labor, I can set up a jig for the angle and Viol`a tighter joints.

Thanks in advance!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Hey Gang,

Here is a spreadsheet I developed (with thanks to others on the net and FB) so you can draw an arc for your arch support. Sorry about the drawings as the arc feature in excel is not the best (at least if you open it in open office. Just enter the dimentions and it should work like a charm.

I will also figure out how to make it work for oven domes later - I get funky string sizes that do not make sense!!

Carpe Diem

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Ahh, the floor has been laid and a quick layout of the soldier course

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

My pile of almost 100 year old bricks.

My bricklayer friend told me to lay the bricks in sand and not a sand/fireclay mix. told me it would be easier to level each of the bricks as I went along. Tried it and it worked. Plus no clay shrinkage.

Some of the bricks are beautiful and am trying to figure out how to show them off! What is really cool is the fire clay on them is stuck like cement!

One error on my side - I did not make the vermiculite pad large enough! Next one I will use the calcium silicate board - the vermicucrete is not a friendly to leveling as I thought! Plus at the prices around here, I did not save any money! Live and learn.

So, for the rest of the afternoon - fix the vermiculite layer, clean up some of the bricks and cut at a 20 degree angle and then mud the soldier course together. Tonight, make the template for the arch, and start on the arch tomorrow and a few more courses - I love the exemption from child labor laws!

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Oven floor looks great! You'll be using that center line you marked quite a bit on your build. I would also mark it down the front of the brick as well, even on your vermicrete if you can.
I like the used firebrick. Yup, fireclay, mortar mix is very strong stuff. Are you going to make your own 'homebrew' or buy FB's stuff or Heatstop?

Keep up the good work,
-dino

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Thanks for the complement on the floor. I figured on the line that it would help in moving the bricks to the pad from the patio. What a jigsaw puzzle! I ended up replacing a few bricks and trimming a few due to bellies. I will be living with the gaps as they will be filling with ash anyhow ;-)

I am doing homebrew to keep up with the tradition. On the old brick there is residual mud which from what I was told is similar to the homebrew (each of the old masons had their own blends they liked.) From what I can see and feel from removing, it is sticky stuff and lasted almost 100 years. I plan to clad the dome in some refractory mud that I am getting from the copper smelter I work at. it is off spec for molten metals, but fine for other tasks. Needless to say, we are very picky about bricks and mud - 1 day down is about $1 million!

Got the soldiers cut today - 20 degrees. Have a picture of the template I used. Noticed that the new bricks had bellies on the ends and lateral sides. The old bricks had a bit of variation in length - will need to plan to compensate for that on the soldiers.

I have my no-weld indispensable tool drying out in the garage right now. I love the JB Weld. Only needed a drill press for 1 part - pictures tomorrow as well.

Dino - question - what was your taper front to back on the 1/2 bricks?? I am thinking about 3/8ths an inch on each side, but not sure. I am taking tomorrow off to crank on the oven, but would like to optimize the time for cutting.

Have a great evening all!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Quick Materials Update (propted by reading other posts!)

For fine sand, go to Lowes/HD/local masonry store and ask for fine silica sand. Mine came in 100 lb bags and was rated at 30 grit. The local Lowes was out of the 1/3 cubic yard bags (about 500 lb). If you can get in the larger bulk bag, do so!

As I am working on the over, i wish I would have run another course on the base! Just means more stooping. Also wish I would have brought the corner in 1/2 block on each side under the hearth.

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

OK

Today did not go as quickly as I planned. After cutting cardboard, I made a measuring stick - the piece of wood with a line on it. With this, I was able to keep the oven side of the brick fairly constant (+/- 1 or 2 mm).

I then reset the whole soldier course to be fairly level and then began the mudding. Each brick was mudded then set level in 2 directions with the front at the proper altitude. As I said, took longer than anticipated.

Note in the last picture some additional vermicucrete which was added last night!

I then cleaned up the face and the hearth and mudded the outside.

The picture missing is the entry way towers that I just completed. I had to pull the bricks down because I forgot the notch the bricks (1 inch reveal) - ugh. Notched, mudded and set. Nice and level.

So now? Time to cut the arch forms with my handy dandy program. Tomorrow will be truncated due to a family event (don't they understand the importance of Pizza?

Hope the rest picks up!

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

This is so frustrating:

family event (don't they understand the importance of Pizza?

What can you do except threaten to delay feeding them pizza .

Your question on the half-bricks: I assume you mean the half-brick/row bricks you're going to start putting on top your soldier course. I think 3/8" is about right. My drawings told me to cut 1/2" but I think I lessened the angle to probably 3/8".

I used the trial and error method that worked great for my pea-brain:

I would cut 2 bricks in half, at what I thought would be the correct side angles (front to back) and I would have 4 half-brick row pieces. I would lay those 4 pieces on the soldiers as a 'test' and if the 3-4 test bricks looked good, I would use those as a template and pencil mark (trace the angle) on a few more bricks, cut them and mortar 3 at a time. If my initial 'test' bricks for that row looked too sharply cut or not enough angle, I just fixed the angle with the wet-saw, re-tested and if it worked, I used those as a template to cut the rest of that row and mortar them in. If I over cut a brick, no worries, 2 rows up would require a sharper taper anyway or your always cutting a smaller 1/3 or 1/4 brick to keep your vertical joints offset so I used those 1/2 bricks that somehow got smaller by re-cutting so there is little waste.

I'm impressed and very jealous of the guys that have a perfect circumference and perfect level so they can pre-cut an entire row of bricks but I had to make adjustments along the way.

Can't wait to see the arch, that's a fun part!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Thanks Dino! That is what I was thinking as well. I had a bad time cutting this am, so I went old school with full, untrimmed bricks Set them by hand after having the cheap Chinese epoxy break on my indispensable tool.

Also found out the shaft of the tool was a wee bit short for the lower courses. So, off to lowes to buy JB Weld to get my angle back on. Cut a new shaft and epoxied in the bolts with the real stuff and now waiting.

My 14 year old slave whined about cutting bricks, then really got into it. He must have cut 30 by the time it was to leave for the ASU football game with his Pop warner team.

From the pics, I have the entry pillars completed including the cuts for the reveal (what a pain in the tush!) and the first chain - that went fairly quickly! It actually took longer to get my tool base in place and the cardboard cut. Thank goodness for the USPS!

p.s. Using the old bricks has been a challenge. They are not always the same dimentions and often slightly smaller in length or thickness - the 4.5 dimention has been pretty right on. Fortunately, using mud to fix the differential has been the focus!

Other than being stuck in traffic for a church thing on a gorgeous Saturday, it was not too much of a loss!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Murphy Strikes again

apparently, whilst I was sleeping, he came out and set my oven floor askew. Now, after looking at it, the floor is not round like it should be, but out of round. To top it off, he must have hypnotized me and told me to go ahead and set my soldier and first course without the "tool".

So how in pray tell did I find this wonderful info out? Whilst I was going at doing my second chain, the "tool" was up and running well when I determined that I was in fact not round. I made sure when setting up the tool to be in the center (which is now suspect).

Result? In one section of the oven, I am pushed back 1/2 + an inch on the back wall, while the area near the opening went fairly well.

So I spoke with a structural engineer friend of mine. After finish laughing at me, he told me not to stress and to finish up. the error was down low enough not to worry about and the exterior cladding will compensate for it. I am planning on some stucco wire on the outside to help with the strengthening.

Now back to figuring out how to get the arch up.