OctoForno

[Tscarborough]

Re: OctoForno

John, did you do the pavers yourself?

(It all looks great, BTW)

[SCChris]

Re: OctoForno

Your oven area, it’s looking great John, really nicely executed, clean and functional. When the Granite and oven get installed you’re going to have a real show stopper of a back yard! Very Very nice!

I had imagined that the SStone that you found was going to be smaller cut-off bits. It looks like what you found was full slabs, or nearly full slabs and it looks like its mostly homogeneous rather than heavily veined, wow! What a find!.

If your jigsaw doesn’t move through the material the way you want, I had a thought about cutting your stone. If you build up the HF saw and a counter to a matching height, you can drop the saw blade into and through the stone material and get an 8 to 8.5 inch long cut in a minute or so. This would still take a while to get your circle done, but I think you might avoid the dust and grinding that the jigsaw and sander may put you through. This also avoids having to slide the stone past the HF-10 blade.

John, you're too kind with regards to my jig setup, it has potential but still needs a bit of engineering and fabricating. Let’s see if I can pull all of the parts together and we’ll find a time and place to pass the tool along. I’ll message you later about getting together.


Chris

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: OctoForno

John, those are fine choices you made!

I think you've taken the time to fine tune what you want and a 39" oven and hemispherical arch is going to be perfect. Your "thermal break...entry...data" thingy is over my head but it sounds great . Seriously, wish I'd of done it. I think the more people that do it and the more pics we see of it make it sooo much easier for the next build. You seem to like a challenge and I can't wait to see how great the soapstone turns out. Like Chris said, the whole area is looking really nice,
-Dino

[SCChris]

Re: OctoForno

John you have Email.

Chris

[countryboy]

Re: OctoForno

John,

Great looking build so far. Definitely going to be a super nice looking patio when finished! Take your time and do it right!

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Eric,

Thanks for the kind words. I too have changed my original plans and will go with steel studs, concrete board and stucco around the dome. Haven't yet decided on tile or bricks for the face. I gotta tell you, I've been following your thread and calling a project the size of yours a 'build' would be grossly inadequate. Calling it a 'complex' would be more like it. It's gonna be a prime party place when you're done.

Tom,
Yep. Every last one of 6,000+ hollandstone pavers. I got seconds for the insane price of $50 a pallet (so I bought 16 pallets) and when I went to install them found that the corners all chipped off and that they weren't square. Since I've been unemployed and had some extra time I set off to grind each and every brick square and take the pointy corners off so they wouldn't chip. In a full day of work I got 150 bricks trimmed and set into sand, and was exhausted. The real work ensued when I had to trim, cut 45's and bevel them before putting them down. After this whole exercise I'm pleased with the way the patio turned out but will subsequently contribute my story to the "what not to do' sticky.

I kept telling myself all the practice with the cuts I've made will make me better when the oven brickwork comes!

Dino,
Thanks for providing the original input on resizing my dome to 39". It was your recent post on the size of your 42" that convinced me to scale my oven down slightly, and I'm feeling better about it. If my finished oven comes out half as good as yours I'll be tickled. Actually, I borrowed the thermal break idea from the build by drseward and tscarborough. Come to think of it, I've borrowed every single idea for my oven from all the folks here!

Chris,
Thanks for all the valuable input. It's because of you I decided to go with soapstone and you're absolutely correct: I almost peed my pants when I went to meet the guy who sold it to me and saw the dimensions of the 'clear' slabs. I literally grinned all the way home. I did a comparative test and after sitting in the sun for half the afternoon I measured the surface of the soapstone and a firebrick with my IR thermometer. With an ambient air temp of 81F the firebrick registered 101F and the soapstone 135F. I am curious to find out how the soapstone recharges from a 'sub-base' of 2.5" firebrick during a pizza cook.

CB,
Thank you for the sage advice of taking my time. If I have done anything, it's take things steady to ensure I don't rush things and compromise the quality of my work. This is the first real thing I've ever built and don't have the experience or skill to go fast.

My next task will be to cut my floor bricks and soapstone. I'll take pics to illustrate the process.

John

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Ok, so I've finally made enough progress that I feel worthy of posting a report. First off, I was able to get through the interview process and am back among the employed. Woo-hoo! Alas, because the days are getting shorter I only get about 90 minutes a day to work on the oven.
As such, I've been able to cut the floor and entryway bricks, acquired insulating bricks for my entryway thermal (heat) break, and picked up a section of 1" square steel tubing for the actual break.
I will be going with a soapstone floor that sits directly on top of the firebrick 'subfloor'. I'm hoping the steel tube 1/16" wall thickness will transfer less heat out of the soapstone floor if it's left empty rather than filled with insulation. Using duct tape to create a template on my SS slabs, I then cut the floor using a 4 1/2" wet saw. Finally, I cut my soldier bricks and half of my inner arch form. This weekend I hope to get the floor leveled and start mortaring the soldiers and first course.

[SCChris]

Re: OctoForno

John, it's looking great! I love the SS floor, I know you're going to really enjoy the non-stick surface. The tubing looks very slick, I hope it works well for you!

Thanks for the update!!

Chris

[fxpose]

Re: OctoForno

Wow! I really like the look of that floor and the use of the square steel tubing for that additional heat break is a nice touch. Nice set up!

[SCChris]

Re: OctoForno

Fxpose, I like the look as well. John, If needed can the tubing be easly removed and replaced?

Chris

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Thanks George! Yes, Chris, the steel will span the floor-entryway junction immediately in front of the inner arch with either end just barely touching the inside of each archway brick. It will be removable in the event I upgrade to stainless steel someday.

[SCChris]

Re: OctoForno

John, have you ever been to Industrial Metal Supply? They have a warehouse in Irvine and may have a short piece of SS tubing for not much $.. Anyway, if you've never been there it's a very cool resource.

Chris

PS FX There is an IMS location close to you as well. Stainless Steel, Copper, as well as Decorative Iron and Brass. We picked up our curtain rods there, 10 foot long Indital hammered rod stock. I wiped it down to get the oil off and wiped on a liquid acrylic put it on hangers and it was good to go. It didn't cost a whole lot, and looks and works like a million bucks.

[Jon in Albany]

Re: OctoForno

I'm a lurker that daydreams of building a dome, so I have a few questions for you guys. First can you point me to the discussion on dome diameter? Whenever I draw something up, I make it a 42 inch oven. I'd be interested to read the pros/cons of the oven sizes. Also, the soldier course is on top of the hearth bricks in the picture. Is that a 39" inner diameter?

I don't know much about bricks. A quick google search is telling me that an insulating brick insulates (of course), doesn't hold heat and is strong. Would it be a good idea to build the vent transition out of these bricks? That combined with a break in the hearth would thermally isolate the dome. Or maybe it is better to keep something between these bricks and food. Maybe they are cost prohibitive too. Daydreaming minds want to know...

Good luck and don't forget to keep posting. I am learning a ton living vicariously through this site.

Jon

[dmun]

Re: OctoForno

First can you point me to the discussion on dome diameter?

Google

I have a 36 and I like the size. It's very difficult for one person to make more than one pizza at a time, and a 36 is fine for that. It's plenty big for thanksgiving dinner. It heats up fairly quickly and economically. That said, a lot of folks here have bigger ovens and like them.

Would it be a good idea to build the vent transition out of these bricks? That combined with a break in the hearth would thermally isolate the dome.

I wouldn't have any insulation exposed, including insulating brick. The stuff is an okay insulator, about the same as vermiculite concrete, but it's a lot more expensive.

The specific problem with your idea is that the insulating brick is porous and borderline crumbly. You also can't use mortar with it: it sucks the water out instantly and breaks the bond. When they build kilns with the stuff they just put it together with kaolin, a form of clay. It fires hard when the kiln is brought to red heat, which of course we never do.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Jon,

The reason I placed the soldiers directly on the hearth bricks is to give them something sturdy to sit (stand?) on. This still gives me the option of replacing the soapstone slabs in the unlikely event they need replacing. You could do the same thing with firebrick floor bricks, but it is rare that even one of them ever needs to be pulled out.