OctoForno

[Cheesesteak]

Re: OctoForno

Looking great John -

Our soapstone countertops are a huge hit - I really can't wait to hear how it works out as the floor of your oven.

[benguilford]

Re: OctoForno

Yup, very glad I took the plunge and bought the Bianco brick saw, could not have done without it. Anyways, enough of me hijacking this wonderful thread, looking forward to the next Octo-update!

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Over 300 cuts with the bricksaw, with only my weekends and weeknights available to get it done!

Stateside (west coast) we use words like.... unreal...insane... rediculous.

When oven #2 gets going I wanna know about it.

John

[benguilford]

Re: OctoForno

I know you are rushing your build and I am impressed with your attention to detail given the stresses of your timeline.
John

Indeed, the 'stresses of my timeline' were very real. I managed to complete the entire oven (starting with the hearth slab complete) in three weeks, with only my weekends and weeknights available to get it done! Over 300 cuts with the bricksaw, wore through the skin on my fingertips before I realised I should be wearing gloves, and must have made at least a dozen trips to the local hardware store.. good times

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Wow, Ben, thank you. I am truly pleased that you have found value in my thread and pics. If it saves other builders time and raises the bar even a tiny bit, then way cool. Anybody can make an oven like mine if he/she takes the time, which is the hardest part.
I know you are rushing your build and I am impressed with your attention to detail given the stresses of your timeline. It is a luxury to have a first oven to learn from, and I'm sure you will nail your second oven.

John

[benguilford]

Re: OctoForno

John, I just spent that last 90 minutes reading through this thread and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, it was time well spent. I am inspired, jealous, amazed and running low on adjectives. Incredible build, your attention to every detail is nothing short of awesome - in the proper sense of the word, I was filled with awe.

How you managed to build the dome without using a tool or formwork can only be explained by the hours you must have spent carefully cutting each brick to ensure a uniform mortar gap, and scoring them to create a 'key' for the mortar to lock in to. As for cutting a concave face into each brick... in the words of George from Seinfeld; 'I'm speechless Jerry, I am without speech'.

By the time you are done, you will have a masterpiece on your hands. I will be borrowing ideas and inspiration HEAVILY from your build for my next oven. Is it possible to have an 'oven-crush'?

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

So no thermal break in the arch then?

I wish! Any mass connected to the dome will bleed heat, including the vent and entryway. Until somebody comes up with a better idea, this is best I can think of. I had considered leaving a straight 1/2" gap all the way around and covering it with a 1"-wide strip of stainless steel, but can't commit to it. With the design below, I have decided to omit the silicone and leave an empty gap behind the minimum contact point, providing a space at the perimeter sufficient to house some square refractory rope.

[Dino69]

Re: OctoForno

John,

Soapstone sucks up the heat big time. I have a soapstone masonry heater in my house and it takes up the heat, and holds it, like nothing I have ever seen.

Just the little bit of stainless you have for the break looks good. Nice and clean. The entire entryway will no doubt be killer.

So no thermal break in the arch then? Only on the floor? I guess maybe the vent opening would act as a break of sorts in the arch itself. A big air gap.

Thank you for your time.

David

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Gary, welcome! If you haven't downloaded the plans yet, check 'em out and remember to post lots of pics.
John

[Gary Mots]

Re: OctoForno

John, I'm a newbie on here, trying to get some info on building an oven, thanks for you and all the guys on here for all the pictures and recommendations. I went completely through your great post, you have done an awesome job on you oven. Thanks again, the info and pictures are going to be invaluable when I get started.

Gary (Valley Center, Ca.)

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

Dino,

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, the white-colored insulating firebrick (IFB) is a thermal break designed to keep the firebrick subfloor isolated from the entryway floor bricks. I dropped my soapstone entryway floor design after SCChris reported huge heat losses from his soapstone entryway floor. Once Chip posted pics of his stainless steel entryway, I was hooked, and have my brother fabricating a 16-gauge 316 (restaurant grade) entryway floor as we speak.

Below is my current floor break design. The space between the beveled soapstone and stainless flange is an air gap. The material just just inside the flange is 2" of Insblock insulating board, left over from the top layer of my oven floor insulation.

John

[Dino69]

Re: OctoForno

John,

I am really liking the thermal break you show in your pics. At least, so I do not look too dumb, I am hoping that is a thermal break.

I like the insulating firebrick next to the oven floor, but what did you place under the stainless steel? Is it an air gap or maybe a slice of ceramic fiber board? It looks like it would function really well and help save all of that residual heat so many on here use to cook with days later.

Did you use a thermal break after the internal oven arch? So far this seems only one of the problems in designing my oven. The thermal breaks seems tricky for me. Not the concept, but implementing them in a solid way into the arches.

I am really diggin' all the builds on here. You guys really raise the bar for those of us hoping to build at some point in the future.

Thanks,

David

[Pompeii Nate]

Re: OctoForno

Once again, thank you John for all the information. I gotta say...some times I get to the point that I feel like I can take on such a project but then I think of something else and I begin to doubt that I will ever have the skills to accomplish something like you have done. thanks for all your help. I will have to find someone else to start bothering with all my questions so as not to burn you out. Thanks!

Nate

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: OctoForno

So I noticed in another thread you said: It'll probably take some practice, but I'm sure I can figure out how to do two mortars without tearing my hair out

Funny you should ask! It turned out to be easier in concept than practice. I started my oven with angled soldiers that left a large gap on the outside. I buttered a 120 silica sand mortar into the inside gap (about 20% of the overall gap) and was pleasantly surprised at how effective this was at securing the bricks. I came behind and backfilled the large outside gaps with a larger grit mortar. After the mortar dried I wiggled some of the soldiers and found that the ones that came loose did so because I hadn't stuffed the mortar into the joint until it was completely filled. There was a space the size of a thumb drive inside each soldier gap. It also didn't help that the mortaring was done in 104F summer heat and that my mortar was way to dry to begin with.

So... I tore them all apart, cut the angles off and laid them in horizontally. What I found out was that gravity helped bond each horizontal brick and that I could build as many courses in a true vertical soldier-like fashion as I wanted.

I also decided I would go with 120 mortar throughout which meant I had to cut each joint to be no larger than 3/16" on the inside and 1/2" on the outside. This single decision probably added 40% of the build time to complete my oven, but now that the dome is done, all I can say is: It is what it is.

What I really learned was to make my mortar wet enough to ooze out of the joint when pressing a new brick into place. I feel this approach resulted in a completely homogeneous, consistent layer of mortar between each brick with no gaps. I'm hoping this will contribute to a lower incidence of dome cracks but only time will tell.

John

[Pompeii Nate]

Re: OctoForno

So I noticed in another thread you said: It'll probably take some practice, but I'm sure I can figure out how to do two mortars without tearing my hair out. Thanks again!

Did you end up doing that or just going with the 120 silica sand all the way through? It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to just do 2 different types of sand, one for the smaller joints and one for the larger, outer joints but having not laid a single brick or mixed any mortar myself maybe I am just being overly optimistic. Your thoughts?