Pizza Bob's 42" Build

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Thanks Dave. Yeah I always loved everyone's "sky shots" from the inside. I'm glad to finally have my own. The soldiers have always been referred to as soldiers in this forum. I just followed suit...

I never needed to hold the courses in place for the last brick. I would custom fit the last brick and just use a little extra mortar on the sides and bottom of the brick. Then I would slide in it in from outside towards the center of the dome. The last brick usually needed to be ever so lightly tapped into place but not enough to disturb the bricks on each side. The extra mortar would make somewhat of a mess there and sometimes I would need to go in with a pointer (a.k.a. - my finger) to force a little more mortar into the joint. It seemed to work fine. The HeatStop 50 sets quickly enough for the bricks to stay in place for this method.

As far as the tent...I really thought about it but it would be more than just the tent. I cut bricks before each course so I can get them to fit exactly for that course. The temps are too cold in Connecticut and I worry about freezing. I know I can keep a light bulb or something in the oven to keep it warm but I enjoy working on this thing and don't think I'd enjoy it in the winter. Spring will be here soon and I'll get to that final keystone.

Or I might have these masons who just did a retaining wall for me last week finish the job! These guys did a GREAT job on the wall! It's 90 feet long and 3 feet tall and then it transitions up to 5 feet tall and 30 feet long. I was able to get 25 extra feet of flat land in the back yard. The steps will eventually lead up to a stone patio where the pizza oven will be located. They did all this in 7 days! It's 50% stone from our yard - all New England fieldstone. The rocks above the wall will be the location for another retaining wall that will connect to the pizza oven. Then the pizza oven will be finished in this same (smaller sizes) fieldstone.
The masons checked out my pizza oven a few times and commented on how good it's coming out...but they would have completed it in less than a week!
You can see the pizza oven in the second picture. Currently there is no easy access to the backyard so this wall and the next wall will make it easy for friends to follow their nose to the smell of pizza...

~Bob

[DaveW]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Bob that is gorgeous. Love those sky shots, they remind me of the Pantheon in Rome. I would call that eight courses...What are the soldiers? Chopped liver? I finished my seventh yesterday and had to call my wife out to hold the chain in place until I got the key stone in. Did you get your last chains in alone and if so how did you do it?
Come on, build a tent over that thing and finish it. Where else are you going to roast your chestnuts?
Dave

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Interior pictures...

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Today was an absolutely gorgeous November day in Connecticut! I wanted to work on the oven so badly but decided it was about time to close it up before the snow arrives. My "real job" has just been keeping me too busy to dedicate enough time to get this done before the snow. I'm not complaining but I am...
I completed the seventh course last week and took some pictures today. These will be the last until the spring. The coolest thing about these pictures was that I was FINALLY able to get pictures of the sky & tree tops from inside the oven with a course displayed! I always thought these were the coolest pictures and never thought I'd get there. Again, not as cool as putting in the keystone but these are close. I also broke-out the wet-dry vac and cleaned all loose mortar inside and out. If there was a mortar police I would have been fined over and over for wasting mortar! I removed the protective wood floor covering too in order to clean everything. I almost forgot what my herringbone floor looked like! It looked better than I remembered.
It was funny as I was cleaning-up, so many thoughts were going through my head as to how much work has been put into this - by myself (and of course all the support from this forum) - and I kept saying how I would do this and that differently and how I screwed-up here and there and how this looks great and that looks okay etc, etc, etc...But the bottom line is that this thing is gonna' kick ass when it's pumping out pizzas next spring!

~Bob

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Hi Bob,
You and Dino are my inspiration. . .true craftsmen. Of course there are many others but I have been focusing my attention on your builds. Is the weather as nasty up there as it is here in VA? I set my soldier bricks and the wx went sour. I won't catch you but I hope to follow closely behind. Thanks for documenting your build so well,
Dave

Dave,
Thanks for the compliments and glad I can help. You have got quite the project going on there! It looks awesome so far! How cool will that outdoor kitchen be with a WFO??? Nice! This is the first time I ever laid a brick and I'm really enjoying it. If you learn anything from my build is to not take as long as it has been taking me! You might catch me...I really wanted to fire this up before the winter but it's not gonna' haappen. It hasn't been too nasty here but that storm hitting you now will catch up to us tomorrow. I have bricks cut for my eigth course and I want to get those in place before the winter and then I think I'm done until the spring.

Good luck with your build!

dsgreco,
Thanks for the compliments. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. Good luck with your build!

Best,
Bob

[dsgreco]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Your oven looks great. I can only hope mine comes out that nice. Thanks for posting the transition brick images. I am sure I will need them in the near future.

[DaveW]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Hi Bob,
You and Dino are my inspiration. . .true craftsmen. Of course there are many others but I have been focusing my attention on your builds. Is the weather as nasty up there as it is here in VA? I set my soldier bricks and the wx went sour. I won't catch you but I hope to follow closely behind. Thanks for documenting your build so well,
Dave

[Rodneyf]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Cecilia, sometimes an angle grinder is usefull for cuts like these as you can come in from any angle. Once your oven is built I can tell you now, nobody will lay on theie back with there head inside your oven to check out your transition bricks. Enjoy your build and have some fun.

[cecilB]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

wow - thanks for the instruction!
I was thinking about it yesterday - using paper or cardboard to make a template of the top of the brick at the transition, and then one of the bottom - and then transferring that to the top and bottom of a brick - but it was always the getting it up to the blade at the correct angle!
Saturday, I did start holding bricks up to the blade like a grinder. That was a revelation for me!
I probably won't get to work on it much this week. But who knows how things may change!
Thanks for you help - I have lots of those styrofoam things from chickens.

Cecelia

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Here is the last image...

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Hi Bob, while I'm waiting for your video to download, I wanted to ask you about your arch dome brick cutting. Yours look so good - Yesterday we worked all day trying to cut them right and then one whole section was just not supported well enough, so it fell in. I cleaned up and went in for the day!
Is there a trick to getting your dome to arch bricks cut that perfectly?
It's one thing to see it in your mind - which is hard enough in my mind - but to put it up to a blade that only runs straight up and down - you have to know which position to place the brick - AAAAACK!

Any tips?
thanks,
cecelia

Hello Cecelia,
Thank you for thinking my arch dome bricks look so good. I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with this part of the build but perhaps I can help. I wish I took a video of the process because once I figured it out it really was so easy! It took a few years off my life and added some gray hairs for sure but I was pleased with the results. I know...I know...You want me to shut-up and explain the process...

My approach started off like Rodney's - I used cardboard to cut the shape in a flat pattern. The shape ALWAYS ended-up looking like the image below. The key was to mortar the course you're working on right up until there is only enough room for the transition brick. Then take your cardboard and place it on the upper most surface of that last brick in the course you're working on. Make sure it's the upper most face as shown in the picture below. Trace the pattern in the cardboard so that the v-groove intersects with the arch and the long side of the v-groove is flush with the arch bricks. Then take that cardboard pattern and transfer it to your brick with a Sharpie or marker that doesn't smear with water. Your first cut on the brick will be with the brick placed flat down on your tile saw table. Just a simple straight cut. You will have to flip the brick over to complete the cut and probably have to hit the portion you're removing with a rubber hammer or the palm of your fist to remove it but that shouldn't be a problem. The next part gets a little tricky as to how to hold the brick. If you look at the image below of the angled brick against the tile saw blade. The only way to do that is to hold it in your hands at the correct angle and keep your fingers away from the blade. I know...What is the "correct angle"? You will need to "creep up" to the final correct angle. Just make sure yo maintain the the original cardboard pattern by not cutting into it but rather cutting away from it (if that makes sense ). Both surfaces of this v-groove need to be angled back until it fits properly against your arch and dome bricks. Just take a cut and and match it up to where it will be mortared in. You'll see the angle will need to be cut probably 8 - 12 times before it fits perfectly.But as you cut these angles on both surfaces of the v-groove (when I say both surfaces - there is a long surface and a shorter surface that form this v-groove) make sure you do not change your initial cut that was transferred from the cardboard. The radius in the v-groove that you see in the image below was just "whittled" away by holding the brick in my hands and using the tile saw as a pedestal grinder and rotating the brick to get a nice transition of the two surfaces. Nobody will ever see this radius but a sharp corner there can introduce a stress riser or an area for a crack to form. As you progress on to the next course you will need to make the "longer" surface of the v-groove longer to overlap the course underneath it. This will allow you to continually close-in your circle at the arch transition. Just keep an eye out for the "tear-drop" shape ). This can be avoided by slightly overlapping each transition brick from course to course. Take a close look at pictures I posted earlier in my thread and you'll notice this overlap.

I hope this makes sense and it helps. I'm not sure if it's the easiest method of doing this and I'm sure I probably over thought an area that no one would have seen if I just kept my camera in the house...

Good luck on the rest of your build. My build is stalled at the 8th course.

p.s. - I will post another message with two more images.

Regards,
Bob

[Rodneyf]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Cecilia, I got around the transition bricks by using polystyrene foam cut from old Broccoli (vegetable) boxes cut to the same size as my bricks. It is easy to cut with a hacksaw blade and if you make a mistake it doesn't matter, it is then just a matter of transferring the cuts to real bricks.

[cecilB]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Hi Bob, while I'm waiting for your video to download, I wanted to ask you about your arch dome brick cutting. Yours look so good - Yesterday we worked all day trying to cut them right and then one whole section was just not supported well enough, so it fell in. I cleaned up and went in for the day!
Is there a trick to getting your dome to arch bricks cut that perfectly?
It's one thing to see it in your mind - which is hard enough in my mind - but to put it up to a blade that only runs straight up and down - you have to know which position to place the brick - AAAAACK!

Any tips?
thanks,
cecelia

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Bob, your youtube video is awesome! I just love the music too. It's nice to see all your work to date in a couple of minutes. Nicely done. Is that Dean Martin singing That's Amore? Can't wait to show it friends.
thanks, Dino

[pizza_bob]

Re: Pizza Bob's 42" Build

Here is a link to my YouTube site which has a video I made of progress to date. I'll update it periodically as I make progress:

YouTube - Bob's Wood Fired Pizza Oven

~Bob