Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

[jerrycook]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

I won't be using my saw until Sat. If you would like to you are welcome to use it. Then I won't use it until the next Sat.

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

Jerry,

That's very kind of you, but I think I'll end up picking one up sometime soon. The time I have to work on my WFO is kind of sporadic, so it'd be a mess to coordinate. I appreciate the offer though. How far along are you with your build? I'd be interested in seeing your progress at some point.

-wayne

[jerrycook]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

I'm hoping to close the dome this sat. I need to go up to Windsor this week for more mortar. Six bags so far.

I would like to see the kit you've got. It took a lot of running around to find all the components for the oven.

I'm on Bayview Ave. close to San Bruno park.

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

woohoo, just picked up an HF tile saw yesterday. Hopefully, its plug and play.

I do have a question. I'm using the 12" by 12" floor tiles from FB. Should I cut some of the big tiles to stagger the joints on the floor, or should I just go with the long seams down the middle and across. Does this make a difference at all?

Has anyone built from the FB Pompeii kit yet?

[dmun]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

If it were me, I'd cut the front tiles on the diagonal so there would be no peel catching horizontal seams on the floor. Bit of extra work, but hey, you want to play with your new saw anyway!

[mluttropp]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

You could also simply lay the bricks in a diamond layout so that you are hitting the seams on the diagonal rather than head on. Not sure if that works with the number of bricks you have but if it does it could save on future headaches.

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

And suddenly I lost 3 weeks since I last did a thing on my WFO. I did finally get the HF saw up and running - really was plug and play. Good thing since the instructions were minimal. Thanks Matt, I did turn them on the diagonal. This feels better. I was reading about the consensus to soldier on top or around and for no good reason my soldier's will be on top.

I am more inspired after cutting my floor tiles. I was pretty hesitant to fire up the saw since I haven't used one of these prior. However it did help to try out cutting some brick at a neighbor's build.

Next up, leveling up the floor with the mix and trying to figure out how "indispensible is indispensible".

I have 2 full 12" by 12" tiles + a bunch of scrap left over after laying out my floor for my 36" Pompeii Build. Am I missing something or were there extra floor tiles included in the kit?

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

I just read the recent post on How To Measure the cut and that seems to answer some of my worries with getting started.

From my picture, you can see I haven't cut my full brick in half yet. I've only drawn a line to simulate the half brick. My build is for a 36" dome, 18" center height. My soldiers are half height with a 14 degree taper. On my test layout, it looks as if my first 4 rows would have a 1/2" mortar on the back and my next 5 rows would have 5/8" mortar on the back.

Is this too much of a gap for the mortar to hold well?

If I taper the brick, should I only taper the inside top or both the inside top and inside bottom.

If I taper the inside top of the brick 1/4", how thick will the mortar on the back be? I'm a CAD-less person and most of the builds I've been reading are for larger domes so the dimensions may not work for my smaller dome?

What type of simple jigs have people built/used for the HF 10" saw for the regular taper and cuts?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[SCChris]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

For the taper cuts I used 2 bricks, against the front of the sliding table of the HF10.. These bricks were clamped tight in place. The left brick just allows the saw blade to pass by. The right brick only allows the brick being tapered to tip past the left brick by about 3/8 to a 1/2 inch, this is the bevel cut waste. The arbor of the blade was raised to just clear the half brick being beveled. This creates a 3.5 inch deep cut but does not wear against the blade clamp, I think ths is called an arbor?? Anyway, the indespensable tool and mortar do the real magic. As for the width of the mortar, in the back of the brick course, use just what is needed to set the brick to the correct slope and keep the rim from getting too out of level. Sorry I can't tell you what this is going to be for you. Mabey someone who has more real experience here can comment on ideal joint thickness.

Chris

[mluttropp]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

For what it is worth most of my chains have a 1/2" gap for mortar on the outer back bottom of the brick.

[SCChris]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

I think you're fine. As I remember the best hope is to get a 1/8 line, but I know that edging out to 1/2 is not uncommon and I haven't seen anyone commenting on how they had problems relating to grout and the width. I think I've seen some who split the brick and let the mortar handle the slope and fire the thing up without apparent problems..

Chris

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

thanks guys.

I went ahead and cut a bunch of bricks in half today and then figured out how to use these plexiglass jigs that another builder lent me. I had to draw out the cuts and visualize the taper to figure out how to use these. From front to back on each side I cut a 1/2 inch taper and even propped up a side to the jig to give me a slight compound taper.

Some of the joints on the inside are real tight with no gap and some have a small inverted V as if I didn't get a compound taper in it at all.

The wedges from the taper cuts are useful as shims on the back and on the back side it looks as if I'll have 3/8 to 1/2 mortar to fill on the top and bottom of the chains and very little to 1/8" gap between the sides (on the back) of each half brick. I'm assuming that lots of mortar top and bottom will be enough. Okay assumption?

I'll get a chance to use the mortar for the first time tomorrow. Any descriptions on how this stuff should feel like?

This feels like a silly question - Can I mortar around the shims or take them out before throwing a blob of mortar down. I wasn't able to find any mortar bags at Lowes. Does anyone recommend the bags or I'm I just as well off with a small trowel?

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

The few bricks (not even chains) that I did with wedges, I just pulled out a 1/2 hour later and used a spatula to push it in. I also bought the bags at Lowes and didn't need them. Personally, I think a pastry bag is a bit too much work and I like the feel of putting my muscle into the mortar joints as I press the spatula into it. I did not use a trowel but only a 2" spastic spatula and 1/2" cake or pastry spatula with a tapered and rounded tip that I found indispensable for the joints.

Your small inverted v's are great but they will get bigger quickly on a smaller diameter oven like yours as you go up.

BTW: a 36" dome and 18" height sound AWESOME! Good size and low dome, can't wait to see it.

I would stay away from the 5/8" mortar gap you mentioned on your earlier post but it seems like you're trying to stay much less in your last post. Some of my side tapers where only a 1/2 brick deep so the mortar joints seemed larger in the rear of the brick but almost non existent inside the dome and that also worked for me. Good luck with your oven build, -Dino

[wayner]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

Thanks Dino. I like the detail from posts of your build. I think you even did a CAD mockup of a 36" dome that I printed out for reference.

I got started with the mortar today. I read some folks had some issue with the FB Pompeii kit mortar. Mine is also very fine (no grit) and dark grey. I've been trying to mix up a couple of medium size yogurt cups worth that works out to about 6 bricks before I have to mix some more. The workability time for the mortar is real short. For ex. on the first and second brick (soaked), the mortar wants to slide off. The 3rd and 4th brick, the grab seems real good. By the 5th and 6th, it almost feels too stiff, like it doesn't want to spooge out. I guess I'll have to work faster or mix smaller batches.

I did find the mortar bags (grout bags) and opted to go with the smallest margin trowels. It seems to work well for mixing and they're big enough to butter the brick.

I am having a problem with cleaning my bricks. My damp sponge gets most of the overfill off, but I feel like my brick looks dirty from the grey mortar. Is anybody else having this issue? Any hints on cleaning it better as I go? When and how would you use muriatic acid?

I also had an issue with 2 bricks showing a crack in between, as if they didn't adhere properly - see image. Why did this happen? Is it still okay? I gooped more mortar in the crack and just continued.

Another question, if the mortar doesn't squeeze out of the joint, is it good to go back and squeeze in some extra mortar with my finger? - kind of like grouting the joint?

When I'm done for the day, I've been misting the bricks a bit and then covering back up with a plastic sheet. Is this a good idea? My temp is low 60's to mid 70's - heck almost year round.

It felt good to really get started.

[mluttropp]

Re: Wayne's SF Bay WFO - FB Pompeii 90 Kit

Very nice work on the joints. Mine definately did not stay that nice looking for long. As to the crack in the mortar, I found that this happened when I moved the brick a little bit once it had started to dry out. I suspect it will be ok, but it is likely not bonded to the brick at this point. So next time I would redo that brick before moving on to the next.

Keep up the good work, at this rate you will be making pizzas well before me.