Ravensdale Oven

[james]

I think building an arched entrance into the oven looks great, and it should be structurally very strong.

From past builders, how much harder is it to build the arch vs. the angle iron lintel?

James

[Fio]

I think building an arched entrance into the oven looks great, and it should be structurally very strong.

From past builders, how much harder is it to build the arch vs. the angle iron lintel?

James

I don't know if I'm any kind of authority, but it's a bit of a challenge. You have to determine an arc just perfectly so that you use only whole bricks.

I used a form for mine. It was difficult packing the mortar into the wedge-shaped gaps between bricks. The form has to be REALLY steady.

My big problem is that I left a 1/2" gap between the arch and the vent manifold. This was intentional so as to provide a thermal break between the hot manifold and the exterior arch. But the way I built it, it had no rear support. It's strong enough, but some of the mortar cracked and I had to patch mortar it on the back and cement on a piece of perforated steel for additional strength.

I'm sure there's a better way to do it.

[El Puaco]

Great ino Fio. I want to make sure I understand you with regard to the unsupported side. Was that the side toward the oven on the arch? The gap between the arch and the vent is something that I probably would have missed entirely. Did you grout that in with mortar afterwards? I guess I'm going to have to go back through your postings and look at the pictures. You have been very thoughtful and thorough about some things that I need to think about.

Thanks again,

[Fio]

Great ino Fio. I want to make sure I understand you with regard to the unsupported side. Was that the side toward the oven on the arch? The gap between the arch and the vent is something that I probably would have missed entirely. Did you grout that in with mortar afterwards? I guess I'm going to have to go back through your postings and look at the pictures. You have been very thoughtful and thorough about some things that I need to think about.

Thanks again,

I misread your post, and I also misread James' question. I apologize; disregard my post about making a structural arch to span the gap across the front opening.

I DID use Angle Iron to span the gap, and plopped my vent manifold on the angle iron. I then constructed a "faux" arch, out of pavers, for appearance only.

To better understand how I did it, check my thread on building my oven.

In the narrow gap between my arch and the manifold, I wedged in a piece of low-density fiberfrax board. I had to resaw it on my 17" bandsaw to about 1/4" thick.

I'll post pix on this later.

[El Puaco]

Thanks Fio. I understand now. Looks like it's back to drawing board for me. I think I have a pretty good idea what to do now. It's goin' to be slow work for a while.