Dave's Northern Virginia Build

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Dave,
a little subtle advice mate after looking at your picture.
Stagger your brick joints in a stretcher bond pattern...
Cheers.

Neill

Thanks Neil. Now that you mention it, i see my dome is asking for a crack. So, I went ahead and tapered my next chain of bricks on three sides to give a good thin/strong mortar lock. I tried to keep close to 50% overlap without cutting too many bricks. Wouldn't you know it that one of my short cut bricks ended up on top of a vertical line of joints.

You can lead a horse to water....

Dave

[shingletown paul]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Hi Dave,
You project looks great, the wishbone oven base is outrageous; please keep posting the photo updates. I posted a message/thread today but it has yet to hit the web. I am building my first wood-burning oven. I am not a mason a DYI at best but I do enjoy my projects Most of my research has come from a book ?The Bread Builders? by Daniel Wing & Alan Scott. Thus far I have completed the foundation, block wall, Hearth slab insulation and the heath slab. This week I plan on laying the hearth firebricks and the oven walls. The book indicates using refractory mortar or mortar mixture of: 10 parts mortar sand, 3 parts Portland cement 1 ? part fireclay for the oven walls. According to the book this mixture should provide hardened mortar with an expansion rate similar to the firebrick as well as a sticky usable mortar. Looking at the forum it appears there are a lot of different opinions to the mortar theory I do not want to get all the cladding, insulation and fa?ade complete only to see my oven mortar fail. After looking at your project I thought I would ask you for some input as I can see you are light years beyond me with the knowledge needed in my project Question WHAT IS THE BEST OVEN MORTAR MIXTURE FOR THE BRICKS IN THE DOME?

Thanks Paul

[nissanneill]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Just be aware of it as you do get distracted and notice these things when often it is too late.
It is very easy to prevent and also very easy to overlook!

Neill

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Hi Dave,
. . .. I am building my first wood-burning oven. I am not a mason a DYI at best but I do enjoy my projects Most of my research has come from a book “The Bread Builders” by Daniel Wing & Alan Scott. ..... WHAT IS THE BEST OVEN MORTAR MIXTURE FOR THE BRICKS IN THE DOME?

Thanks Paul

Hi Paul. Thanks for the kind words. I am a DIY also with no professional construction experience. I too have the Alan Scott book and set out to build their oven. Then I found the FornoBravo website and just had to build the Pompeii. A friend of mine built the Alan Scott oven and it works great. But, I had to have a dome once I saw it. Unfortunately, my stand limited me to a 38 inch oven (I would have preferred the 42)

As far as refractory mortar I have been using HeatStop 50 (in a bag) which I found at a local brick supplier. The mix-it-yourself stuff is usually referred to as Homebrew on this forum and is 1 part portland, 3 parts sand, 1 part lime, and 1 part fireclay. If you use Allan's mix or this one you shouldn't have a failure as it has already been proven. I like the premix stuff because it is easier and specifically designed for our purpose. If you haven't already, you might want to download the free PDF book from the FB website . It has excellent information applicable to any oven and honestly I would have paid $25 for it.

I'll look for your thread. Good luck,
dave

[shingletown paul]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Hi Dave,
You project looks great, the wishbone oven base is outrageous; please keep posting the photo updates. I posted a message/thread today but it has yet to hit the web. I am building my first wood-burning oven. I am not a mason a DYI at best but I do enjoy my projects Most of my research has come from a book ?The Bread Builders? by Daniel Wing & Alan Scott. Thus far I have completed the foundation, block wall, Hearth slab insulation and the heath slab. This week I plan on laying the hearth firebricks and the oven walls. The book indicates using refractory mortar or mortar mixture of: 10 parts mortar sand, 3 parts Portland cement 1 ? part fireclay for the oven walls. According to the book this mixture should provide hardened mortar with an expansion rate similar to the firebrick as well as a sticky usable mortar. Looking at the forum it appears there are a lot of different opinions to the mortar theory I do not want to get all the cladding, insulation and fa?ade complete only to see my oven mortar fail. After looking at your project I thought I would ask you for some input as I can see you are light years beyond me with the knowledge needed in my project Question WHAT IS THE BEST OVEN MORTAR MIXTURE FOR THE BRICKS IN THE DOME?

Thanks Paul

[shingletown paul]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Sorry I reposted, I am new to the forum, I believe the moderator needed to approve my post. Any thank you very much for taking the time to share you knowledge and help me with my quest.
Paul

[DaveW]

Oven dome is closed!

I got tired of waiting so I closed my oven using a sand form. Great idea in theory. In practice, I'll have to wait a few days to find out. I had some leftover mortar so I smeared it over the dome, hence the frosted look.

Dave

[tfasz]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Looking good! Impressive how quickly you have closed the dome.

Curious how many bags of HeatStop you went through - that is what I was thinking of using but wanted to get an idea of how many to expect to need for my 36" oven.

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Looking good! Impressive how quickly you have closed the dome.

Curious how many bags of HeatStop you went through - that is what I was thinking of using but wanted to get an idea of how many to expect to need for my 36" oven.

Thanks, I can't wait to drop the sand and get a look at the inside.

Practically speaking, I used four + 1/2 bags. I actually used three bags of heat stop and three 25 lb bags of FireRock adhesive mortar. When I got started I purchased the FireRock mortar along with the bricks. Later I got around to reading the FireRock bag to find out it was designed for a maximum mortar thickness of 1/8 th inch and may not be a true refractory mortar but rather a high temp adhesive. Heatstop is a refractory mortar approved to 3/8ths of an inch. Unfortunately, I ran out of heat stop twice and switched to FireRock so my oven looks like a layered cake from the inside.

[nissanneill]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Dave,

you should have dropped your sand pattern as soon as you put in your keystone blocks.
The unwanted mortar is a lot easier to remove when still green rather than dry. Also, you then have the opportunity to make minor adjustments to your final laid bricks for the best inside alignment.

Neill

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Dave,

you should have dropped your sand pattern as soon as you put in your keystone blocks.
The unwanted mortar is a lot easier to remove when still green rather than dry. Also, you then have the opportunity to make minor adjustments to your final laid bricks for the best inside alignment.

Neill

I thought of that but I am afraid that my dome will rely on the compressive strength of the mortar to hold it's shape. I figure I would rather spend a few hours scrubbing mortar with a wire brush than crying in my beer with a collapsed dome. I'll drop the sand tomorrow and post the results.
Dave

[trockyh]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Dave, your oven looks great. I'm impressed with how fast you have built the dome and arches.
Thanks for the heads up on the forms.

Tom

[tfasz]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Practically speaking, I used four + 1/2 bags. I actually used three bags of heat stop and three 25 lb bags of FireRock adhesive mortar.

Wow - the mortar cost adds up quickly. I'm guessing that was as much as your bricks. The home brew mortar route certainly is tempting ....

[dmun]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

I would rather spend a few hours scrubbing mortar with a wire brush

A section of brick makes an excellent abrasive scrubber for those pesky bits of set mortar. It also will fit into corners.

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

A section of brick makes an excellent abrasive scrubber for those pesky bits of set mortar. It also will fit into corners.

Thanks for the tip. I'll go at it tomorrow.
Dave