Dave's Northern Virginia Build

[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]

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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[nissanneill]

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 will give you a much stronger dome with less chance of long straight weakening cracks.
You can achieve this by cutting the odd brick and retaining the preferred 50% overlap of the underlying mortar joint.

Cheers.

Neill

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

I find myself bonding with my oven. Just like me it is ugly on the outside, prettier on the inside...

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Between rain showers I made some progress today. My wife says my smaller keystone is slightly off center. Hopefully it won't bother her once I add the red brick decorative arch in front (third arch is the charm-I hope). I also tapered the the bricks in the third chain which saved a lot of expensive mortar.
Dave

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Thanks Dino,
Per recommendation by a friend I used a 1/4 inch notched trowel instead. I told him "But that won't give me as much room for adjustment." to which he replied "exactly, less room to screw it up"

No grinding so far.

I got the second chain in today and a few more bricks for the arch. If I can find the time tomorrow, I will work some more.
Dave

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Now that's quite a level oven floor! Did you have to grind anything or did the 1/2" screeding trowel float it enough?

The double wall does look cool too. -Dino

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

The Floor is back in! It has been awhile but I just couldn't get this strange image out of my head (photo two)......

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

The floor bricks are out. I'll make a template to see if they will fit back in on the flip side or if I have to fine tune a bit.

I also added a few more bricks to the Joe inspired "Double Wide" entry and I'll cut the notch in the floor for the reveal this time.

Thanks for all the support on this SNAFU

Dave

P.S. What size notched trowel should I use for the floor mix? I went with 1/2x1/2 the first time and it seemed to work ok, I am pretty sure pebbles in the sand were the problem.