Soldiers r no soldiers this is the question...

[iluvpizza]

I am about to start moving vertical and in my mind i was planming to lay down flat my first row of brick, but i have noticed that the vast majority put them vertically (soldiers)
What is the real advantage of doing this.

[david s]

The advantage is that you go vertical for the full height of the brick standing on end. This gives you a little more room for tall baking pans and bread. If placing the floor inside the dome it means you don't bang the metal peel into the mortar join all the time. Unfortunately it also provides a tall mortar join, between the soldiers at the base of the dome which is where cracks usually start. Your choice.

[deejayoh]

The FB plans call for soldiers - but I think the majority of builds I have seen over the couple of years I have been hanging out here don't use them. As David says, you get a higher "shoulder" on your dome - but with the invention of the IT I think it became a lot easier for builders to create a hemispheric-shaped dome, so most builders have gone that way.

[JRPizza]

Iluvpizza, do a search of the forum and you will find lots of discussions on this. I think if you are building a low dome (Naples) oven the soldiers are kind of a must. If you want a nice hemispherical dome you can use half soldiers if you are building the floor inside the dome or just lay a horizontal layer as your first course. I just started building my dome and I am doing the latter.

[Cubslover]

I did not use soldiers. No disadvantage that I can tell.