An even simpler version of the "indispensible tool "

[Ciabatta Lover]

After looking through all the ideas and not having any welding tools at hand, I came up with this variation.

A Couple of 24” Quick grips. Mount both sliders on the one bar. (on a good set they slide off to reverse)

Adjust the inside slider to the distance you want and it does not move again. Just move the outside clamp to grip the bricks as yon need.

I took the wheel off a spinning caster. Mounted the caster to the board that was covering and protecting the floor. A bolt and some spacers to attach to the clamp bar through the already present hole in the bar.

Voila!

The great thing is you have 2 very nice clamps at the end of the project.

[JRPizza]

That's an interesting design. I've seen discussion stating the centerline of the IT rod should hit the centerline of the brick to get the angles right. You might want to do some reading up on IT design, unless you have already figured out it won't matter.

[Ciabatta Lover]

Yes I looked into that. I started to do the math taking into account the thickness of the board and the height of the axis of the swivel etc. Then it hit me, these ovens were normally built on a dome of sand. Some of our friends on this web site use foam forms or large balls. Over engineering can make this project seem daunting but if you are not trying to build a perfect sphere accurate to 2 mm this device worked really well and was very forgiving.

[JRPizza]

Over engineering can make this project seem daunting.....

Yeah, so can not paying attention to the posts . I sorta missed that you already built your dome, so obviously your tool worked well and it was indeed a clever alternate design.

[UtahBeehiver]

I have not seen many sand forms or foam forms done on this forum for a long time. Glad this IT work for you but may not for others. The error induced by not having the centerline of the IT rod hitting the centerline line the brick becomes cumulative over all the courses of the dome. DJ did a computer graphic representation of the induced errors on one of his posts. The problems lines not being 2mm tight but rather face of the brick being perpendicular to the center of the dome. But again glad it worked for you. Just need to make people aware of the pros and cons.

[Ciabatta Lover]

Understood.
This worked out great. I ended up with a very solid round dome with very even heat that I have been using for over a year now. This is an alternative that is readily available in a hardware store.

Enjoy.