36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

[Will4740]

Hi Guys

I have been on this forum since October asking questions here and there and reading about everybody's builds gathering ideas and now i am ready to start my build.

This build will hopefully be short as I just under 2 months until I have to head back to university and leave my folks place where I will be building the oven.

I have decided to build a steel frame to sit my oven on rather than the traditional concrete slabs and block stand. I have put up pictures below of my steel frame and have just finished concreting it into the back yard

Since my oven isnt sitting on a concrete slab I have decided to insulate my hearth with 100mm of hebel powerpanel topped by a 40mm calsil board and then my bricks. Due to the cost of firebricks in mackay I have decided to use bricks from warwick which are soild dry pressed bricks fired at 1200C

Warwick Brick Works - Products

while I was welding my frame I designed an adjustable Indispensable tool for my oven there is a picture below, it features a caster wheel with 2 threaded rods attached via bolts when allows me to adjust the length by screwing the 2nd rod up and down.

I am now at the stage where i will start marking out my hebel blocks to cur them to fit the shape as well as the calsil board. I am looking for ideas on how to attach my hebel to the steel stand and then my calsil board to the hebel ??

anyway I hope you enjoy following my build and I look forward to your input,voicing the flaws that I have managed to overlook

Cheers Will

[cobblerdave]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Gday
Its great to see an oven made of Warrick brick, there the only pressed brick makers in QLD left, I've got on oven of of light duty firebrick but those bricks are more of a mass than mine. Mass is the ability to hold heat. Rather than the ability to resist heat.
As for attaching anything in your base including the insulation, let it "float" it's not a case of "gluing it down" it's rather letting it " expand and contract" as it seems fit.
If you are willing to change your idea of the wheel IT.? Try a piece of 10mm/ 12 mm ply as the base. Bolt a gate hinge to that. -10/12 mm from that centre point to the hinge point . That will compensate for the height above the oven hearth.
Not perfect .... But how are you brick laying skills?
Mine aren't . I'm sure of that . Include a spacer on the face. The tool moves in an arch. The bricks have a flat face. A removal spacer means IT tool can be removed without disturbing you fresh laid brick
Hope this helps
Regards dave

[david s]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

You don't say how big you plan to build your oven, hence it's weight, but your stand does not look sturdy enough to me. You should add some diagonal bracing on both the sides front and back, otherwise you will find your stand will have considerable flexing.
Regarding the bricks, just because they have been fired to 1200 C is no guarantee of their suitability. Clay fired to only 600 C with a course open body has actually better thermal shock characteristics than clay fired to 1200 C. It is the clay composition that is more important. But if the manufacturer says they are suitable then they should be ok.
Are you building your oven from the Pompeii plans on this forum? If so there is plenty of info on this site.

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Gday
Its great to see an oven made of Warrick brick, there the only pressed brick makers in QLD left, I've got on oven of of light duty firebrick but those bricks are more of a mass than mine. Mass is the ability to hold heat. Rather than the ability to resist heat.
As for attaching anything in your base including the insulation, let it "float" it's not a case of "gluing it down" it's rather letting it " expand and contract" as it seems fit.
If you are willing to change your idea of the wheel IT.? Try a piece of 10mm/ 12 mm ply as the base. Bolt a gate hinge to that. -10/12 mm from that centre point to the hinge point . That will compensate for the height above the oven hearth.
Not perfect .... But how are you brick laying skills?
Mine aren't . I'm sure of that . Include a spacer on the face. The tool moves in an arch. The bricks have a flat face. A removal spacer means IT tool can be removed without disturbing you fresh laid brick
Hope this helps
Regards dave

Thanks For that Dave

Can I ask why your think i should change my IT design ?? I dont quite see the advantage of your deisgn compared to the one that i have at present,
Also your correct in the brick laying experience department and I have none so I am very interested in the idea of a removal spacer so I do not dislodge the brick do you have an example of yours ?? fo you just put some plastic at the end of the tool ?? and leave that behind when you lift it?

anyway thanks again for the comments.

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Hi David

Thanks for your comments,
I am building a 36'' pompeii oven based from the forno bravo plans.
With regards to my stand I did consider adding more bracing but decided against it at present as I ran out of steel/time. I do feel the oven stand is capable of holding the estimated 600kg of the oven though. I have got two people of 100kg in the center of each of the lengths and they have displayed minimal deflection haha, (I gave it the trusty stress test).

Also yeah I have read what you are mentioning about the brick fired temps and understand. After ringing up the guy who manufactures then and having a discussion with him he convinced me by the fact that some of his ovens at the brick factory are made with the same bricks.
It will be interesting to see how they go in the oven.

Just another note does anyone know a build where someone has used a steel frame like mine?? I havent been able to find one on the forum just for interests sake, please let me know if anyone knows of a build.

Cheers Will

Cheers Will

[david s]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Re the bricks: there were some house bricks made at Cooroy some 35 years ago that lots of potters found were quite suitable for kiln building and were quite suitable for stonewear (1200 C+) firings. This cannot be said for any solid reds though, many are not capable of withstanding repeated heat cycling and will spall. If the supplier says they are suitable though you should be ok and can save heaps over buying dedicated firebricks.
Re the stand: the first steel stand I built for an oven was made just like yours. I used thin gauge 25 mm square RHS without diagonal bracing. It supported an oven weighing 250Kgs and although it was "adequate" it was quite easy to wobble with the whole stand flexing. I now make a steel stand for the same weight oven from 4mm x 50mm galv angle and it is rock solid. Only you can be the judge of your stands strength. You could always beef it up later.

[Greenman]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Hey Will - Welcome to the joys of the build. The brick merchant in Bundy recommends the Warwick bricks and charges handsomely to get them here. He told me that quite a few ovens had been built around here with them so they should be ok. I was fortunate enough to find some firebricks in Maryborough that had been laying around for decades.

Your IT should work ok as long as what you have at the brick end hits the brick in the centre. You will get some creep otherwise. I left the wheel in mine and drilled it and screwed the threaded rod into that. Worked a treat. I did jettison the clamp bit fairly quickly though.

All the best with your build. I will follow your build with interest.

[oblertone]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Just another note does anyone know a build where someone has used a steel frame like mine?? I havent been able to find one on the forum just for interests sake, please let me know if anyone knows of a build.

Cheers Will

Cheers Will

Hello Will, I built my oven on a stand, but my stand is also on wheels, it's not perfect but it doesn't flex either.

Paul http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f6/m...sts-20752.html

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Hi Guys

thanks a lot for the advice David and also your version of an oven on wheels Paul they look similar. I ended up using 50mm RHS 2mm wall and have now concreted the stand in and I am flat strapped to try and wobble it haha.

Also I think that I understand the comments being made about my IT tool thanks Steve and Dave . after measuring it up against a brick I found that my rod does not line up with the centre of the brick and so I will have to adjust it this week after work some time.

I began to start trimming the hebel blocks today to fit and am wondering what people used to trim there calsil boards ?? I am looking at fitting it within my soldier course as I dont have enough to go under it all the way around.

My last question is tips for cutting my floor bricks ? I plan on fitting my floor within the soldier course like the calsil board and I am not sure how everyone seems to get such great curved cuts ??

Looking forward to hearing your responses

Cheers Will

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Great start mate. Not too many builders go for the steel stand so giddyup!

A pro pizza oven builder I have spoken to at a refractory shop in Sydney only uses a piece of orange electrical conduit for the IT tool. It has a notch cut in it to hold the brick at the right position. Once you have laid the brick, you can bend the conduit slightly and it pulls out easy. I have a bit of 'play' in my caster wheel that my IT tool is connected to. This 'play' allows me to set the brick in the right position then move the IT tool to pull clear of the brick and set the next one. Without the little bit of 'play' it would mean loosening and shortening the thread everytime. Accurate but very painful, and not the way to build the oven as the mortar is setting infront of your eyes whilst your stuffing around. I showed him my IT tool and he just laughed and said what a waste of time. I totally get what he is saying now after mortaring 5 courses. Just my 2 cents.

Here is a link to pizza oven build that will not fail you. I'm kinda basing my oven on this design just changing the arches slightly.

http://www.fieldfurnace.com.au/image...ome%20full.pdf

Cant wait to see the end result!

[Greenman]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Brendon is right about the bit of flex allowing the IT to be removed without disturbing the brick, the light threaded rod that I use on mine has that flexibility.

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

I never thought of thought to make my IT tool have a flex for that reason good idea.

Hey Brendan I am interested in this conduit design. I understand cutting the length of your radius but then I cant visualize the notch you talk about in the end can you explain more ?? also would the conduit only do the first few courses ? as it is screwed to a ply floor ??

Cheers Will

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Will,

Done in paint so go easy on me. The end not drawn is attached to the caster wheel on the plywood. The notch is just to give the top of the brick a point to touch and this gives the length to the middle of the oven to keep the dome shape, I'm not exactly sure how to get the angle of the bricks, i.e. the slope that the bricks take to make the dome shape. I'll think that one over with a beer tomorrow.

Your IT tool will work fine, mine does the same job, very accurate but fiddly I found. It makes a difference in Sydney in summer when the mortar is going off quickly.

Another trick I found is to wet the bricks, some people say not too, but if you are using the IT tool like yours, you will be slow and the wetness is drawn out of the mortar and it makes it impossible to move/shape the brick into position. I got my kids plastic outdoor bath thingy and dumped 20 bricks in there at a time.

Did you look at the link I put in a previous post with the pizza oven plans from Field Furnace? It shows the process albeit roughly. But that oven design is bullet proof.

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Hi Brendan

I understand it now, I am at the same place though as you and am working on the idea of getting the angle lets see how i go tonight haha.

Thanks for your ideas and help.

Today i did abit more work and shaped the hebel blocks and my calsil insulation board to the correct shape. I am now in the process of looking at the how to best tackle the curved cuts for the floor tiles with an angle grinder i will hopefully put up some pictures tomorrow if i can get the floor done.

Cheers Will

[Will4740]

Re: 36'' Pompeii in Mackay Qld

Hi Guys

So this afternoon after work I managed to make a few more cuts to bricks and am slowly getting the trial layout for my cooking floor. I am finding though that i am not getting very rounded cuts on my edges and there are gaps to fill does anyone have some ideas to fill them ?? i plan on seeing if i can find a castable refractory product that would do the job just to fill in the spaces so i have a nice floor and clean edges what do you guys think ??

I have attached a photo of what my mock up looked like this afternoon

Cheers Will