Build started in Mountain Top NSW

[Steady]

Bunnys also have wood heater door rope in various diameters

[Gretsch]

yep, special order thou. That’s Lismore.

[Gretsch]

Some photos of how I cut the bricks around the arch with cardboard cutouts and how much lift I had to give the bricks against the arch.
I ground the back of the arch bricks a little to make it easier to lay the course.

[Gretsch]

Now that I'm over the top and getting horizontal I had to ditch the IT for a sand dome. I'm cutting the bricks to not quite 1/3rd of a full brick so there's some waste. Well not entirely, some have come in handy for small wedges to get past where the mortar gaps line up. The following row (row 9) I'm getting 1/3rd bricks with very little waste.

Up until and including this course I've left one side of the brick square and bevelled the other but as the angle is getting bigger the square face is starting to gain height over the angled face. So from the next course on I began cutting both sides. I made a simple jig (well, two jigs) a piece of timber and a screw in the side of it, butt the brick one edge against the screw gives me exactly the right amount of angle for my cut. The second jig has the screw at twice the depth of the first for the second cut. (I think that's clear)

So now I don't have gaps between brick sides I'm using refractory glue there and homebrew between the rows. I just hope I'm getting enough mortar down there, it's hard to tell if it's getting all the way down to the bottom.
Yeah...It's starting to look like an igloo !!! Another day and I reckon I'll have it plugged.

It's hot out here, reckon I need a home brew or 2 myself...

[UtahBeehiver]

Being able to determine how much mortar is getting down to joints is one of the problems with a sand dome. May likely will require some pointing and tucking unless you have some really tight internal joints like you had with the IT setup. You did good making it over the arch despite having to deal with an different type of tapered arch configuration, You are on the home stretch.

[SableSprings]

Thanks for the compliments Gretsch. If I would have known anything about laying bricks, I probably wouldn't have tried the teardrop shape ...but I'm really happy with the shape and the ash slot/dump. As most have said here, my main regret is that I should've insulated more

[Gretsch]

Well it took me more than one day to finish the dome but today I did it.
Somehow the last tree rows ended up slightly out of round so there was lots of custom cuts in the last 2 rows and this took a hell of a long time to finish. The plug ended up an odd shape, I spent a lot of time cutting it so it would fit snug.

I removed the support to reveal the dome top. All the joints look fairly tight and I could see there were a few spots where the mortar didn't ooze out the bottom, maybe a few mil short. I reckon I could have left it as it was but just to be sure I made a mortar mix and substituted one part sand (of 3 parts) with the firebrick dust and filled the gaps.

Looks like I've got a big clean up to do where the drips have dried against the bricks, that'll be another day. Too bloody hot today (36 degrees) Hope the heat doesn't affect the mortar too much, the bricks I've been working with have been soaking for days so there should be a fair bit of water in them.

Will sit back a while and think through how I'll tackle the front arch and landing. I'm thinking of having a step down from the hearth. Tomorrow I'll have to tend to the property (mowing and slashing).

[UtahBeehiver]

Congrats on finishing the dome. It is a nice feeling......... The mortar joints look good, maybe a little tuck and pointing if you are so inclined.The removal of the excess mortar may not be worth the effort, no one but you will even know about excess or small mortar gaps. Very few people who have seen my oven stick there head in there especially when it is fired up...........LOL.

[Gretsch]

Thanks Russell, yes it’s a good feeling at the end of the most important stage, I have scraped a fair bit of excess mortar off, the remaining bits have gone really hard and they’re not coming off without a fight so maybe they’ll stay.

the small gaps are quite shallow where the glue or mortar didn’t quite push through so it’s debatable wether it’s worth the effort. I’ll tackle the drip marks with some vinegar and a stiff brush, they do look ugly.

[SableSprings]

You've done a great job on this Gretsch! As Russell alluded, from a structural point of view, pointing small joint gaps really isn't worth doing (unless you just can't personally stand it ). Also, as he noted, people never complain or frown about the mortar drips on the dome walls...they only see the bubbling cheese & meat on the pizza.

The words ugly & authentic can be substituted in almost any statement. It just depends on your attitude and perceived social pressure...relax and enjoy a job well done (and an oven that WILL work fabulously!) Lots of smiles from friends and family in your future

Looking forward to your completion of the arches & smoke vault/chimney so you can get to cooking!

[Gretsch]

Maybe ugly was being a bit harsh... let's say character.

[Gretsch]

I'm debating how to start my outer arch and chimney structure and have some questions.

Thinking of extending the insulation layer out about 250mm and then continue out further by mortaring some building bricks onto the slab to act as a retainer for the insulation bricks.

I assume fire bricks is the go leading up to the dome to handle the heat, house bricks could crack, definitely fire bricks for the arch against the dome arch and chimney structure.

Would house bricks handle whatever heat gets past the chimney stack for the outer arch ?

I've seen two methods of assembling the first arch, one idea was cutting an L in the bricks to follow the outside of the dome arch, is there any real advantage other than just a gap ?

[SableSprings]

Extending out with some remaining insulation blocks and using some building bricks as a barrier/retainer should work well. My philosophy was firebricks on anything close to the fire,,,so using them as the inner half of the arch/smoke collection chamber makes the most sense to me. I switched to house/red bricks on the outside half of my arch and have not had any problems.

I do think it's important to make sure your smoke collection chamber deep enough so that any flame coming out of the oven opening flows up smoothly and into the chimney without hitting the front arch inner surfaces. If I had to do it over again, I'd deepen my chamber to 10 or 12 inches (25-30 cm). Currently, I do get smoke escaping out the front because my smoke collection chamber isn't quite deep enough and a bit too tall (although when everything's heated up, the chimney draws pretty well).

I just built my inner vault arch without any fancy cuts...I was more concerned with stability and strength than making it "pretty". I knew I was going to be covering this "joint" against the dome with insulation (mine's perlcrete), so there's lots of ugly brick and mortar work hidden inside the oven's outer facade.

Looks to me like you've developed a good feel for how to make things go together...(Like my Brother-in-Law says, It's like putting socks on a chicken, sometimes it just takes a little more effort to get things to fit )

Great job on this Gretsch...you're heading for the finish line now!

[Gretsch]

Thanks Mike, you've confirmed my line of thinking.
I was going to try for a narrow chamber for easy access but now that you've mentioned the fact that flames will get past I'll stick with the 400mm depth I sketched up.
Looks like I'm on track but can't see that finish just yet. At least the hard yard is behind me now

[Gretsch]

Another question.
Is the outer arch fire bricks mortared to the insulation bricks or not ?
the outer most bricks will be house bricks and will extend to the concrete slab so I think they will be mortared down.