36" in Seattle Brick Oven Photos Discuss 36" in Seattle in the Good Background Information forums; Ditto to what Joe said. I just made multiple passes with the wet saw to make my floor bricks curved. ...

[papavino]

Ditto to what Joe said. I just made multiple passes with the wet saw to make my floor bricks curved. You don't want to make a truly curved cut with the wet saw. Only straight cuts.

[kebwi]

Okay, that makes sense. I guess other people just shaved their bricks more precisely than I did on my first pass. I think I'll have to do that anyway, regardless of aesthetic concerns. They currently protrude past my interior perimeter a smidge which I suspect will push everything steadily out of whack. I'm going to have to trim 'em down before proceeding anyway, which should make them rounder in the process.

[kebwi]

Progress has been a little slow, owing to noncooperative weather. A surprisingly vociferous thunderstorm reduced my awning to a modern art piece made of poles, fabric and cord, the general disarray of which quietly invited the observer to reflect on the chaotic paradoxical inner conflict inherent between the ego and the id within each of us. In a panic about the InsBlock that was arranged on the hearth -- protected by not a small number of bricks thankfully -- I piled multiple layers of tarps and plastic over the hearth, weighted it down and hunkered down for the storm to pass...

...which dumped a genuine hailstorm before it was done.

Anyway, built a new awning, cut more bricks, and tried my first mortaring. You can see the guide I made to help cut tons of identical bricks for the first three courses (three vertical stretcher courses that replace soldiers, but serve a similar function of providing a vertical side wall before the dome starts curving in.

I didn't mortar anything "on site", but I mortared pairs of bricks together in prep for the first three courses. This should, theoretically, halve the required work at the hearth...

...assuming these pairs stick together. I'm not at all confident about my mortar. One thing that disturbed me was that after mortaring all these bricks together from a single batch, I didn't feel like the mortar in the pail was behaving any differently. It didn't feel like it was setting at all. I'll find out in the morning. My mix was the 6:4:2:1 ratio advocated by Lars.

One problem is that while there is much discussion of ingredient ratios, I haven't really found much guidance on water and mixed consistency. I'm not sure what to shoot for.

The final picture is 2.5 quarts of firebrick residue (probably a brick's worth at least!)...and I've got a long way to go.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

mixed consistency

hey keb,, I didnt use the home brew, I used heat stop, But as far as the consistency,,, Go with peanut butter.... Worked for me.. Glad to see the weather hasnt stopped you

Good luck
Mark

[kebwi]

Maybe I mixed it too dry. I'm not sure it was peanut butter. I'm familiar with that trick, but I don't know. What is it with me and mixing cement too dry? I screwed up my concrete three times this way. I did make the mortar pretty pasty. At first I put too much water in, so I added more "stuff" and then was paranoid about adding water again, but maybe I should have.

On the plus side, I just looked at them (now a few hours after the job) and the seams haven't dried up, spread apart, cracked, or otherwise failed. So maybe tomorrow they'll turn out to be okay.

Next time I'll actually measure the water so I can figure out how much water to apply to a given mixture.

Peanut butter. Okay. I'll avoid a pedantic line of questions about brands, smooth vs. crunchy, and shelf vs. refrigerators.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

peanut butter smooth no chunks

Are you mixing by hand, Try a 5 gal bucket with a drill and a paddle mixer

cheers
Mark

[kebwi]

Yeah, I've seen those online, and I admit that mixing it up was disappointingly difficult with a stick. I'll look into it.

Thanks for the tip.

[jmhepworth]

I tried mixing mortar in a bucket. Without a power tool, it's just too hard. I bought a mortar mixing tray from HD and mix it with either a hoe or for smaller amounts with the trowel. I was much happier after I stopped trying to mix mortar in a bucket.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

keb...- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices when i was mixing my mortar i used this on my dewalt 18v drill,, for small batched it works fine

Mark

[Les]

Originally Posted by ThisOldGarageNJ

keb...- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices when i was mixing my mortar i used this on my dewalt 18v drill,, for small batched it works fine

Mark

Ditto - simplifies the task a LOT!