Continuation of papavino's oven thread Brick Oven Photos Discuss Continuation of papavino's oven thread in the Good Background Information forums; Well, I'm getting close to closing out the dome. I am running out of Heat Stop and bricks, though. I ...

[papavino]

Well, I'm getting close to closing out the dome. I am running out of Heat Stop and bricks, though. I probably need about 15 more bricks and I'll run out of HS tonight while I'm mortaring my next row. The plywood rounds that I used as forms for the last two rows are sitting loosely on top of 2x4's. I found that I had to weigh the board down with brick scraps as I started working, as the board would tilt up to one side as I laid the first 1/4 of the row.

[jmhepworth]

That's about where I am now. How many courses did you lay before going to 1/4 bricks? Did you ever go to 1/3?

Joe

[papavino]

Well, the photo doesn't really show it, but those are mostly 1/3's with some odd sizes put in as needed. I started working in the thirds on my 5th course.

[christo]

Nice Job. You're now down to the last few rows - and it looks nice and circular, too. Given any thoughts to what your last stone will look like? Round and laser engraved with your signature? I wished I'd done something fancier with mine. But truthfully I only look up there when I'm taking the temp of the dome and not sure I would want to look up there while the oven is heated up. (I guess if I forgot to shave that day, it might be a good idea).

I don't think its neccessary to go to 1/4. Looks like you are closing things up nicely.

Christo

[papavino]

Laser engraved... with a 2 carat diamond dotting the 'i'. I want to keep it simple, you know?

[papavino]

Well, we finished up the dome this weekend! It was pretty exciting to see the dome close. And we got the front arch and chimney anchor plate in place. Now, I just need to resist the urge to fire it up before next Sunday.
James - I hope you've got insulating blankets in stock.

For the keystone, I put a piece of paper over the hole and rubbed a pencil over it. I then inflated a yoga ball and put the paper on it so that it was held tightly against the bricks on the inside of the arch and traced that out from above. I measured the angles that each brick made to determine how far in from the edge to trace out the inner hole on the keystone. It took a couple iterations with the wet saw to get the keystone to fit flush, but with a couple taps of the rubber mallet, I got it in.

[papavino]

Here are some pictures of the arch.

[papavino]

I'm sure I've seen this question before, but I can't remember where. Last night it rained unexpectedly. I hadn't covered the oven, so it got a little wet between the time it started raining and about 5 am when I woke up and tossed the tarp over it. I'm not sure how much prior to 5 that it started raining, but I'm guessing 20 to 30 minutes of light rain and drizzle. I had two curing fires, but now I'm pretty sure I need to wait a few days before I start the curing schedule over, correct?

[papavino]

So, prior to the rain we received this morning, I got some cherry wood last night. 1/2 cord to check it out.

[Dino_Pizza]

Cherry wood...I am so jealous.

Looks like a real oven Papvino! Keystone is nice, and you did your vent transition fast! Looks good.

Since you got some rain, do you have a small electric heater and maybe a fan you could use for a day to dry it out some? I guess you could stretch out the drying schedule and stay in the 100 and 200 deg range longer. Just please take your time and resist the urge to stay on a 100 deg per day schedule since it got wet.

I got my "serious" crack on the 2nd day when it hit 300 deg briefly. It's funny, now I can throw tons of dry wood almost at once and have a 500 deg inferno in minutes and I wonder how a little twig fire cracked my dome that 2nd day!

MORAL OF THE STORY: show caution now and throw it out the window later when it don't matter. -Dino