Daylight's UK 36" x 19" Pompeii build Brick Oven Photos Discuss Daylight's UK 36" x 19" Pompeii build in the Good Background Information forums; After marking out the floor, we laid it on a mixture of fire clay (from cutting firebricks) and sand together ...

[daylight]

After marking out the floor, we laid it on a mixture of fire clay (from cutting firebricks) and sand together with some bought fire cement.

[daylight]

A change of design! As can be seen from the title, I have decided on a dome height of 18" rather than the originally intended 19". This now conforms with the 'high vault 36" diameter' suggestion in the Pompeii Oven Plans. Given concerns in the forums (and from my DIY building guru, Les), I have also decided to use a half-brick soldier course rather than full-brick ones. The dome will have an elliptical cross-section.

Many thanks to Gromit for his idea of a form using a rotating vane. My form consists of a section of thick ply cut with rounded ends to fit a 36" diameter circle and a width that will allow it to be removed through the oven entrance once the dome is complete. The ply has 6 castors (furniture glides in the US?) attached underneath and a thin metal post going through the centre point. The post goes into a small wooded block mounted on a thin ply circle (36" diameter and in 3 sections for removal) that sits on the oven floor. The two elliptical vanes were cut to achieve the dome height of 18" and were bolted to the marine ply 'skateboard'. The vanes will drop very slightly when unbolted and this should enable them to be removed once the dome is complete. The idea of having two vanes was to allow two bricks to be set at the same time, especially on the higher courses where they may need support. The jury is out on whether two vanes are a good idea as it certainly makes the form much more difficult to make. I will let you know once I have used it in anger. The form rotates really easily and looks as though it will work really well but the proof of the pudding is in the eating!