Nikki's 42" in Phoenix, where it's hot as a...

[mstang1988]

Originally Posted by Modthyrth

I was just going to be lazy and leave it, since I'm now planning an enclosure. I don't have more than a half a brick extending out at any point (if I did I trimmed it first so I could use that half-brick) so I didn't figure it would cause much of a problem. The enclosure might be more work overall, but it meant less fussy work before I could start my dome in earnest, and I wanted to get to the cooking part as quickly as possible!

I'll dig up my original drawings and get some accurate dimensions for you, Mstang1988. I think the oven slab was 5x5 (maybe 6x6) with the front corner cut out. The prep wing to the right is 4' long, and the grill area to the left of the oven is 9' long. We'll have a couple hundred square feet of pavers creating the dining/working floor and surrounding the fire pit. It's big, no doubt!

No work on the oven today. It's raining, and probably will continue to rain through tomorrow. Oh well, I need to make pies and challah today, anyway.

Thanks! I'm looking at a very similar design but the space is so tight for a 42" oven, grill, and smoker that I started downsizing until I saw yours :-) I think I'll just have to find a way to fit everything and the 42" oven! Yours is looking freat!

[Modthyrth]

Ta-da! The basic dome is finished:



There's still much work ahead, of course, but it feels downhill from here. Before you know it I'll be curing and cooking!

Mustang--The base foundation is 6' square (with the front corner lopped off). The block stand ended up being 70" square; it fit perfectly on the foundation. I have plenty of room for a 42" oven, and you could definitely downsize a bit for a 36" oven.

[egalecki]

woo hoo! We need pics of the keystone, you know...

Looks really good. Now it's time for those pastry bag skills.... oh, make the mortar just a little sloppier so it squeezes better.

[mfiore]

Nikki, way to go! Very exciting. I've enjoyed following your build. Pizza is just around the corner (that is unless you get 8 inches of snow, like we have).

Thanks for sharing!

[Frances]

Cool, well done! It looks great!

...actually, at the moment I think it looks a bit like an oversized hedgehog. A very nicely rounded one though.

[exceloven]

Wow! I'm amazed at how fast your dome went up. How long was that, start to finish on the dome? Looks great.

Mark

[Modthyrth]

I did the dome in a week, I think. It helped to have a four day Thanksgiving weekend in there, but it would have been even faster if two of those days hadn't been rainy! I'm a woman on a mission. After having been delayed by concrete vendors for three months, I had a lot of pent-up building energy. I really wanted to finish the dome before flying to DC this Saturday. That will give the dome a chance to cure for a little over a week, then I can come back and start the curing fires. Yeah!

I'm going to try to convince the family to start a new Christmas Eve tradition of pizza-making. We typically have clam chowder (my side's tradition) and Swedish meatballs (Drew's side's tradition), but I won't eat either thing, so I always end up foraging and eating mostly cookies for dinner that day. ;-) Making fabulous pizzas in the gorgeous Phoenix weather sounds like a fun and delicious tradition. We always end up at our house, anyway, since we're the only ones with a large enough house to accommodate the family (Drew's brothers live in San Francisco and New York). Pizzas on Christmas eve would set me up beautifully for doing the Christmas roast in the oven the next day, too! Now I just have to hurry up and figure out a door plan, too. I do have some leftover firebricks, worst case scenario.

Frances--LOL, it does look rather like a hedgehog. Hmm. That image is now affecting my thoughts about what to name my oven.

[mstang1988]

Originally Posted by Modthyrth

Ta-da! The basic dome is finished:



There's still much work ahead, of course, but it feels downhill from here. Before you know it I'll be curing and cooking!

Mustang--The base foundation is 6' square (with the front corner lopped off). The block stand ended up being 70" square; it fit perfectly on the foundation. I have plenty of room for a 42" oven, and you could definitely downsize a bit for a 36" oven.

Looking great! That block stand is huge, what made the size so different then the forno brack plans? I'm guessing it's for the stone exterior but I could be wrong :-)

[nodoubt68]

Congrats Nikki,
Love ya dome...your a clever chicky

[Modthyrth]

Originally Posted by mstang1988

Looking great! That block stand is huge, what made the size so different then the forno brack plans? I'm guessing it's for the stone exterior but I could be wrong :-)

The plans actually call for a 69"x76" stand, 77"x86" foundation, so I stayed pretty close to the plan but scaled it down a wee bit. I could have gone a little smaller, but not a whole lot. It all adds up!