Pompeii oven in South Africa Brick Oven Photos Discuss Pompeii oven in South Africa in the Good Background Information forums; This weekend I hope to insulate the outside of the oven, etc. Will post more photos of the progress....

[jcdup]

This weekend I hope to insulate the outside of the oven, etc. Will post more photos of the progress.

[Marcel]

(M) Dear JC?,

Thanks for providing us with this great series of pictures which support the old adage about a picture being worth a 1,000 words!

Your masonry work is nothing to feel apologetic about. I hope that mine turns out as well. It seems that the biggest challenge for us all is the completion of the last 3-4 courses of the dome.

I am inspired to now start posting my own photos prior to completing each ensuing building phase. By starting now, I hope that others may see my errors and help me correct them before they are "set in stone".

If you've never posted here before, and want to post your photos, consider clicking below on [ Manage Attachments ] and then follow the prompts.

Thanks for your help,

Marcel

[james]

Thanks for that great series of photos. Start to finish; concrete pad to pizza; cement dust to flour. Personally, I'm thrilled to see the plans being used around the world.

Now comes the fun part -- send recipes!

James

[arevalo53anos]

Marcel:

The building of the last dome rows/courses are a challenge, as you said, however I could sure you that will be a funny task that will worth while be in it.
I build the dome using 16 polystyrene vanes in place of 4 like our friend jcdup did (by the way, nice job, jcdup). This give me a strong base to sustain the bricks - and it did not need to be rotated!. For the last rows I shaped the vanes with an aluminium sheet, that avoided the mortar to fall over the hearth and give a smooth surface to adjust the last cutted bricks.
You could see some of the pictures of this work in the thread “polystyrene vanes – dome modeling” posted in this section.
Please let me know if you need any other pictures or information.
Go with the fun!
Luis

[jcdup]

Hi,

Here are a few more photos showing the oven during and after the completion of the insulation.

After adding the insulation (vermiculite/cement mixture) the oven seemed to heat up much quicker and for the first time the inside burned completely white.

Johann (jcdup)

[jcdup]

I completed my oven yesterday (about a month and a half since I started). It was way more work than I anticipated, but worth every drop of sweat.

To finish the oven, I covered the vermiculite/cement insulation with a thin layer of plaster and "painted" the completed oven with a coloured cement type paint. I added some slate tiles to the top of the base forming a work area in fron of the oven entrance.

Thanks everyone for your advice and help. A big thanks to James and Forno Bravo for the Pompeii plans and this invaluable forum. Without it I would not have been able to build my oven.

Now, to master the art of baking bread and other things... Fortunately for us in te southern hemisphere summer is here and I can really enjoy experimenting. Will keep you posted

Thanks again.

Johann