My indispensible tool (a variation on a FB theme) Tools, Tips and Techniques Discuss My indispensible tool (a variation on a FB theme) in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; That is one good looking dome! WOW....

[Ken524]

That is one good looking dome! WOW.

[christo]

looking really nice!

I can't believe it's just the tool that is providing the beautiful results.....

You are quite a craftsman.

Christo

[jcg31]

Thanks Christo,

The tool absolutely accounts for the symmetry, It simply won't allow you to mess that up. The other big component is cutting the brick angles and bevels -- I made plenty of mistakes in that arena, particularly the bevels. Finally after about course 5, I made a small modification to my HFTools wet saw ( poured and let set mortar in the cutting trough and then ran the blade through it so I could then quickly identify the precise position of the cutting edge regardless of the width of the brick (in case of odd width partials)) and created a jig that for the most part put that aspect on autopilot as well. Consistancy with mixing and applying mortar to the vertical sides of bricks was the only area I never arrived at a meaningful crutch for myself (I have one for horizontal).

Thanks again for your kind comments.

Jim

[RCLake]

With the Thanksgiving Holiday activities, I missed this thread. I did see your guide but didn't pay attention to how you used it for the archway. Even if I did see it I probably wouldn't have appreciated its usefulness in building the arch into the curved dome.
Even now being done with 5 rows, I'm scratching my b... with tieing each row into the arch. When I'm done (???) I think I'll keep a fire burning when we have visitors so they won't look at my transition. I would hate to have it compared to this
Great work and innovation

[Frances]

The really nice thing about having visitors over for pizza, is that they don't know this site. They have nothing to compare your oven with. And lets face it, every oven on this site, conisidered by its own merits, is pretty darn impressive!

Just don't tell them where you got your oven plans from, and you'll be safe...

[Frances]

...not that you need to fear comparison, from what I can see...

[arevalo53anos]

This forum is great just because all kind of thinking could be exposed here and anyone reading it could take the ideas that best fit with her/his desires.
Great work in this last tool jcg31!
However, I still think that the use of two sheet of stylofoam or expanded polyestirene shaped as semi-circumferences give to the oven owner an easy and cheap way to go.
And these stylofoam could be shaped lower than semi circumference, as way to obtain a Neapolitan style dome, too.

Luis

[jcg31]

Luis,

You are absolutely right, each to his/her own, but if you will allow me I think you missed the real point to the tool. It is for the unskilled (like me).

The foam frame requires nearly as much masonary skills as going without frame or guide. It still requires one to place the brick in the correct position, the face perfectly positioned to center, at the correct slope, the placement, removal and filling of shims, working around the foam to clean the brick after placement, etc. And to repeat all that in consistent fashion some 285 times.

The tool I created (a derivative work from those who came before me) makes the process near idiot proof. You really have to try to make a mistake (on the dome, the arch and tie in are entirely different animals, although the compass attachment helps mightily with that as well). And brick cleanup is easy with nothing pressing against the brick and in the way of a brush or sponge.

As far as cost it looks like you would have used 2 4'x8'x1" boards. In my neck of the woods that would have cost $17. I recently created a guide for a fellow FornoBravoer and the materials cost was $18.25. The one I created for myself was less than that because I had a good amount of the materials on hand. Of course access to a welder is needed. So to that issue, for those who might be interested in using the guide, I am hoping to have a few of these created by the end of February that can then pass from one FBer to another returning home only occassionally for maintenance.

All that said. Your photos look great! Congratulations on a great start, base on the uniformity in your soldier course you have the skills I lack.

Jim

[arevalo53anos]

Jim:

Actually, my oven had been finished more than three years ago and baking better pizzas each time.
I begun without no skills and finished it almost without any too.<g>
The information about the stylofoam that I had used was showed only to give some guidance to new readers of this forum, since my pictures are along several threads.
As your tool, it only requires that you support the bricks on it.
Today, if thinking in to build an oven again, I am sure that I will go to the Neapolitan style, which formula is High = 1/3 of internal Diameter.
Talking about this oven type is when the stylofoam (covered by alluminium foil, if necessary) could do a good job.
However, there is no point of discussion here and I did really appreciate your work and tool and that you wrote down your ideas here.
And I did love your interior oven tour!



Follow some pics


Luis

[arevalo53anos]

And finished oven...with a derivated pizza test using different kinds of pre-ferments...

Luis