81 Inch First Build (and first post)

[windage]

installed all 11 pcs of soapstone tonight with a helper, (they are 130 lbs each !) I know I am going to catch all kinds of flack for my ash door, ...thermal loss, lack of incoming air control...etc, etc... but there it is, anyway. I will fill in the spaces with FB.

The soapstone cut easily and you can work it with hand tools, I used a block plane, chisel and knife !

Roger

[eprante]

That is a lot of thermal mass to heat up you have there. Once you get it up to temp, it is likely to stay there for a while. Very interesting build, massive scale compared to anything most of us are doing. I am glad you have a plentiful cheap source of firewood( you may have to resort to coal).
Eric

[kebwi]

If I may ask, how tall is your entry arch going to be relative to your dome. It's looks kinda low considering the size of your oven.

[windage]

The arch is 14" and the dome is 24" the dia 6-9", congrats on your first pizzas, btw. I was originally in the dark about the proper ratio of 63%, until one of my MIT friends, Thomas Massie, stopped by as I had the frames mocked up at 36". After a quick review of his Scott and Winger book, I lowered it to 24" dome height. Do you think this too low? Now is the time to change anything if I need to...going out tonight to start cutting the soldier course which will have the skew cut on the upper end.
Roger

[kebwi]

By diameter 6-9" do you mean 6'-9", as in six feet nine inches?

Okay, so 14" is reasonably close to 63% of 24" (a shave on the low side although I have no idea how sensitive these figures are). I guess you're just building a very low, flat oven relative to its diameter, good for pizza I suppose. I just would have expected such an enormous oven to have a fairly large entry way, but if it has a low dome, it should have a correspondingly low entry arch.

No, I'm not suggesting you did anything wrong. I am steadfast in my insistence that I have no authority on FB. I'm way too much of a novice to be telling other people what to do. I just thought it looked kinda low. Maybe it's fine for your design.

Thanks on the congrats. I'm so glad I got this far. It ain't done yet, but it was a huge milestone.

[windage]

Yep, 6 feet 9 inches. I going for a low oven and fast bake times for pizza by combining the best of the pompei with the barrel, I just hope my dome support is stong enough to hold the low roof....lower being harder to hold up. I will rely on the "belt" around the oven to help, ala the Peter Moore Campanola oven build.

I appreciate the observations and feedbacks, I really do. I am not experienced at this, but have a butt-load of confidence...which makes me forge ahead into unknown areas with a 80% success rate, but the 20% failures are real "crash and burn" ugly! haha

[shuboyje]

81 and 24 is dead on the d/3.4 guidline for low domes. Forge ahead my friend!

[windage]

shuboyje,
please elaborate on that d/3.4 guideline....give me some background on that..

Hey, everyone....what is the minimum wall height, ie; the soldier course upon which the skew and dome starts? Is 4 to 5 inches too short, or do I really need 8 to 9 inches (full bricks)? I want the shortest wall possible in order to create the highest degree of angle for my 24" dome. The lower I start on the outside rim, the greater the angle to the top. I figure it's just going to be where I push the coals and small wood..thoughts?
thanks
Roger

[Les]

Roger,

I built a 42 inch and made it a true radius. My first brick off the deck is 2.5 inches. Granted, I can't push a large piece of burning wood to the edge, but it has never been a problem. I think with your size it would be a non issue.

Les...

[dmun]

Yeah, I've never figured out what the soldier course is for. It's traditional, but to my mind it just makes it weaker. Your huge low dome is going to have a lot of side thrust, and putting it up on stilts is going to accentuate the problem.