Dave's Pics of Progress

[Les]

Sorry to hear about that Dave - no fun going backwards. When I was putting the brick on my island, I had to pull 32 of them off - didn't like the way it was looking. You get to talking to yourself pretty harshly as your spend the next couple of hours cleaning brick. I may suggest that you leave the forms up for 48 hours - give it some time to cure.

Good luck,

Les...

[asudavew]

Well.. I got my arch redone.

And I've laid about 4 or 5 courses on top of the soldier course.

My joints are a bit big. But so far so good. It is tough trying to tie the dome in with the arch. But the next few courses should be a real test....The angle sure is getting steeper.


I hope to be real close on finishing up the dome this weekend.


I will post some pics in a day or two..... Having camera technical difficulties.

Cheers

[asudavew]

A few pics of the arch rebuild. And my first few courses. A bit messy on the outside, but the inside seems ok.

[asudavew]

Here is how you cut bricks in half with a small wet saw.

Cut as far as possible on both sides of the top. Flip over. Cut as far as possible on both sides of the bottom


Beat with hammer.

Worked for me!

And the last one is of the rough ends of the bricks. The rough sides work fine on the outside of the dome.

[asudavew]

A few fun pics.

I was inside the dome doing mortar cleanup on the joints.


And the young lady is another one of my daughters, Dana.


!!!Amazing!!! - I got one of my teenagers outside.

[Acoma]

Dave, with the layers going up, do an inward shot. Looking good. We now need your teen to get a little dirty, or was here smile from being done helping?

[asudavew]

Yeah, I will get some inside shots tonight or tomorrow.

I thought there were a few....

Here is one of he inside of the arch...before cleaning up extra mortar.

[rlf5]

Dave

Are you sanding to clean off the extra mortar or using acid?

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by rlf5

Dave

Are you sanding to clean off the extra mortar or using acid?

Actually I hadn't thought about that.. I just wipe it off with a wet towel before it dries......

[Acoma]

Dave, please..please..please take your time and allow each row of bricks to be offset from the row below. As mentioned in other threads, it is safer to have the morter attached to brick than to itself, threatening the integrity of the dome. Not to say it will collapse upon itself. Just be safe, you have done such a great job (as a family).
As for cleaning bricks from excess morter with each row, what is the consensus for it? Chemical or sanding or what?