Dome collapse - advice needed

[wlively]

Originally Posted by Archena

Um, how did you get it out?

Unscrew the nut enough to lower the "floor" clear of the top course and pull all-thread out of hole. Then you take the pieces out the doorway or in my case rotate and out the top as I did not use bricks for the dome cap. See here for pictures.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/a...oven-1199.html (Another Texas oven)

Thanks all for the compliments, I get lucky every now and again.

[KISS4me]

Thanks for the excellent responses.

Looks like instead of eating pizza from my oven this weekend I will be eating humble pie and knocking it all down back to the first course, cleaning the bricks and starting again.

I feel pretty daft about the way I went about misusing the gauge as shown in photo. Thanks to the advice from this forum I now feel a lot better going again.

A couple of follow-up questions:
1. Damon's tip as to not buttering bricks will certainly save some time and sounds like a good idea. Does this mean that you used no mortar on the sides of each brick and rely on the mortar wedge heaped in from behind to bind the bricks?
2. Wade - do you have any photos of your reducing circular template idea?

A much appreciative Steve

[james]

Keep going Steve. I had the dome of my Scott oven fall in the first time I built an oven, it's a lot easier the second time. You've tackled the learning curve -- a huge part of the project.

Wade, I would like to see your photos -- and maybe include them in the V2.0 release of the Pompeii e-Book. Thanks!
James

[Archena]

Originally Posted by wlively

Unscrew the nut enough to lower the "floor" clear of the top course and pull all-thread out of hole. Then you take the pieces out the doorway or in my case rotate and out the top as I did not use bricks for the dome cap. See here for pictures.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/a...oven-1199.html (Another Texas oven)

Thanks all for the compliments, I get lucky every now and again.

Thanks!!!!

[wlively]

Steve

I will reassemble my contraption and take a few pictures for you, but the floor will be pretty small. In fact that is what my plug is sitting on in my oven posts.

I am sorry though I may not be able to get them until wednesday. When I am working, I do 14 hrs days and don't have much time for much else.

I did butter my bricks when installing, but was careful not to butter the front face and applied it in a wedge similar to what the final shape would be. I personally felt better seeing the mortar ooze out, knowing I had enough in there.

[wlively]

Movable floor drawing.

Well I am afraid this is the best drawing I could get to upload due to file size.

I beveled the edge of the "floor" so that it would give some error room when cutting. I would not have to cut it perfectly.

[Archena]

~thumbsup~ Cool! Thanks!

[Bacterium]

Steve,
You can butter the sides and in some cases it was better. I suppose it depends on how "sticky" your mortar is and which technique you are better (quicker) at.

On the lower courses (before the sand cap was used) I made sure plenty ooozed out of the joints. It was easy to tidy it up with a sponge when cleaning up as you could get in there. Once the sand cap was in I made sure there was minimal as I didn't want too much between the sand cap and the brick itself as this could potentially deform the dome shape I was constructing. However when I pulled the cap out a few hours later I got inside (its at this point I had a lot of belief the dome would stay up ). Once in there (well half of my body) I cleaned up with a damp sponge and as you wipe the mortar of it tends to fill in any missed gaps.Worst case Jims (CJ) tip of using a fine pointed trowell would help you getting mortar in there.

Having said all this - Wade is right in that ooozee assures you that there is no space "unmortared".........

A nice strong piece of foam makes a good sponge (used with water). It will help you get rid of all the excess mortar on the exposed brick inside the dome when cleaning up.

Time to insert some Aussie sarcasm
Why did I get in the dome?
...... well brick laying made me all bent over and I couldn't stand up straight.....an hour in the dome on your back had the opposite effect ...
Don't take your beer in there though as you might drop some mortar in it however it will give you the motivation to get out and wipe the mortar off your glasses/hat...

[KISS4me]

The diagram does the job Wade - confirms my minds eye of your idea.

I am looking forward to that moment when I can lay back in my dome and consider that celebratory beer. It will have to wait a few weeks due to other commitments but I will keep all posted of progress (only if dome stays up of course!). Thanks again to Wade, James, Paul, Dutch, Damon and others for helpful advice and encouragement.
Steve
Steve

[KISS4me]

Update................. I have swallowed my pride and knocked down dome to last 2 courses and have commenced re-building. Looking a lot better already as shown in photo.
Steve