Freddie's Fun Dome Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Freddie's Fun Dome in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Freddie, I did notice that the extremely flat surface of the firebrick did not adhere sometimes. I did not use ...

[Lars]

Freddie,
I did notice that the extremely flat surface of the firebrick did not adhere sometimes.

I did not use fornobravo mortar, but the 'homebrew' fireclay mix. I found it to be extremely tenacious, sticky and smooth mortar. ( 3:2:1:1/2 fine sand,fireclay, portland,lime)

The other thing I did was cut my bricks with a chisel, and make each one wedge shape. It's easier than it sounds, believe me. The rough edge actually holds mortar and locks together tighter than heck!

Good luck..

Lars.

[Freddie]

I think the mystery about my mortar not sticking to the brick may have been solved. This morning I was talking to a friend who is also building a brick oven and told him about my frustrations with the seams not holding. He told me that he purchased some F.B. Refmix and that I could try some of his.

The stuff I've been using came with the Pompeii 110 kit I purchased. My mortar was packaged in nylon woven type bags with no labeling. My friend's bags were labeled "Refmix" just like shown in the pictures. When we compared his mortar to mine his is gray and gritty. Mine is light brown and the texture of flour or powdered sugar. When I saw this it dawned on me that I was probably sent three bags of fireclay rather than Refmix.

Being that I've never done this before I didn't know what the Refmix was supposed to look like. When I opened my bag I assumed that the different texture was because it is high heat mortar and thus a completely different composition than regular mortar.

Tomorrow I'll call FB and check with them. However, after comparing what I should have received vs. what was actually sent has me convinced that I've been trying to put my oven together with fireclay.

NO WONDER IT HASN'T BEEN HOLDING!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Hey Freddie,

Its possible they sent you the wrong stuff,,,But Im sure they will correct the situation, and dont let it get you down,,, As Im sure everyone else here will testify we all had some sort of an issue along the build BUT<< we will all also tell you it was still well worth it in the end.....

Keep Building

Mark

[kebwi]

Well, at least you can make a ton of homebrew with all that fireclay. ;-)

[jmhepworth]

That's got to be frustrating. But at least you appear to have solved the conundrum.

Joe

[Neil2]

"Something's really wrong."

Good call dmun.

[Freddie]

I spoke with F.B. the other day and they confirmed that the mortar I received in my kit is the correct stuff. They are now trying to figure out what is going on and why I can’t get it to work.

In the mean time I decided last night to break apart the rest of my soldier course. I figured enough of the joints had broken that I didn’t trust those that were still intact. I am so glad that I did this. None of the seams were very strong. I was able to pull the mortar clean off the bricks by hand in most cases. Others I used a chisel and a slight tap. The mortar came clean off the bricks – leaving only a dirty residue on the bricks, but that’s it – the mortar was coming off in whole sections without adhering to the bricks.

I’ll call F.B. later today to see if they have any ideas as to what is going on.

I'd like to hear some input from others who have bought their Pompeii kits which includes the high heat mortar. I got three bags (about 165 lbs.) of the stuff. It looks a lot like chocolate milk powder and has the consistency of flour – there is no grit at all to it. I’m wondering what others who have used this stuff did to get it to work.

Lars - thanks for the recipe you used for your mortar mix. I'll give that a try this weekend.

Thanks

Freddie

[Lars]

Freddie,
It sounds like you were using pure fireclay. That would clean off the way you described. Hopefully you can get a partial refund for the mortar and trouble it has caused you.



L.

[jmhepworth]

The HS morter also has a very fine, powdery consistency as well. No grit to it at all. It's just light grey instead of chocolate

Joe

[Valan]

Hi Freddie,
I noticed that you are in my neck of the woods. I live in Salt Lake, and am almost done with my oven. I used a pre-mixed refractory cement which is sold at Buehner Block here in Salt Lake (2800 South West Temple). It's sold in 25 lb buckets and is pretty pricey, but it sets up fast and sticks to the brick really well. It may help you with the trickey sections.
For my oven, I used it for the initial bond of the dome bricks, then filled up the remaining large spaces between the bricks with a home-mixed refractory mortor. The home mix was also used as the final 1" skim coat over the dome
Maybe you could do a similar thing, and use use the FB stuff on the outside of the dome.

Good luck!