Greg's Pompeii 42" - San Diego Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Greg's Pompeii 42" - San Diego in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; The vermiculite looks fine! (And the rest of the build looks super!) As for more insulation, I really DON'T think ...

[oventhusiast]

The vermiculite looks fine! (And the rest of the build looks super!) As for more insulation, I really DON'T think you can have too much! I just may dump another 6 cubic foot bag down between the outside edges of my clay flue chimney to get more around the flue and the front wall. (or take a small piece of cement board off of the 'house' and fill it up solid! Insulation keeps it hot for days!
Best of luck on the build,
Rick

[Frances]

Hey, I completely missed this one... what fantastic arches! On the stand and the patio, very very cool.

Do you happen to have any pictures of those big arches going up? Is that some kind of veneer, or did you use natural stones as covering?

[geisen]

Frances
No pictures of the arches going up. They started with some monster footings, with a couple of 4x4 posts bolted together. 4 arches all together with a balcony over half. arches were framed out with plywood and 2x4s. covered in black paper and stucco mesh wire. concrete scratch coat applied and then the manufactured stone is applied like tile. colored grout is squirtted in joints from a masonary bag. The company that makes the fake stone, El Dorado Stone, is very impressive. they mold 1000s of actual stones of all different types; make the veneer our of concrete and add color/texture.

Same thing I'll be using to cover the WFO.

[geisen]

FB Insulation board came in. Cut it with a hack saw blade and laid it yesterday. No sand or motar to hold it in place like the web site says.

Ordered a wet saw from HD.
24 In, Dual Speed Wet Tile Saw, 2 HP Motor, 10 In Continuous Rim Diamond Blade $398.97

Hopefully it will get here by the weekend. Need to start cutting some bricks to generate the fire clay to mix with the sand for the hearth.

[Dino_Pizza]

Nice job Greg. I got impatient so I bought an $8 bag of fireclay and mixed it with the washed sand. It worked OK, but when I had to re-do some front pieces on the landing, I used the brick powder in the wet-saw-water-tray and to my surprise, it works much better. It's creamier and hardens just a bit more than purchased fire clay. If you shave your soldier course to have little mortar (most don't do that) or if you cut the tops of the soldiers at and angle to get you dome starter (like I did) you should generate enough. If you don't, you certainly can cut a bunch of bricks in half or 3rds. Cheers, Dino

[geisen]

Picked up all the bricks from RCP and laid out the pattern for the hearth. Also built a cutting area next to the house to contain dust and overspray during the brick cutting.

When I went to RCP to pick up the fire clay they said they had in stock, the bag was marked "motar Clay". They said it was the same thing. True?
$10 for 50lbs bag

If not, anyone have a source for fireclay in San Diego?

[Modthyrth]

Yep, mortar clay and fire clay are the same thing. At least that's what the people at the masonry supply assured me.

[exceloven]

Greg,
Very good idea for the saw set-up. My area where I cut is still really dirty. You should be able to roll up the plastic and be done with it. Love the wine glass......... perfect for what we are all doing. You'll be using that to go with your pizza in no time.

Mark

[geisen]

Spun up the new wet saw today and cut my first firebrick of the project.......yeeeeeaaa. Cut like a hot knife through butter. A little wet to use but not too bad. Knocked out the cuts for the Hearth floor in just over an hour (41.5" diameter). Soldier course will go on the outside of hearth with 1/4" space for expansion all around. BTW, the plywood under the hearth is just there to protect the insulation board underneath while working on the bricks. Not permanant.

[geisen]

I did my intial layout of my hearth on a piece of plywood. Once all the bricks were cut, I traced the outline of the hearth on to the plywood. I then centered the "indispensible tool" and traced a circle 1/2 inch larger to an exact 42". I traced the center board onto the plywood as well. I then cut out the shape of the hearth and the center board. This board will give me a pattern to trace on the insulation board and will also act as a protective barrier while the courses go up.