Jeff's 42" Pompeii in Easley, SC (near Greenville,SC)

[PizzaIdiot]

VJ - just click on my name in any of the posts. Then there is a "send message" and you can select "private".

Jeff

[PizzaIdiot]

It's gone from a week of rain to nights below freezing. The weather is certainly not conducive to much progress.
It did take advantage of the 'dry' weather and worked on cutting bricks for the sides of the inside arch and the bricks that are adjacent to it for courses 2,3 and 4.
I dry fit them and stacked some more bricks at the entrance to get the feeling of the layout. I'll have 12 1/4" from the face of the arch to the front of the oven, and another 12" of granite. The inside arch is 20" wide and will be 12" at the center and 9" at the sides.
One good thing about cool weather is the beer stays cold longer!
Here are a few pictures...

[Dino69]

Looking good. You're really making some great progress.

David

[Sananguero]

I like the taper on the dome bricks you cut that meet the entry way bricks. Things are lookin good!

Karl

[banhxeo76]

I love your small mortar joint between each brick. I wish I could get my joint that small. Super Job! Perhap, I should take my time to get a correct cut on my brick.

[PizzaIdiot]

Well those fine joints have disappeared.

I've found that my dome isn't closing fast enough, so I"m correcting as I place the 6th course. I cut the bricks so that I could turn them vertical.
I had 20 1/2 bricks and mixed up the mud and started laying them. After an hour (including a 20 minute interruption by the neighbor) I had them in place and I left for dinner. An hour later I came back to see that some had shifted slightly. They slid a 1/4" or less, of course not in a uniform manner. I may be hand grinding some corners to even things out.

I knew I was going to have to fill the triangular gaps created by not beveling the sides of the bricks. I've seen all sorts of ovens here and I know it'll be ok to fill these gaps, but I can't stop the subconscious nagging saying how much better I could do. Given more time (or a lot of money) I'm sure I could but I want to get those curing fires going.

[PizzaIdiot]

I need to start breaking down the tasks into what can be done in a hour or so.
Even if it means 15 bricks at a time.

Good news: The Heatstop50 I paid almost $100 for last year is down to $75 - it's still expensive. I still need to try the homebrew with the new sand I got - may this weekend.

[PizzaIdiot]

75 degrees after work today and got most of the sixth course done. I did get creative in how I cut the bricks to get the profile closer to where is should be.

Here are some pics. I'll go back and fill in between the bricks using a mortar bag next before I add the course. Too bad it's going to be raining after work tomorrow.
It's even level! Wish I took a picture if that!





Jeff

[PizzaIdiot]

75 degrees after work today and got most of the sixth course done. I did get creative in how I cut the bricks to get the profile closer to where is should be.

Here are some pics. I'll go back and fill in between the bricks using a mortar bag next before I add the course. Too bad it's going to be raining after work tomorrow.
It's even level! Wish I took a picture if that!
Picture 1

Picture 2

Jeff

[PizzaIdiot]

@banhxeo76 - thanks for the kind words. i wish it were going faster.

@ Sananguero I hope I can keep the taper going. The next couple courses will be a challenge. I want to taper the arch bricks to make the dome match it better.