A Potential New Low Dome Design

[johnrbek]

Maver,

Thanks for the complements, but I cannot take all the credit... I actually consulted with a professional oven builder before beginning dome construction. He uses this same buttressing system for all of his commercial ovens.

By the way, I've posted some pics in my original thread for those interested.

Happy to answer any questions.. though we should probably take specific questions related to this build over on that thread and not hijack James thread.. though it is related...

JB

[james]

Here's a photo of an old farmhouse where we stayed, that has the internal butressing you see on lots of older building. It keeps the walls from blowing out after a few hundred years. Not terribly relevant, but interesting.

A metal rod runs inside the building, and washers or varying shaped pins support the outer wall. The rod is threaded to shorten the system and apply tension.

James

[dmun]

Originally Posted by james

A metal rod runs inside the building, and washers or varying shaped pins support the outer wall.

You think that area is a little active seismically?

Speaking of which, I just garbage-picked the most amazing item - a twisted iron rod, maybe three quarters of an inch, and about 20 feet long. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I just couldn't resist.

[jengineer]

Originally Posted by dmun

You think that area is a little active seismically?

Speaking of which, I just garbage-picked the most amazing item - a twisted iron rod, maybe three quarters of an inch, and about 20 feet long. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I just couldn't resist.

Awesome find! A friend of mine was doing some work for a Federal building near San Francisco about 12 years ago. As they were excavating the foundation they came across some of this "stuff", quite a find. The plot had seen quite a few buildings as they came across 3 differenct kinds of re-bar. as kept digging. This bar is one one of them, similar to what Shermans hair pins. You take square stock, heat it up and twist it. Another kind is the same square stock and you either add welds or heat stamp it, a precusor to rebar. I like this over the rolled rebar that is produced today - STOUT. What did I do with my 1 foot section? I wire brushed half of it so that it is nice and shiny, the other half I left as it was found and then I urethaned the whole thing. Yeah the Antique Road Show loves me!

I think I would incorporate it into an indoor oven as a type of edging on the countertop. On an outdoor oven it would need some sort of sealer.

[james]

I think the entire pennisula is seismically active -- which in some ways makes it even more remarkable how well the ancient buildings have held up. There was an earthquake in Umbria a few years ago that brought down a number of medieval buildings in Assissi that was just terrible. It caused a lot of economic dislocation, as well as the damage to some great old buildings.

A good percentage of the older building have some form of internal rod and washer bracing. I'll take more photos -- it'll be fun.

Can't wait to see what you do with the rod.
James

[jengineer]

Originally Posted by james

Here's a photo of an old farmhouse where we stayed, that has the internal butressing you see on lots of older building. It keeps the walls from blowing out after a few hundred years. Not terribly relevant, but interesting.

A metal rod runs inside the building, and washers or varying shaped pins support the outer wall. The rod is threaded to shorten the system and apply tension.

James

method is still used today. A few months ago Jim corss posted a site for a large barrel shaped bread oven. On the crown of the oven they placed metal rods with turnbuckles to keep the dome from blowing out the walls.

Today's large buildings (Mascone Convention center in They City), bridges, overpasses, parking garages use two forms of these tensioners. One form is pre-stressed and the other is post-stressed. Your building is probably post stressed. You build the structure and embed the steel and when you are near done you tighten it up. In one building that I saw get tightend up you could almost see the floor flex from a slight sag to level.

[james]

Excellent Patrick. Thanks. I will take a few photos of definite "post-stressed" tensioners -- they're pretty interesing looking. Plus, I've learned a new word today. Thanks again.
James

[adman2u]

I have been cutting bricks with and old skill saw with a metal masonry blade not a tile saw - it is much faster - I just mark them - throw them on the ground and cut