Ravensdale Oven

[El Puaco]

Thanks for the quick response. My layout is almost exactly 21" high in either scenario. It looks like 5 of the 2 1/2" firebricks layed on their sides will give me entrance height of 12 1/2", add some for mortar and I should hit the 13+" range which is in the 62% area. I'm probably good there. I like the door stop idea. I'll have to scoot bricks around for a while until I find an idea for making that work.

Please tell me a little about your oven. Thanks again.

[jengineer]

LOL - my oven is currently firmly planted in the middle of the kitchen. Unfortunately it is fired by natural gas and peaks out at about 550 F.

Unfortunately my Pompeii is currently only "vapor ware" Right now it is about number 9 on the list just below,
new roof - hey it only leaks when it rains
put in a storm screen door right now the screen door is vapor ware too
new fence to keep our vapor ware dogs in
provide proper drainage (right now all water drain toward the house, less than average)
make a tricycle run for the street dragger (will combine with the drainage project)
replace the 50 year old windows and 15 year old screens, a mere 14 of them
rescue two greyhounds
sand and paint the eves
hey honey you may now build that pizza oven

Oh and visit as many real pizza ovens in the meantime to try to get it pushed up higher in the list!

[El Puaco]

Oh yeah, do I ever know what you're talking about. I slipped some early construction in and now my wife is tired of looking at the partial project. She's actually helping when I need the 3rd and 4th hand. I'm supposed be building fence now too, but it's now taking a backseat to getting this oven project finished. Getting some help from the rescued Border Collie too.

[El Puaco]

Thanks again to jengineer for the tips the other day. I revised the entry area to include a "reveal" or "door stop". I'm sure I'll have a better time sealing the oven off during the bread making evolutions. The Forum idea works! In addition it just looks better.

[El Puaco]

I'm in the process of building the dome now. I have the first 3 courses of brick done and am now in the middle of trying to figure how I want to develop the oven entrance. I've read the Pompei directions and as I remember there have been several variations of this done by other builders. I'm inclined to not use the angle iron approach and try to build an arch out of firebrick. Is there any consensus that updates the original thinking on this? I'm going to use the Casa vent assembly and need to layout my oven entrance so I can position the vent. Any ideas?

[james]

I think building an arched entrance into the oven looks great, and it should be structurally very strong.

From past builders, how much harder is it to build the arch vs. the angle iron lintel?

James

[Fio]

Originally Posted by james

I think building an arched entrance into the oven looks great, and it should be structurally very strong.

From past builders, how much harder is it to build the arch vs. the angle iron lintel?

James

I don't know if I'm any kind of authority, but it's a bit of a challenge. You have to determine an arc just perfectly so that you use only whole bricks.

I used a form for mine. It was difficult packing the mortar into the wedge-shaped gaps between bricks. The form has to be REALLY steady.

My big problem is that I left a 1/2" gap between the arch and the vent manifold. This was intentional so as to provide a thermal break between the hot manifold and the exterior arch. But the way I built it, it had no rear support. It's strong enough, but some of the mortar cracked and I had to patch mortar it on the back and cement on a piece of perforated steel for additional strength.

I'm sure there's a better way to do it.

[El Puaco]

Great ino Fio. I want to make sure I understand you with regard to the unsupported side. Was that the side toward the oven on the arch? The gap between the arch and the vent is something that I probably would have missed entirely. Did you grout that in with mortar afterwards? I guess I'm going to have to go back through your postings and look at the pictures. You have been very thoughtful and thorough about some things that I need to think about.

Thanks again,

[Fio]

Originally Posted by El Puaco

Great ino Fio. I want to make sure I understand you with regard to the unsupported side. Was that the side toward the oven on the arch? The gap between the arch and the vent is something that I probably would have missed entirely. Did you grout that in with mortar afterwards? I guess I'm going to have to go back through your postings and look at the pictures. You have been very thoughtful and thorough about some things that I need to think about.

Thanks again,

I misread your post, and I also misread James' question. I apologize; disregard my post about making a structural arch to span the gap across the front opening.

I DID use Angle Iron to span the gap, and plopped my vent manifold on the angle iron. I then constructed a "faux" arch, out of pavers, for appearance only.

To better understand how I did it, check my thread on building my oven.

In the narrow gap between my arch and the manifold, I wedged in a piece of low-density fiberfrax board. I had to resaw it on my 17" bandsaw to about 1/4" thick.

I'll post pix on this later.

[El Puaco]

Thanks Fio. I understand now. Looks like it's back to drawing board for me. I think I have a pretty good idea what to do now. It's goin' to be slow work for a while.