It's time to go Vertical

[RCLake]

I've been following Robert's link ( love his work) and we're both trying to get to 20" at the top. So far I'm at 21" after row 7 and I've been averaging about 3/8" gap so far. I laid it out on paper just now (don't know how to do the CAD work like Jim) and if I go with a 1/2" gap the rest of the way I may be at 20 1/2". I quess that wouldn't be all bad, but I may taper the bottom of this next row.
I've kept the symmetry decent so far (keeping the 21" distance from center, but the arch area is a little farther Hopefully I can correct that on row 8. If not it will be a little oblong.
The drawing I did makes the keystone the 14th course. So only 7 more to go, each with less bricks but a steeper slope. Should be fun, wish me luck.

[Acoma]

RC, I will get details for my oven that you are also following. I am glad you finished 7. My children have been sick, and concerns to shape by members has me frozen until Tuesday. You are beveling the bricks too I presume? This is giving you that 1/2 in I am sure.

[asudavew]

I don't think it hurts if your a bit high.
and I ended up oblong too...

but heck.. once it's all covered up and your eating hot pizza.. only you and us will know!


Keep up the good work!

dave

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by Acoma

RC, I will get details for my oven that you are also following. I am glad you finished 7. My children have been sick, and concerns to shape by members has me frozen until Tuesday. You are beveling the bricks too I presume? This is giving you that 1/2 in I am sure.

Sometimes the terms bevel and tampered get mixed up. I have been beveling both sides using Jim's bevel and angle calulations - eyeballing it versus true measurement. When I say tampering I'm meaning cutting part of the bottom of the brick off, I did this on row 4.
I've also lifted the back of each row up about 3/8" so far. May increase this to 1/2" the rest of the way or at least tamper one more row.

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by asudavew

I don't think it hurts if your a bit high.
and I ended up oblong too...

but heck.. once it's all covered up and your eating hot pizza.. only you and us will know!


dave

That's my thinking as well.

[jcg31]

Originally Posted by RCLake

Sometimes the terms bevel and tampered get mixed up. I have been beveling both sides using Jim's bevel and angle calulations - eyeballing it versus true measurement. When I say tampering I'm meaning cutting part of the bottom of the brick off, I did this on row 4.
I've also lifted the back of each row up about 3/8" so far. May increase this to 1/2" the rest of the way or at least tamper one more row.

RC,
Your post this morning reminded me that I owed you a graphic on the bevels. Attached is an illustration of how I took on this pain in the butt.

First I filled the saw table trough with mortar, let set over night and then ran the blade through to create a "trough slot" to hold the metal stop (to be mentioned next). Filling with mortar for me also made it easier to clean the saw and caused no problems with saw operation.

Next I picked up a piece of 3" flat steel from HD and cut it into 6.5", 10", 10" lengths using my trusty $19 grinder (with metal cutting disk). The 6.5" piece I used as a stop to the cutting edge; put it in place, shoved the brick against it, removed the metal stop while holding brick in place and made the cut. More than doubled my cutting spead.

The two ten inch pieces I connected horizontally by welding in place two hinges. This was done to create the angle guide for the last few courses when they get fairly large. The hinges were skewed in placement just slightly from one another so that there was considerable binding when trying to open and close the guide so the angle wouldn't change with multiple bricks being place against it over time. But for most courses this tool was used upside down (face down on the table as pictured) resting against the back stop of the table and slid under the brick towards or away from the pivot point of the brick to create the desired bevel angle. Once the angle was determined it was clamped in place with a 3" spring clamp (not pictured but noted - knew I forgot something)

On the same trip to HD I picked up the protractor pictured - an indispensible tool for this project and feature in many posts on this forum. I first placed the protractor on the table, used the little red arrow slide on its face to mark the angle of the table and then used it on top of the brick to determine the angle for the bevel by adding whatever angle I was looking for to the red arrow position. By the way I wasn't going for the 3 decimel accuracy as my chart might suggest just to the nearest ditdat on the face of the protractor.

Once I was happy with the bevel angle and the hinged steel was clamped in place the process was simply to put the small stop in the trough slot slap a brick against it (I was angling each brick so full flat face against steel) hold the brick firmly in place while you remove the stop and cut. Zippy quick.

One caution, at certain bevel angles inorder to hold the brick in place on the steel your fingers will be fairly close to the blade.

Also because the larger bevels are done on so few bricks you could probably get by without the hinges and use something else for the jig on the last couple of courses if you don't have a welder hanging around. So for the most part with just the protractor, a little bit of mortar in the trough, and a couple pieces of flat steel, you're good to go.

Jim

[Acoma]

Jim, I was not as in depth to beleling the side (top to bottom edge). I took pieces to the dome, found the gap at bottom, then marked the top of the brick to cut. I then would go to the wet saw, grab a scrap piece of brick and lift the brick to desired height on the edge for cutting. So far it works, and does not take long. Primitive but simple. You are more savvy with tools and technology, so you are more at home with your way. Love the images!

[RCLake]

Jim
I'm doing it conceptually like you but different. First I've cut the bricks in half versus the angle like you did. And you can see from the first picture I have a stop quide at 4.5" on each side. I use the c clamp for the angle cut and I have 1/4" plywood riser by each stop for the bevel cut. So I do compound cuts on each side. So far no measurement just eyeballing and checking for fit. I did the cuts for row 6 & 7 in the garage because of the weather. I had to modify the cuts for row 6 but row 7 was pretty good.
Started to cut row 8 the same (the bevel angle isn't that much difference) and the cut seems to fit nicely. The second picture just shows a brick placed on it.

HOWEVER I'm noticing much more of a gap underneath the front of the brick. Is this the place people have started going to cut the full bricks in thirds?

[jcg31]

Ya, you could do that but I think it would drive you nuts. I used partials only when the joints were threatening to run across courses. I thought for a breif moment about cutting the bottoms to close the gap but then regained my sanity. In the end it didn't seem to matter much astetically and structually it doesn't matter at all.

Course 8 eh, tell me how it feels to blow past the arch without having to stop for tie ins.

Jim

[RCLake]

Originally Posted by jcg31

Ya, you could do that but I think it would drive you nuts. I used partials only when the joints were threatening to run across courses. I thought for a breif moment about cutting the bottoms to close the gap but then regained my sanity. In the end it didn't seem to matter much astetically and structually it doesn't matter at all.

Course 8 eh, tell me how it feels to blow past the arch without having to stop for tie ins.

Jim

I came to that decision as well, as least for now. I started row 8 and mixed up enough mortar for about dozen bricks ( at least at the rate till now). I used 1/2" gap in the back so figured it would take more mortar but I only got 5 bricks in. I'm still at 21" from center, so probably won't hit the 20" target, but it will still cook, I hope.