It's time to go Vertical

[RCLake]

As usual I'm getting ahead of myself, but couldn't pass up on this opportunity. A friend was clearing his lot and offered this wood. Other than the last 5 logs he had even cut the load. I'll guess I get him a bottle of scotch.

[RCLake]

Well I spent time today cutting my floor. I'll be replacing all of the interior floor bricks with better ones - when the strap of 75 was loaded into my pickup the guy laid the stack down. Did I say lay, more like dropped it over, so I'll use those elsewhere.
I originally did the front landing 25" wide assuming I would have the side walls on the 2.5" edge. Once I uploaded it onto the computer it didn't seem right so I made the landing 29" wide so the 4.5" edge would be on the floor like the third picture. I noticed in the ebook, fig.8.1 had it one way and fig 8.2 another. With the weight overhead I like the wider approach.

[RCLake]

Enjoying a cold one and thinking how I will connect the arch/vent to the dome, well at least the first row. I've seen a lot of WFO with the 4.5" arch built into the dome and then the vent is added later, easily incorporating a reveal. This does create a long vertical seam at the arch and as I understand it a weaker spot. Has anyone had any problems at this spot?

I searched the photo gallery and say that RTFlorida overlapped the bricks from the arch to the vent. I couldn't tell if a reveal was built in(see photo), if so, how. I'm guessing you could cut/notch the bricks after the arch to 4".

Advice/Experience would greatly be appreciated.

[RTflorida]

RC,
That is exactly what I did...cut the bricks to 4" (actually 3 3/4" - my bricks all seemed to be in the 4 1/4" to 4 3/8" range in width) to allow the 1/2" reveal for the door.
There may be another way, but this seemed pretty straightforward and simple to do.

[RCLake]

Hurray,
I can see cutting off 1/2" to adapt it. But this is a thing in process for me and just trying to visualize.

[Les]

RC,

I cut (notched) my brick one inch for the reveal. You can see it on the first two pictures, on the second page in the photo gallery. It took little effort and it ties the arch pretty well to the vent area.

Les...

[Kemo]

RC,

looking good...glad to see yet another TX oven. Thanks for posting.

[RCLake]

Planning on putting the floor down tomorrow and was just going to level it with fireclay no mortar. But I'm wondering if I should mortor the landing under the vent area, or will mortaring the vent sides to the floor be enough?

[gjbingham]

RC,
I used fireclay alone to lay the floor bricks. A month later, it was still moist. I tried first with fireclay and sand, but forgot to soak the bricks. They sucked the water right out of the mix and it quickly became unworkable. It wasn't till I set the floor in fireclay alone that I understood the problem of not soaking the bricks. The plans say not to use mortar under the floor, but several builders have done it.

I used a slurry mix of portland cement under the entryway bricks. The expansion of the dome/floor bricks broke the seal on the mortar and moved them. It might not have been a problem if I'd used the vermicrete insulation out to the end of the entryway...... Who knows???
G.

[RCLake]

I spent yesterday installing the isoblocks, I mortared them down. I thought I ordered 1'x2' but they came 1'x1' so I have a lot more seams than I planned.
I arched the front of my hearth so I had an extra 12" to work with and it doesn't appear to be a issue reaching the back of the oven area.