dmun's 36" geodesic oven part II Design Styles, Chimneys and Finish Discuss dmun's 36" geodesic oven part II in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; It's been a while since you finished. How is the oven holding up? Since you used a thiner 2.5" brick, ...

[SCChris]

It's been a while since you finished. How is the oven holding up? Since you used a thiner 2.5" brick, how long does it stay hot, how long to heat up. It seems that everybody who builds an oven gets cracks, do you have crack report?

Thanks

SCChris

[dmun]

Yes, I got some cracks along mortar lines, the only one with a gap is in the center of the front firebrick arch. Nothing too alarming, nothing I'd want to crawl in the oven to repoint.

I think my oven takes the same 1 3/4 to two hours to heat up as everyone else's does. I don't think a thin oven is worth the trouble, mostly because now i better understand the forces at play in an arch/dome:

Auroville Earth Institute is a research, design and developing agency for vaulted structures, construction of various Vaults, Arches, Domes (VAD).

[SCChris]

I had the feeling that once the tooling was created, your method was ultimately easier than working brick by brick. Most builds look like the process after the first course is fitting, cutting, fitting, cutting, always a custom brick. I want to maintain the stagered joints all the way up if possible and it looks like this becomes more of a probllem the higher you get, hense the custom brick syndrome. Mabey its not as bad as I'm working it up to be. Anyway, I felt that by cutting the triangles and assembling these into the pentagon and hexigon shapes, you had control over the actual size of the building units, and minimized the work and assembly time. I also had to wonder if creating tooling for casting the pentagon and hexagon shapes might not make building 2 or more ovens more practical. I'm resigned to use the tried and true course by course method.

Thanks for the feedback and the great build.


Chris

PS Great article. It nice to have arch dynamics all spelled out.
Thanks for the link.

[HeyJim]

WOW!! I've been a geodesic enthusiast for years. Only recently have I become a brick oven enthusiast. You've irreversibly joined the two in my head. I have to try this on my trailer-based oven project!

(Or at least in my head, if it turns out to be too impractical!)

[dmun]

Um, the geodesic oven is really thin, and therefore brittle. I wouldn't even think about it for a mobile oven. I predict it would vibrate apart on the first ride. Any sort of mobile oven is best with a Modular Refractory Oven Do a forum search for "mobile ovens" for much discussion on this topic.

[HeyJim]

Originally Posted by dmun

Um, the geodesic oven is really thin, and therefore brittle. I wouldn't even think about it for a mobile oven. I predict it would vibrate apart on the first ride. Any sort of mobile oven is best with a Modular Refractory Oven Do a forum search for "mobile ovens" for much discussion on this topic.

Hmmmm, the one I saw wasn't very thick, but was a refractory oven. And it wasn't modular. But I'll look at the threads about it when I return from camping this weekend.

[3G_]

I was wondering if anyone has used large format clay paver to create the pentagons and hexagons to buil an oven. Large format pavers are coming out in 400x400x50mm and i though you may bre able to cut the entire pentagon out of one??

[dmun]

In the US, all our paver slabs are portland concrete based, and that wouldn't do at all. If it were actual brick material it might work, but there would be a LOT of waste.

At the end of my cutting i came up with an almost-no-waste method of making the triangles:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/8/dm....html#post4104 (dmun's 36" geodesic oven)

[3G_]

Most common are concrete but you can get solid clay pavers. The waste doesnt worry me too much if the design can be achieved. I has a look at the geodesic link but couldnt get me head around it. Will spend a bit more time on it.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

dmun,
How hard was it for you to get building permits for this project ? Did they require formal plans ? Just curious because Ive never seen an oven and fireplace together and wondered how the building dept. felt.
Mark