My progress Newbie Forum Discuss My progress in the Good Background Information forums; As promissed here are some pics so far. includes base construction, slab construction mixing of perlite (50 micron), finished base ...

[lwood]

As promissed here are some pics so far. includes base construction, slab construction mixing of perlite (50 micron), finished base with concrete slab and perlite insulating slab. We just finshed cutting the firebrick for the inside of the oven today but haven't downloaded the pics yet.

Again, these are filipino construction methods and all hollow blocks will be stuccoed. Will post more soon. This is very intimidating, you know. John

[Ken524]

Looks good John! Keep us posted.

[lwood]

What we did yesterday

[dmun]

Did you insulate? It looks like the upright thin bricks that form the soldier course are sitting right on the support slab, and I can't see what's under the floor layer...

[Neil2]

What size are the bricks ? They look like 2 1/2 x 4 x 9 ?

If so your shoulder bricks should be "edge on" so that your dome thickness is at least 4 inches.

[lwood]

Yes, I have 4" of perlite/concrete where the firebrick are sitting. That lip is 2" of the perlite insulation. The firebrick are 1"x4"x7.5" and very inconsistent. I don't under quite understand what you mean by "on edge". Have been wondering how to get a 4" thick dome with these brick.

[splatgirl]

by "edge on" he means that the thickness, in your case the 1" side, should be facing in toward the hearth bricks. You can use either full height bricks or cut them in half, but the point is that you want the thickness of the soldier course and dome walls to be equivalent to half a brick, or 3.25" assuming yours are 7.5" long. I suppose you could do three concentric circles of soldiers to get to that, too.

[splatgirl]

p.s. maybe add another layer of hearth bricks, too? The hearth of an oven built with "standard" firebrick like most of us have used is 2.5" thick.

[lwood]

Something like this....?

[splatgirl]

yes, exactly