My Old Kentucky Dome

[Ken524]

Motivated by all the other amateur builders here who said "If I can do it ANYONE can do it", We've kicked off construction of "My Old Kentucky Dome".

It will be a 42" Pompeii oven.

A recent trip to New Mexico inspired us to finish it out with a southwestern theme. The base will reflect southwestern architecture (stucco, brick), the oven itself will take on the appearance of an igloo Horno oven, like those found in many Indian Pueblo backyards - An Italian brick pizza oven hidden inside of a Native American Horno .

Our patio will eventually be covered with an overhanging Santa Fe style arbor to tie in with the oven's theme.

Today we poured the pad (and some stepping stones with the left-over concrete). The Mini Mix company in Louisville specializes in small loads and small trucks. For the money, it was a great choice. I will definitely have them deliver the hearth concrete as well. I'm not mixing dozens of 80lbs bags in 100 degree heat!

Against my better judgment, I've decided to keep close track of my oven building expenses. Usually, I don't track these kinds of projects, because I really don't want to know how much I've blown! I figured, others might be interested in what the project costs for research purposes. Here's the link to a public spreadsheet that I'll keep up to date:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets - Pompeii Oven Costs

Time to put together an order for concrete blocks!

Ken

[Ken524]

I started an album so I don't have to chew up Forno Bravo's bandwidth. I'll include highlight shots on my posts and more detailed pics on the Picasa album.

Picasa Web Albums - Ken

Ken

[Versachi]

Great start Ken. Nice design on the concrete. Looking foreward to seeing your progress as I continue mine.

Cheers, John

[Ken524]

We put up the block stand yesterday.

Cutting the 2" angle-iron was fun. I used my sawzall-type saw with a medium metal blade. This worked great, but I noticed that the second cut wasn't going quite as fast as the first . A closer look at the blade showed that I had worn the teeth right off. With a little adjustment in my cut, I was able to finish.

I grooved the blocks to fit in the angle iron with my Skil saw and an old diamond masonry blade. This is an easy way to do it! I finished with nice clean cuts in about 30-40 minutes (definitely wear hearing protection!).

Assembly was very easy. Our amateur-poured pad was level enough that we didn't need any mortar under the first course. The final structure is (amazingly) dead level. I got lucky.

The stand is a square 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 blocks. The hearth will cantilever over the front wall by 6-8", similar to Robert M's (love that tile work!!).

We filled every other core + the two extras in the front with concrete. The empty cores were filled with all the leftover hardened concrete drips, slag and debris from the foundation pour. We won't need to stuff concrete bags in the cores.

Now the real fun starts!

Ken

[Kemo]

looking good! subscribed!

[Ken524]

I finished installing the plywood tray. I covered the ply with a heavy gauge trash bag and a bit of duct tape for easy release.

The vertical 2x4's are not fastened, just pressure fitted and adjusted with shims. The tolerances are close enough that they aren't going anywhere.

[Ken524]

Over the last couple of days I built the hearth frame with the cantilever. The close-up picture shows the cantilever detail and a turnbuckle/cable that I installed to hold the slightly warped 2x6's in place.

The cantilever is 12" at the longest point. Because of the curve, there really isn't a whole lot of concrete that will be extending the full distance.

Hopefully, I put in enough rebar (can you put in too much?)

Ken

[Ken524]

Today was the big pour. After worrying about the strength of my cantilever, I ran to Home Depot and grabbed 4 more 2' sections of rebar and tied them in to the grid. As I was finishing up, the concrete truck arrived.

The pour went great. My wife and I used our amateur skills (or lack of) to get a pretty smooth end result.

Now... Patience while it cures!

Ken

[dmun]

Great job. I never got a slab that smooth without pulling out a lake of slurry on top.



When I inquired about getting redi-mix concrete, they wouldn't even take the truck on a DRIVEWAY let alone a lawn. I would have had to wheelbarrow the stuff in from the street (in 20 minutes). Needless to say, I mixed my own.

[rlf5]

Very nice. Wish I would have thought of that.