Work so far

[aureole]

Sorry if this is a repost- I'm not sure whether it should be here or in the Pompeii oven section: anyway, I'm building a pizza oven in the UK, and I've just finished the block stand:

Photos are (hopefully) in the sig below!

[jengineer]

good start

[aureole]

It's actually really weird looking back at the pictures - in the heat this weekend I pretty much sweated out my own bodyweight, and I'm looking at bits of the finish and thinking "That's ugly!" - still, it'll all get covered in render anyway. On the corner of the stand one of the bricks got kicked out of kilter which is annoying : see attached files.

I do wonder if I should've cleaned up the sleeper I used a bit more - I'll take a sander to it when I've removed the forms. The outside of it is pretty rustic, but at the end of the day, it's 10"x6" of English oak!

[aureole]

I've taken the forms off and now I've found a small (12" square) patch of nasty crumbly-looking concrete underneath the oven. I guess I didn't tamp it down enough, but I'm worried about the strength of my slab now. I'm figuring it's just a visible flaw rather than a deep one, but it still bothers me.

The oven stuff is coming next week (I hope, cheque sent), so now I have to work out my dome height. I'm curious about doing a Naples low dome, but with the full course brick (9") on the bottom, my sums say a 16" high dome will have 8 further courses (total curving dome arc 49"), each course having a 11degree angle, so the outer face of the joint will have 1" mortar - this seems like a lot! Also, that's a fairly low dome (effectively 7" of dome over 42").

[christo]

I bet the nasty crumbly is just some surface ugliness.

I can't imagine using a 10x6 of english oak as a form - I'd be building furniture with it!!!

as far as the out of kilter - if you stucco or face with stone - you'll never notice it!!!

Christo

[aureole]

I'm still not able to decide between a low and high dome oven - if I do the low dome, will I need to buttress the outside of the soldier course? Does it make a difference if I have an angle on each brick (going from horizontal to vertical) versus cutting an angle on the first course (say 30 - 45degrees)?

[dmun]

The high/low dome is your choice: the high dome is a bit more structurally sound, and has lots of room for building your fire, the low dome may be a bit better for browning the top of pizza. There is a tradition of angled soldier courses on low dome ovens: for me, I don't really know what the soldier course is for. I think just starting with courses of bricks is a better plan.

[aureole]

Thanks: I've been reading a lot of your posts about domes, buttresses,
Catenaries and chains - very informative. Before this, I'd probably have gone for a low dome and tried to turn it in a short space. Trying to plot it, it looks like I'd need a decent buttress: however, given I'm using insulating board, the idea of trying to anchor a buttress down doesn't seem so sensible. Plus, I don't fancy another ~20% thermal mass.

Now, I'm probably going to go for a marginally lower 18"-19" dome. When my bricks arrive, I'll have a play with possible forms.

[Breven]

Looking good Matt. Sweet blisters! As I was working outside this weekend trying to wrap up the dome- I couldn't help but think...there is no way I could do this for a living!
I'll be following your progress...

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by aureole

Now, I'm probably going to go for a marginally lower 18"-19" dome. When my bricks arrive, I'll have a play with possible forms.

Don't forget to keep you oven opening low enough to keep heat in.
I think (can't remember exactly)it should be around 63% of the height of the inside of the dome.

Good luck!

Dave