Red Bricks?

[VJ Dickens]

Hi everyone, We are building an oven and have read that the three hole red bricks can be used for dome but are not recommended. Someone on the web had a blog of one they built with them and have had good success and enjoy the oven very much. We need to do this on a budget, I want to make a good oven and do what is best. Base built, pouring top soon. Comments welcome and needed.

[Les]

VJ,

If they are standard core bricks I would avoid them. If you are going to cut corners on the build this is one area I would not do so. It's a lot of work just to watch it crumble. Even good refractory material will turn to dust with use.

[VJ Dickens]

Thanks Les, so it's a no go on the red bricks. Will look into fire brick now. Our first thought was to make a clay or cobb oven, then we found this wonderful site and went with brick. My problem now is size. I only have room on my base for a 30" ID oven. The info on clay ovens said 20"-27" was a good size. Is 30 too small? And how big of an opening?

[Mingy]

One thing people should understand is making the actual oven dome is a *lot* of work. You really don't want to scrimp on materials, bricks in particular, but mortar as well, not matter what anybody says.

If they are right, you save a few bucks. If they are wrong, you have to do it all over again.

[Les]

Originally Posted by VJ Dickens

. The info on clay ovens said 20"-27" was a good size. Is 30 too small? And how big of an opening?

I think a small oven is better than no oven. As far as the opening, look through the plans and just scale it down. There is a ratio but I don't recall what it is.

[mrchipster]

Height of opening ideal is 63 percent of total oven height inside.

Width is about same as height of oven interior height

So for a 30 inch oven the dome height would be 15 inches
The door height 9.75 inches
Door width 15 inches

These are not hard numbers but a good guide.
Chip