New kid that lives in S. Sweden

[Eric]

I just have joined and would like to know how to go about making the forms for the dome. is it just a matter of drawing a circle thats 36 or 42 inches in dia. and then cut it off att the desired height? Wonders Eric

[Frances]

Hi Eric,

Cool an oven builder in Sweden! That's sort of nearly Switzerland. Close-isch, anyway We'll be able to start a Continental European chapter yet!

About the forms, it depends what kind of oven you're building. A lower dome is better for pizza (Napolitain style), a higher dome (half the diameter in hight) is better for roasting and baking, and still really good for Pizza. Actually, looking at the things people are cooking in their ovens, it doesn't seem to matter much which kind of oven you choose.

For a lower oven you would need to go streighter up for the first couple of courses and then bring in the sides at a steeper angle, in order to have enough floor space. My own oven is shaped like a perfect half sphere (as perfect as possibly anyway), mainly because the idea appealed to me. So for that your idea would work. But basically if you're using forms, you decide what hight and diameter you want, and then draw a nice curve between the two, starting with a right angle at each end.

So how far are you on your oven? Have you got any pictures yet?

Frances

[dmun]

The physical forms can be anything that will hold up the brick. The traditional method was to build a form of wet sand, which would be shoveled out afterword. The most common here is ribs of foam insulation that can easily break out when your dome is done. A couple of recent builders used a hinged swivel arm (My indispensible tool (a variation on a FB theme)) invented by Jim (jcg31) to place each brick: This works best with the hemispherical oven.



Some builders build freehand. It all depends what you're comfortable with.

[gjbingham]

Nice post dmun. Another of my (Many) recommendations for posts in the Tools, Tips and Techniques forum, with appropriate sources listed. This one spells it out (with pics) really well.
G.

[james]

This wins my vote for best of February. I like the drawings, photos, colored annotation -- all excellent. I've been doing drawings for UL approval for our ovens, and my work pales in comparison. :-)

You gotta love it. Thanks David.
James

[james]

Another quick note:

Here are a couple of photos from an oven built in Sweden in '05/'06. And, we shipped an Artigiano to Sweden (direct from Italy) a couple of years ago. Italy moves north.

Eric, a simple way of building your from is styrofoam. Or, you can build quite a few courses without forms, and support the last few forms with boards that you can remove at the end.

Enjoy!
James