New member - George South Africa.

[Outeniqua]

I'm a new member from George in the beautiful Southern Cape of South Africa. What a wonderful and informative site this is - it has certainly contributed a lot to my research.

I decided to start building a 36" oven. I found good quality fire bricks (Aluminum 35%, Silica 56%) for my build. However, I do not know which brick size will be the best for the build. I can get hold of 9"x4.5"x2" or 9"x4.5"x3" bricks. The 2" bricks will probably be easier to shape and cut. What is the informed opinion?

I will appreciate any advice because this is a very expensive item here in SA.

Thanks again for a wonderful site.

[Gulf]

Welcome to the Forum Outeniqua,
If I were to be gathering materials again and could get both those size brick, I would use 9"x4.5"x3" for the floor and 9"x4.5"x2" for the dome and outer arch. The 3" thick floor will give you more heat retention but, it will take more wood to heat up. I think it depends on what you will be using your oven for the most.

[Outeniqua]

Thanks for the response Gulf.

I must say that I love your oven - very skillful job!! I think the tool to smooth the vcrete over the dome is awesome.

[UtahBeehiver]

Welcome from the other hemisphere. I used 3 inchers in floor and dome. I figure I need 12 courses vs 14 on 2.5" thick. I believe either will work just fine. Good luck with your build.

[Johann.Nel]

Hi George
I used various sizes of bricks to ease the pain of getting the arch right. I used the large tile bricks -350X350 for the floor and pre-angled bricks for the wall. All bricks were sourced from Vereening Refactories. Avaialble in three varing angles.

In the attached picture you can see that the arch has no widening of the extemitees and that the bricks have been cut with the inside edge narrower than the othside edge. As the dome rounded I had to also had to angle the cut to allow for a tighter fit.

Will be posting pictures of the almost complted oven soon. I only have to do the entrance and the smoke stack. Has tken me more than a month to get this far. (only work on this on week ends)

[Outeniqua]

Hello Johan

I completed my oven since this earlier post. Here is the link to my build if you want to have a look.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f21/...-sa-18134.html (My 36" build in Southern Cape, SA)

Abrie