To cut or not to cut...

[blacknoir]

2 questions.

1) Is there a reason for cutting the insulation board to be the same size and shape as the dome? I was planning on laying the boards down and only cutting where my enclosure would go and avoiding the curved cuts of the board.

2) This is kind of a 2 part question. First, what's the advantage, if any, of building the oven walls around the floor instead of directly on it? The pompeii plans seem to go the route of building on the floor but I've seen people build around the floor and leaving a gap for floor expansion. Second, if there is no advantage, then is there any reason to cut the floor to be the same shape as the oven vs having bits sticking out?

[charger10s]

I'm building the walls on the floor, and I only cut the insulation boards to accomodate my enclosure. I don't have a ton of space on the hearth around the floor, so I did cut some bricks also, but once again, only enough for the enclosure.

[Les]

Originally Posted by blacknoir

what's the advantage, if any, of building the oven walls around the floor instead of directly on it?

I believe the only advantage is the ability to replace a bad brick. I don't recall anyone having to do that. And it would only apply to the brick the walls were sitting on.

Les...

[Neil2]

Insulation should go under the wall and communicate with the dome insulation.

There are two schools of thought about the hearth bricks going under the wall. I ran mine under the wall.

[dougrappe]

re: part 1 of your question, I cut the insulation to the size of the hearth so I could use the scraps to insulate a door for the oven. It actually cuts pretty easily, I used a portable jig saw with a fine wood cutting blade.

re: part 2, I built the dome on top of the floor, (with a layer of paper under the soldier course so the mortar wouldn't bond the dome to the floor) because I didn't want to have to cut the floor bricks so accurately to follow the inside of the dome.

Having fun yet?

Doug