As dome gets steeper question - heat gun

[marndin]

Hi all

I have built a barrel oven (Alan Scott Style). However, i have started on a new Pizza oven (moved house). This will be a Pompeii style.

My question is - can I use a heat gun to set off the cement in order to move on to the next brick when the angle becomes too steep for the brick to sit tight?

How did you sort this issue out as the angle got steeper??

Thanks for any replies

Martin

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by marndin

Hi all

I have built a barrel oven (Alan Scott Style). However, i have started on a new Pizza oven (moved house). This will be a Pompeii style.

My question is - can I use a heat gun to set off the cement in order to move on to the next brick when the angle becomes too steep for the brick to sit tight?

How did you sort this issue out as the angle got steeper??

Thanks for any replies

Martin

Hi Martin,
No heat gun, cement needs to cure. I used the indispensible tool and then just some sticks to hold up the bricks till they set long enough not to slide. A little tap in place with a rubber mallet and then the next brick. I did alternate adding bricks to each side of my starter brick.
I used heatstop 50 for my dome and home brew for cladding and adding mass to the top. I found the homebrew was easier to use, as the fireclay (IMHO) made it sticky.
Good Luck with the build!
John

[Les]

Originally Posted by marndin

can I use a heat gun

I didn't use a heat gun, I used a hot melt glue gun. It sat fairly quick but allowed enough time to get the brick right where I wanted it. But to your question; it may accelerate the time a little but not enough to achieve what you want to do.

[GianniFocaccia]

My situation was a bit different because my average individual brick size was much smaller than most. This allowed me to set each brick and let go immediately with no slipping, regardless of angle steepness. I also cut out half-moon indents on the sides and bottom of each brick although I don't know if this really contributed much to adhesion. The trick for me was the consistency of my homebrew. I found out quickly that if my bricks were soaked and my mortar was too wet the brick would slide down when I let go of it. I was bit anal about filling each joint with a single, perfectly-uniform mass of mortar (no filling in gaps later with a pastry bag) and slowly learned to get the optimum mortar hydration. This mix allowed me to squish each brick into place by hand, and about 3-4 seconds to get perfect alignment by tapping it with a hammer. Whatever excess mortar squished out of the joint (hopefully very little) troweled off and put back into my mortar pail. After placing 3-4 bricks (the max my mortar batch would accommodate) I would go back to the first brick and start wiping the finished joint with a wet towel. I tweaked the classic homebrew mix by going slightly over on the hydrated lime and fireclay, and a little less on the portland, which made for a very sticky mortar. I always placed a wet towel on top of each finished section of bricks and a plastic bag on top of that.
John