Keystone Day

[jcg31]

Finally the day I thought would come weeks ago; the last brick, the last cut - - well for the dome at least. Not quite the perfect hexigon I had planned but a good snug fit. I etched the date and my signature in the brick for posterity, will probably vanish among the soot with the first fire, but I will know its there. I should have the vent and liner in this weekend. 4-8" of snow forecast with temps in the teens, may slow progress.

Jim

[Acoma]

Jim, that was fast. You really got that dome up fast. With the cold, do you feel that you were slowed any? How about the cold affecting the mortered bricks, did you have a space heater always going? Look forward to more.

[Ken524]

Originally Posted by jcg31

I etched the date and my signature in the brick for posterity

Really classy! What did you etch it with?

[Frances]

Wow, I wish I'd thought of that! Signing the keystone, what a cool idea!
And what a great keystone it is, I'm severely impressed...

Frances

[sarah h]

Jim, congratulations! It's a beautiful dome and a terrific keystone - great idea to sign it. How did you manage to make it look so expertly done? Good luck forging on in the snow and cold - winter weather sure does slow things down. It sounds like you completed your dome at a good time!

Sarah

[jcg31]

Originally Posted by Acoma

Jim, that was fast. You really got that dome up fast. With the cold, do you feel that you were slowed any? How about the cold affecting the mortered bricks, did you have a space heater always going? Look forward to more.

Robert,
Actually just appears that way. I am out of town a lot so I haven't been great about posting progress shots. Prior to last week the only photo I had put up was of the flaired arch http:// http://www.fornobravo.com/fo...ndex.php?n=819 That was November 7th and was probably from work at least a week earlier. From that picture it appears I was on course 7. So from 8 to 14 in a month.

As far as heat I have an arsenal: "A"(see attachments) An indoor propane to maintain working temp after I warm the place up with "D" (outdoor propane used indoor for 30 minutes or so just to bring the temp up). "B" is a small electric that I run in the dome overnight to keep the outside dome temp above 40 along with a dual halogen, which I only run one of the lamps.

But the real weapon against the weather is the 10x10x10 EZup enclosure ($199 from their site) Very nice heavy construction that once inside it keeps everything out. Has withstood heavy winds and two inches of snow (so far) The other great thing about it is that it is white, so shooting two halogen work lights at the ceiling for night work gives you great light with no shadows cast.

Jim

[jcg31]

Thanks All!

Ken & Sarah,

I have a laser cutter from a previous life, the etch was created by placing a vinyl resist on the brick and then lasering away the image. That was then hit with a sand blaster; where there is vinyl the sand bounces off, where there is none the sand cuts into the brick. Don't necessarily need a laser to accomplish this, photobrasive.com has an number of products one can use to create the resist, but you would need a sand blaster. A tool everyone should own - - one of my favorite toys and available cheap at HFTools.

Jim

[christo]

I love the keystone. And definately love the LASER!!!!!

Maybe I'll print this out and leave it laying around and see if my wife will take the hint....

I suppose I could do something similar to that in my oven now - with a less techie masking technique - but I'm not sure I want to crawl inside my oven to sand blast......

Awesome!!!

Christo

[CanuckJim]

Jim,

That is very impressive work you've done, with excellent ideas on the enclosure and heaters. If you build so well, your pizzas must be awesome when the time comes.

Jim

[gjbingham]

I agree. Awesome work! The inside of the dome is beautiful!

Congrats on getting that keystone in.
George