Marino's 42" oven Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Marino's 42" oven in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Hello This is going slower than I had planned, but I am about to start the first row of bricks ...

[Marino]

Hello

This is going slower than I had planned, but I am about to start the first row of bricks after the soldiers. I am having trouble uploading my pics from iPhoto, get "file failed to upload" message. Any suggestions?

Two questions:

With the indispensable tool determining the brick angle from the horizontal, and using a radius string to determine the trim on the sides of the bricks, I can easily taper the brick sides so as to get a clean vertical joint with no gap (and no mortar). This means I would have only a ring of mortar wedge with thickness 0 on the inside and about 1/2" on the outside, and no vertical "glue" whatsoever. I just want to avoid mortar showing on the inside, not tapering all sides to get a mortarless dome. Is this reasonable? Will the oven stand with essentially alternating horizontal rings of brick and mortar and no mortar on the brick sides?

How do you clean mortar stains from the face of the bricks? I am a rather messy mason.

Also, how do I get smilies in the text? When I try, the show up "translated" into regular typed words or emoticons.

Thanks,

Marino

[GianniFocaccia]

Check out Les' Build for an example of a dome without mortar showing on the inside. I think conventional wisdom says you can wipe excess mortar away with a wet sponge as you go; use a wire brush up to 24hrs, and grind it away if much later.

[Marino]

Testing loading photo

[Tman1]

Is that just tape on the floor, or is a pattern? Obviously a pic would be best.

[Marino]

Thanks for the tips about the mortar. I was more concerned about brown discoloration from FB mortar than mortar chunks on the face of the bricks. I have been very impressed with how clean some projects look (Les', for one), but I am not that worried that I would take a grinder to it. Like they say, no one is going to stick his head in the oven once it if finished.

The stripes are tape

Here are some pictures of the whole thing so far (in several posts since there is a limit of 5 pics per post)

[Marino]

More pics, part 2

[Marino]

Pics, part 3

[Marino]

Pics, part 4

[Marino]

Please help with urgent mortar question: I got my mortar with the FB Pompeii kit. The first bag I opened contained two bags of light brown powder that set so quickly that it was hardly usable after 30 min (from a very soupy start). I found it therefore hard to work with at the beginning, but eventually it worked OK. It would set hard in just a few hours. The second bag was a grey powder that turned black when mixed with water; it remained wet for a long time, and would not set hard for days, eventually turns grey when dry (easily 1 week). I thought it was a different product and I assumed FB had made a switch from one to the other at some point and I just got a mixed batch. Now, about half way into the 3rd row of bricks, I open the next sack of mortar and find a brown powder bag and a grey powder bag! Were this supposed to be mixed before using? Is the grey-black stuff really going to set hard? Do I have to tear everything down and start over?
I am not setting any more bricks until I hear your answers
Thanks
Anyway, here are some more pics

[Tman1]

In an unrelated statement towards the joints on your rows; I see some joints lining up. I think they are supposed to be offset.. at least a little. Someone else with more knowledge can clarify.