My biggest mistake!!

[Lburou]

I'm posting my big mistake here so you can avoid it....

I had a big problem with the bonding in my dome because I used a soldier course to start. I'm a beginner mason and that made it more challenging to keep the ends of the bricks in a chain from lining up vertically with the ends of the bricks above and below. It means a significantly increased potential for cracks in your oven when its finished (mine too!)

I was cautioned against a soldier course by dmun, but being the bull headed person I am, I wanted the 'look' of the soldier course. I got the look of the soldier course and the head space for dishes or bread close to the perimeter while baking. However, my bonding made nice little zigzag grout lines to the top of the dome. Bonding is difficult enough in the top five or six chains, but with a soldier course, the difficulty starts with the first chain after the soldier course!

With one do-over possible, it would be to put a sailor course right on the floor!
HTH

P.S. I used recycled firebricks so they don't look very prissy here, but they looked better when I got the grout in after this picture, and better still when they all turned black during the curing fires this week!! WooHoo!

P.P.S. I'm baring my *ss here, so be gentle.......with your knit picking

[ggoose]

Just out of curiosity Lburou, what type of mortar did you use?

gene

[lwood]

Your too tough on your self Lou. Once you close that dome up and start a fire, you'll never see it again. I'll bet it cooks good pizza.

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by ggoose

Just out of curiosity Lburou, what type of mortar did you use?

gene

Gene, I used home brew with the calcium aluminate (ciment fondu) option. I used that option because -theoretically at least- it is more a refractory mortar than home brew with Portland and should heat faster and hold heat better than the Portland brew, not to mention it sets more quickly in those last few rings toward the top.

Originally Posted by lwood

Your too tough on your self Lou. Once you close that dome up and start a fire, you'll never see it again. I'll bet it cooks good pizza.

Thanks for the props lwood

I'm just saying to someone in the planning stages of an oven that I wasted a lot of unnecessary effort to deal with the bonding and never really got ahead of it. The problem would be substantially less without the soldier course.