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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 5, 2012 13:03:38 GMT
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 15, 2012 4:07:24 GMT
Making some progress!! Pretty soon and it'll be time to start the arches. If you squint your eyes real hard and use your imagination you can almost imagine that this will be an oven someday. Not the tightest, straightest, or most consistent joints I've seen, but I had very low expectations going in so I'm happy to this point. As you can see, I haven't been as neat as I might have been...anyone have any hints on how to clean up the mortar residue I left all over the place? Bill
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 21, 2012 4:34:23 GMT
Made some progress this past Thursday and today.... I was about done with my sidewalls when it occurred to me that, with the way I was going, they would not tie into the entry transition at all. So I tore out a couple of bricks to allow me some place to tie the the entray to the walls. (By the way, the home brew seems to set up diamond hard. Of the four bricks I took out, three had been laid somewhere between ten minutes and twelve hours earlier. No problem there. One of the bricks had been laid forty-eight hours earlier. Rock hard. Had to use my angle grinder to cut the joint.) Anyway, the first pic is a shot of my entryway dry stacked. The second is a bird's eye view showing how I tied the entry way to the sidewalls. I did that on two courses....the ones below were too cured to do anything about. Do most people tie the entry transition to the walls? I don't know that I've noticed one way or the other before...just seemed to me to make sense. The final shot was tonight's work. Not the cleanest or straightest work I've seen...but just about ready to lay out my arch and make some forms. As always...if anyone has any thoughts, concerns, etc...I'd love to hear them. Bill
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Post by Calaf on Feb 21, 2012 9:37:30 GMT
That is some robust looking brickwork, Bill. You could roast a whole cow in there.
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 22, 2012 6:08:59 GMT
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Post by turkey on Feb 22, 2012 9:32:48 GMT
Looking very good, and glad to see the hombrew is doing its job the arch transition is about the most scary part of the build if you ask me, but it looks like you have it sussed there, door reveal (?) already cut into the brick and the buttresses in place. what is the width of the opening 18" ?
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 22, 2012 20:36:25 GMT
Thanks. The reveal is cut to be a door stop. Used my angle grinder on those. The door width is 17.5 inches. The door opening height is going to be right about 11.5 inches.
Bill
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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 23, 2012 20:04:11 GMT
Bill
Indeed a robust build. I've also followed many Vault oven builds on the FB forum....and always thought that the angle iron used by many builders may cause cracking due to expansion and contraction of the steel. I like the way you are building an arch in the place of the steel and although it must have been a lot of work, those full (cut) bricks forming the rebate for your door are first class.
Looking foward to the next stage.....
Terry
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Post by DuncanM on Feb 24, 2012 8:14:40 GMT
Bill,
Brilliant progress!
Just a comment regarding your back wall - it looks as though the back wall will be an arch? As far as I'm aware I believe most back walls are just that - a full wall which means there isn't any awkward cutting to match the angle of the arch, this is then butted up against the last arch. Does that make sense?
Cheers, Duncan
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 24, 2012 10:02:06 GMT
I know most guys do not put the back wall within the arch...that being said some research I did indicates it is probably better to do so. I'm sure it's overkill and not needed, but I'm doin this as much for the fun/education as anything else...so it's all good.
Bill
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Post by DuncanM on Feb 24, 2012 10:10:31 GMT
Ahh OK if you plan to do it then fair enough Out of interest what are the reasons for it being better suited? More support for the arch? Cheers, Duncan
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Post by turkey on Feb 24, 2012 12:53:28 GMT
rather than cutting to form the full arch could you tie it to the arch with a couple of right angle bricks from the rear wall that you will build into the arch? might be even more complicated to get it nice tho tbh :/
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 25, 2012 17:06:19 GMT
As I said Duncan...it's undoubtedly overkill...but what I initially heard from one of the guys on Forno Bravo, and then read somewhere... was that placing the wall up against the arches results in a relatively larger amount of stress being placed against the wall due to the fact that the length-wise expansion of each of the bricks in the arch would be pushing the rear wall backward a greater amount than if the wall is sitting under the arch and tied into the side walls.
Whether it actually makes a difference is undoubtedly arguable, but I figured the only downside associated with doing it is that I need to make some additional cuts to tie things together properly. Since I'm doing this for the fun and educational aspects of it as much for the pizza...I figured why not? How does the old saying go about the process..."most worthwhile endeavors are as much about the journey as the destination"...or something like that.
The other thing is that I have no cladding whatsoever and will be relying almost entirely on the ability of that fiberboard insulation (backed by blanket and concrete block) to hold that oven together in the event of cracking. Whatever I can do to increase the inherent strength/stability the oven is probably a good thing.
Bill
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Post by veauifru on Feb 27, 2012 14:36:40 GMT
I just love the approach you are taking to this oven. Hope you don't mind if I copy some ideas. Great craftmanship on show.
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wjw
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Post by wjw on Feb 27, 2012 19:12:57 GMT
Thanks for the compliment on the workmanship. I certainly do not mind you copying whatever looks like it will work for you. You gotta love this board and the other one...there is so much info available. It would have never occurred to me to undertake a project like this without being able to draw upon the collective knowledge and experience represented here. Lots of fun.
Hey Terry...on cutting the reveal for the door...it really wasn't hard once I figured out an easier way to do it than trying completely freehand. I used my 4.5 inch handheld angle grinder with a masonry blade. I just marked out the angles for the two cuts on the bricks and then made the cut as deep as the center hub on the angle grinder blade would allow me to push it into the brick. Since I pushed it in as far as the hub would allow me to go on each cut, each of the cuts was identical length/depth without any effort.
Bill
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