Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted the first few photos of the dome 'going vertical' with the second and third (or first and second if you count the solider course as separate) being mortar'd in with high heat refractory mortar.  Today, I'm showing the next chain (the 4th - or 3rd if you similarly call the solider NOT part of the numbering sequence) going in - where we're starting to see the slightest bit of dome starting to appear with each chain of the dome hanging *over* the previous one oh-so-slightly. Below are a couple of photos showing chain four.  (or three plus the soldier....) I've been cutting the bricks with side angles to get a tight fit and that's been working well.  This chain is the first one where I needed to use wedges under the bricks to get the right top angle. Just eight or nine more to go.  With each chain getting a little bit more difficult. 

Last week, the pizza oven dome went vertical with the first chain rising above the solider course .  Today, I'm showing a few more photos of even more vertical construction.  First, I've learned from the FornoBravo community that part of mortar'ing in a chain of bricks on the dome *should* include the placing and mortar'ing of an 'anchor brick' for the next course/chain.  You can see that below - in the first photo.  I set the first brick of the second chain (soldier + 2) in the middle of the back of the dome.  I did this one evening, then let it set.  I came back the next night and was able to mortar in the bricks to the side while using this fixed brick as an anchor. Below you can see that anchor brick with the rest of the chain: From there, the dome keeps rising: Below you can see the pitch starting to be created by the IT / dome gauge.   Below is the solider + three chains.  Four in total - from the outside of the dome.   And he...

Back a couple weeks ago, I shared the latest pizza oven build project update:  I set the floor and the first chain of the dome .  I went with an isolated floor, so the first 'chain' of the dome is set at the same height as the floor.  But, instead of being set on a 50/50 blend of mason's sand and fireclay, I set the dome chain with refractory mortar - BETWEEN - the joints.   Today, I'm sharing how the dome is going vertical.  Thanks to my brother-in-law (not Equation Boy/Man, rather on Nat's side), I have an indispensable tool (IT) or dome gauge that allows me to easily set each brick of the dome at the right distance and angle.  You can see it in the first photo below.   The other thing that I did was to cut-down the Masonite template that I used to create the floor and placed it *inside* the dome to keep the floor clean from errant mortar and what-have-you.  I'll pull it out when the dome is complete.   The first photo shows ...

While I still need to set the floor, I decided to see if I could figure out how to make Refractory Mortar work by sticking a couple of bricks together.  I've never done ANY masonry work before this project, so I've quickly upgraded my masonry skills over the past few months.  Starting with pouring the concrete slab and then moving on to using (for the first time) Type S mortar to stick the first blocks into place in the stand, I've used different tools and techniques in elementary ways.    For the dome, I'm going to use Akona Medium-Duty Refractory Mortar that comes in 50# bags - because it is available and affordable.  Some folks use a homebrew of fireclay, portland cement and mason sand, but the guy at the brick distributor talked me out of that - by saying that fireclay was out of code around here.  So, he suggested two products - Firestop 50 or this Akona Refractory Mortar .   I mixed up a tiny batch and grabbed a few cut-offs to see if I cou...

With excavation started on the site of our backyard wood-fired pizza oven (on our drywell) , I need to move from the theoretical (What could an oven look like?  How high should it be?  What would it need to be made out of?  How many cinder blocks? What layout?) In my recent post on excavation , I ran through some mental math to figure out what size the hole needs to be, what size the slab will be and how wide the block foundation will be once constructed.  I ran through both a 10x8x16 block scenario and an 8x8x16 block scenario.   The 8x8x16 is the traditional block, but I was considering if the extra 2" block in the first (one or two) courses is appropriate to all for the footing of a brick face on the sides of the oven. Off I went to Menards to poke around in the construction block section.  Back in January, I posted the details of how there are L-shaped cinder blocks that help make proper corners and I wondered if I should be using those to make a s...