Why I Oughta...

The oven construction process has been one focused on:  planning (the foundation), building (the foundation), planning (the stand), building (the stand).  And, then more planning (for the oven).  And...now comes the ACTUAL building of the oven.  That starts with learning how to handle the wetsaw and cut out the floor.  Thanks to my VERY HANDY brother-in-law, we went with an isolated floor.  That means, we cut the floor of the oven to be 40" diameter and *then* cut out the soldier course to lay NEXT to the floor.   We started with cutting the oven entry:  Then, thanks to the jig that my brother-in-law made, we quickly cut out the rest of the floor and the soliders: We began to figure out the oven opening and how to make the transition pieces from opening arch to oven dome: And, cut out the second layer of the dome - these only with side-cuts, no tilt cuts (yet): We also built our indispensable tool (IT) or dome gauge - to help place the bricks of the dome: We did ALL of the inital

Yesterday, I shared the details of a template that I cut out of Masonite and a circumference tool that will shape the form of the floor of my wood-fired oven.  In order to get the inner arch opening correct, I opted to create a second drawing jig - one that is 20.25" wide that will set the width of that opening.   The goal was to draw the outline of the oven floor, but it proved harder (for me) than I thought it might be when I started. Before I get into the process of getting the oven floor drawn, a quick mention on firebricks.  The community on FornoBravo spec's "Medium-Duty Firebricks" for the floor and dome.  After poking around online, I've come to discover that Illinois is home to the Alsey Refractory - in Alsey, Illinois.  Somewhere between Springfield and St. Louis is the Alsey Refractory ; where they've been making firebricks in the USA for more than 100 years.  A few towns over, a materials dealer - LaGrange Materials - sells Alsey firebricks.  The

Last week, I showed the final form of the raised hearth - after I stripped the concrete-pouring forms from the four sides and talked about how I can now move-on to actual oven building.    For me, that started with creating a template out of Masonite.  I bought an 8x4' sheet and created a little circle-drawing jig that I cabbage'd together out of spare parts I had on hand.  The sheet is just 48" wide and after thinking about it, I've decided to make a 40" oven (interior diameter), which means the outside footprint diameter is 49".  That meant that I'm going to be a half-inch shy on either side.  That's ok.   I also needed to figure out where the dome meets the inner arch.  I started by attaching the circle-drawing-jig to the center of the board and drew out a 40" and 49" circle.  Then, I started to think about my arch sizes and how the inner/outer arch differ.  I chose to go with a 20-1/8th" inner arch width.   That meant that I could

A few days ago, I shared an update on our DIY backyard wood-fired pizza oven build that showed the latest progress:  the installation of the final rebar and bracing (wires) for the raised, reinforced concrete hearth.  I'm set to pour that 4.5" thick hearth (plus the filling of the pressed bond beam block cavities (so...around 8" deep around the perimeter and 12" deep across the opening spans), but the forms of the heart sit 42" above grade.   Like I did with the foundation slab, I'm planning on using the MudMixer to help pour the concrete.  The problem that I'm facing is that the Mudmixer's chute stands just 16" from the ground.  That means....that I have to either use buckets to lift the mixed concrete up from the Mudmixer chute or....raise the Mudmixer to allow it to 'POUR' directly into the raised hearth. If you look back at this post where I showed the foundation slab pour, you can see that I made a platform for the Mudmixer to allow

Busy week with the pizza oven.  First, the bottom trays and supports were put in-place .   Then, I cut, bent and placed some rebar into the top of the stand - via the bond beam blocks .  I also cut most of the grid of rebar.   That meant that I could move-on to creating the hearth forms.  I used 1/2" trays and I'd like the hearth to be 4" or so thick, so that means I need 4.5" of height on-top of the stand.  Because of the Bond Beam blocks and their openings, I also need the forms to cover 1.5" of the stand.  That's 6" of form - which means I can't use a 2x6, but had to upgrade to 2x8's. I cut the 2x8's to length, then affixed a 2x4 to the face of them to stiffen them - and prevent bowing.  I used various pieces of lumber to create legs that were just a tiny bit short.  I put the forms together, stood-it-up on the legs and then shimmed in one side for the final height.   Moving around the stand, I leveled up each side using shims to get the

Earlier this week, I updated my wood-fired pizza oven build progress with some photos showing the bottom trays and their supports/bracing cut to size .  I have a couple of things that I need to do (I lifted eight steps - bracing for trays shimmed, rebar to bond beam blocks, fill gaps, cut rebar for grid, set up 2x8 forms, wire them, add drainage pipes and fill remaining cores with sand ) and most of those can go in any order.    Once I had the trays in place, I decided to see if I had enough rebar on hand to complete the job.  That started with bending some of the 1/2" steel rebar for around the bond beam blocks.  Then, I cut the rest for across the top in a grid pattern. Below is a photo showing the rebar bent and laid into the bond-beam blocks.  I'm doing curved rebar at every corner and doubling-it-up with 90-degree corners on top of those curves.   On top of this will be a 4.5" thick hearth, so the rebar you see running across the top of the stand will be stood-up wit

The next step after filling every-other-core in my DIY wood-fired oven build is to create the support that goes *under* the hearth that can support the concrete pour.  I've made three areas for storage in the stand, so each of those need a cover (or lid) and some support bracing to keep the concrete from sagging through the openings.  I opted to use 1/2" DensShield board and various 2x4's and 2x6's to create the supports under the openings.  Below are a few photos showing how I cut the board (1/2" thick) and then used the legs to support/span the openings. Below is a peek at the INSIDE of one of the storage bins and you can see the legs/supports laying this-way-and-that.  Why?  Because...I cut them just a little bit short of the length needed.  My plan is to use a bunch of wood shims under these so once the pour is complete, I can pull the shims out and the supports will fall away.   Without the shims, the supports might not come out so easily.   Also, I'm us

My brain is already moving ahead to the exterior of the pizza oven.  I don't know if I'll get to cladding the outside of the oven, but I'd like to try this year.  You can go a lot of directions, but the one that I've focused on/been drawn-to is brick.  I've talked about brick and used a TikTok as potential inspiration for a brick pattern . That means that I've been poking around Facebook marketplace and Craigslist to figure out what kind of brick is available.  Every listing quotes the number of bricks available, but I had no idea how many bricks I actually need to clad the full oven.   In terms of oven facade inspiration, I'm very much looking to this oven build on YouTube as inspiration .  That oven is from the YouTube channel named:  The log cabin life style by Jerry Tyson .  This screenshot below is from his oven-build video ( source ) and I'm eye-balling the height of his corners to be five-feet-tall.   I know my stand is 70 inches deep by 62.5 in