A long awaited update!

It has been about 8 months since I last worked on the brick oven, so I need to provide an update.

This winter was snow-filled and no, physical, work could be done on the oven.  I did, however continue to look for fire clay and had a difficult time doing so (more detail on how/where I got the fire clay later.)

I finally uncovered the previous year's work on June 25, 2015.  The dome form had been sitting on top to the fire bricks which were on top of the insulation brick.  I removed everything from the base to clean it all off.  After cleaning the miscellaneous leaves, twigs, and other items that made their way under the covers during the winter, I re-positioned the white insulation brick.

I had done a bit more research on the difference between the firebrick and insulation brick.  The firebrick acts like a sponge and will absorb the heat, meanwhile the insulation brick prevent the heat from getting through.  In my case insulation brick sits on top of a non-heat-safe concrete hearth, and the fire brick on top of that.  This is perfect in that once the oven is hot, the heat from the bricks in the floor will not damage the concrete hearth!

In order to get the firebricks to sit flat on the insulation brick I put a 1" layer of sand (through which the heat will transfer.)  I could place the firebricks on top of the sand to set them so the tops [of the bricks] are flat.  I spent the day of Sunday, July 12, 2015 doing this...I'd place each row of bricks on the sand and tamp them down with the back end of the trowel.  It worked out really well and the fire brick sit level and flat!  Woohoo!

(I should also mention that I purchased a 7" diamond circular saw to cut the bricks.)

Now...back to the story of the fire clay.  In the months that passed, I had made trips Home Depot and Lowes and contacted several local masonry dealers, I could not locate fire clay (even though the Lowes website said they had it.)  On my way to a soccer camp at the University of Rhode Island, I passed a masonry supply store, it was a Sunday and inevitably closed, but the yard looked like they had a lot of supplies.  On my way back from URI, I stopped at the store and learned that they only had a couple of bags of fire clay in stock, but their other location (in Westerly) had 44 bags.  Success, I finally had fire clay (4-50 lbs bags!)

Work is again progressing, I will begin constructing the dome in the next few days!

Now that we are into October and the school year is well underway time is more readily available to work on the brick oven.

Today, I rebuilt the dome template with 4 additional cut outs.

With the rebuilt dome template, I began to dry fit everything. First the layer of insulation brick, next the fire brick, then the dome template.

Finally I stacked the first layer of bricks for the dome.

It's starting to come together...the next key thing is to secure the insulation brick to the base.

It has been a while since my last update...

During my hiatus in August I made a trip to Maine.  While on the trip we had lunch at a pizza place that had a brick oven.  After talking with the cook I learned by 2:00 p.m. they were cooking mostly on ambient heat in the oven, with small fire.  A baker had come in that morning and got the oven up to temperature to bake bread.  It was really fascinating to learn about how this particular oven was done.

Remainder of August consisted of road trips to Disney World, Vermont, and Colorado.

With the base complete I prepared the foundation to poor the second concrete pad which would become the hearth.  This involved creating a base out of plywood.

After the plywood was in place, the form was temporarily put up so that it could be lined with plastic.  With the plastic in place the form was fully installed.  The plastic was used as a barrier to protect the plywood base and prevent concrete from 'falling' into the concrete blocks.

 

  

August 30, 2014 - pouring the hearth.

Dad had recently invested in a concrete mixer for this project, with this new piece of equipment we poured the hearth on top of the plywood base.  I had just enough concrete to make the hearth 3 inches thick.  We place some scrap iron piece after pouring about an inch to act as re-bar.

 

 The following weekend, I removed the plywood base.

Building the Base

With the slab complete and marked, it was time to start laying concrete blocks as the base of the Brick oven.

July 23, 2014 - first two rows of concrete block
Dad and I spent several hours laying the first to rows of on concrete blocks on which the remainder of the oven will sit.  (Having paid one trip to Home Depot already, I only purchased enough blocks for the first two rows.)

Mixing mortar was easy, by applying the correct amount to the correct surfaces became a challenge.  At times we had to place blocks in place only to find out we needed to add or remove mortar.  Another issue came in ensuring that the blocks were even, and the top of the left side was level with the top of the right side.

When all was said and done, we really did a great job and the first two rows of the base looked good.

Pictures coming soon.

Later in the evening, I started piecing together what would become the template for the dome.  I used the pieces I cut on the CNC machines and attached them together using strips of 1/4" plywood as a connecting brace.   It will make sense when you view the image below.

Pictures coming soon.

July 25, 2014 - third  row of concrete block
After some thought on the topic, I decided, instead of making the base 4 rows of concrete block high, let's stick with three rows.  We spent about 2 hours laying what would become the third and final row of concrete block.

Pictures coming soon.

July 28, 2014 - first fire bricks
I had received an e-mail last week from a friend saying "Call me SOON".  I called him this morning to find out that  he had fire bricks to get rid of and if I wanted them they were mine.

Not knowing what to expect, dad and I went to pick up the bricks.  There were about 3 dozen solid fire bricks, 5 dozen foam-like fire bricks (I will be researching for more info on these bricks) and several bags of ceramic insulation (though we only took three).

We brought the brick home, unloaded the car and have them nicely stacked ready for use in the brick oven!

*If anyone has fire bricks (or any clay brick) they want to get rid of, please let me know!

Cutting Additional Templates and Preparing the Base

July 16, 2014 - additional templates
I made a visit to my school to use the ShopBot CNC we have in one of our tech ed labs; I had plenty of 1/2" plywood and needed to cut additional templates.  Though the cutting area is not as large as the one at CCSU (only a 24"x32" cutting area), I reconfigured the MasterCAM files and cut 4 dome templates and 3 front opening templates.

July 22, 2014 - marking for the base
Dad and I temporarily laid out the concrete blocks that will eventually form the base for the oven.  We snapped four lines to mark the outside of the respective walls.  The plan is to lock the blocks in place starting tomorrow!

The Concrete Slab

July 13, 2014 - poured the concrete slab.
It took roughly roughly 5 hours to mix, pour, & level concrete to create 5'6" x 5'6" x 5" slab.  The effort was well worth it and the slab looks good.

Dad and I mixed the concrete in wheel barrows from the 'raw materials' (cement, sand, and aggregate).  We went through approximately 200# of Portland cement (just over 2- 94# bags), 1/8 ton of sand, and just over 1/8 ton aggregate.

Having never mixed this amount of concrete before, it was certainly an experience (and a good work out).  We have 2 more slabs to create later in the build process.

*Note for next time...rent or borrow a concrete mixer.

Summer 2014 - Wood-fired (Brick) Oven

The idea of building a brick oven has been in the back of my mind for about seven years; I finally set this project to the top of my list and intend to have the oven built by September, 2014.

In April, I was looking at brick ovens online (again) and decided to order two books that explained how to build an oven...

• Brick Oven Pizza How a Guy From Brooklyn Built His Own Wood Fired Pizza Oven, by Joe Falce
• Your Brick Oven: Building It and Baking In It, by Russell Jeavons

The research phase of this project began, I've spent hours looking for instruction and guides on the internet.  There are so many different ways of building an oven that I started to develop a plan with components from ALL of my research.

After reading both books I decided to go with a semi-circle domed oven  with a 3'6" diameter.  In order to try to visualize the oven I started to create a 3D rendering using Autodesk Inventor.  The image below shows a concept of the templates.  (More of these rendering will be featured later in the process.)

3D Rendering using Autodesk Inventor

Construction began on July 03, 2014 with site excavation.  I dug a hole large enough to hold the 5'6"x5'6"x5.5" concrete pad on which the oven will rest.  (This took two days.)

The hole for the base pad.

By July 08 & 09, I built and installed the form for the pad.

Pad form.

July 10, 2014 brought along the opportunity to cut the dome templates.  I paid a visit to Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), to meet with Dave S., a professor that I am taking an independent study with.  After meeting with Dave, I spent the remainder of the day in the Technology Education Lab using the CNC router to cut the templates for the dome (check out the video below).  This dome, will eventually be burned away.

CNC Machine

The dome template.

July 11, 2014 - First trip to Haynes (the local construction materials retailer)
After watching several YouTube videos on how to pour a concrete slab, I went to Haynes to get a 1/4 ton of 3/4 stone to fill as the base layer before pouring the concrete.

The form filled with stone.

July 12, 2014 - Second/Third trip to Haynes
After packing the stone into the form for the slab, it was time to get the supplies for the concrete.  The order included...

• 3 - 94# bags of Portland Cement
• 2 - 80# bags of mortar (to be used later in the week for the base)
• 1/4 ton - 3/4 stone
• 1/2 ton - mason sand

Later today will feature a trip to Home Depot for 8"x8"x16" concrete block (and a dishwasher..haha), these blocks will be used form the oven base, hence the need for mortar.

Hopefully we will get the concrete pad poured later today!?  Currently in search of a cement mixer.