Here is the top view as it sits now. The hardy board is supported below and spans the open corner to catch the smoke and direct it back to the opening. The chimney will go directly over that 9" square hole. I need to form around the hole and pour concrete in to fill up the brick work level.
Here is the front view, there will be one more layer of top cap.
I have not picked out the top cap yet but I can use just about anything I want. I would like to use 16", 18", or even 24" material to cover it with the least grout lines.I may put the cap on even with the sides or overhang it a tad...I'll have to lay it out and see how it will look first.
Yes, that is for wood storage....although the dog thinks it's her new dog house....I got the chimney hole framed in and the wire mesh in place......it's just too hot to mix concrete right now...I'll do it in the morning. Tuesday I'll go looking for the top cap and I will know if I need anything else to finish off the shelf and in front of the oven door area.....I'm getting low on bricks but I don't want to buy anymore if I can make it work with what materials I have on hand. I can fill in with some nice tile if I need to.
It’s going to be torture to wait for it to fully dry out I bet.
Yes, once it's done I'll want to fire it up. Reality is it will need a month to cure and then a weeks worth of curing fires to totally dry it out. I'll get the top poured tomorrow morning and check remaining supplies and then take the rest of the day off and let it sit.
edit. It looks like I will have enough brick to do a half brick border around the shelf and then fill in the middle with tile. That was my original plan and now it looks like that is the plan.
We are having an unseasonal heat wave with temps getting to 108* today and tomorrow. I will be cleaning up a few things on the back patio and prepping my concrete supplies but that is about all today. I will not be pouring that top concrete or any other mortar work. My knee needs the break from climbing the ladder anyway so it's a good time to stop and let the oven cure a bit with the top open.
I've also had time to think and look over some of my work. I really like the way the Perlite insulation layer is curing. I do believe I will be buying a couple more bags of it and filling the top in with the insulation layer instead of concrete. Much lighter and easier to work with plus it will give me more insulation. A rough estimate is 4000 pounds of materials used so far.....anything I can do to lighten up that load will help in the long run.
I finished up the top cap and chimney this morning. It sucks to be blind and trying to work in odd places. Some of my brickwork is a little wonky but all in all it looks great. I'll get some pictures later in the day........it's getting closer to being done!!!!
You slapped that joker together! I thought it would take you several weeks to build but you'll be cooking on it before then.
Not only did I get it done pretty fast I did it all with Covid....I caught the Wuhan while out of town training and brought it home to my wife. I have been sick but mobile while the wife, who has been vaccinated, went down pretty hard. She is leveled off and getting slightly better each day now as she turned the corner on it.....I'll have to come up with a name for the oven that fits now.
I need to trim those shelf bricks a bit and get the tile put down and then I can start drying this thing out so I can use it.
Man that looks great!! Sorry to hear about the Covid but glad you both are rebounding.
Seriously cool build. Looking forward to some pizza recipes and pics. Hope that heat coming your way helps to cure the oven.
It's going to be a while before I dare even start the curing fires. The warm weather is helping but this thing is wet....It's still sweating from the inside brick. Tomorrow I'll fill that void and get it ready for tile. I should be able to get the tile cut and will see how far I get with it in a day. The last little bits take the longest.
It certainly looks great and I'm also glad to hear that your wife is getting better. How wide is the door opening? It looks a little bit tight but I know that pictures can be deceiving, especially with it being on an angle.
It certainly looks great and I'm also glad to hear that your wife is getting better. How wide is the door opening? It looks a little bit tight but I know that pictures can be deceiving, especially with it being on an angle.
It is 16" wide and 11" high at the center. The top of the dome on the inside is 20" tall.
edit....
I just checked the final numbers and my opening is 16" wide and 12" high. The dome is 21" high so that gives my opening height right at 60% of the overall height.
Last edited by towtruck on June 2nd, 2021, 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you. The shelf has the tile installed and now it needs to set up so I can grout the tile. After a few days I will give it an acid bath and get that red color back in the new brick. I really want to see it all cleaned and acid washed.......
Really great looking oven Towtruck. I love the top cap and nice touch on the stack. It’s going to look sharp after the acid bath. Professional work sir.
Really great looking oven Towtruck. I love the top cap and nice touch on the stack. It’s going to look sharp after the acid bath. Professional work sir.
Thank you, I just hope I can learn how to use it and use it often. I really want to expand on cooking way past pizza.
edit...I have one more surprise for the wife...I promised a place for her to bbq really quick....I'm working on that promise and will post it up when I get that part done.
Really great looking oven Towtruck. I love the top cap and nice touch on the stack. It’s going to look sharp after the acid bath. Professional work sir.
Thank you, I just hope I can learn how to use it and use it often. I really want to expand on cooking way past pizza.
edit...I have one more surprise for the wife...I promised a place for her to bbq really quick....I'm working on that promise and will post it up when I get that part done.
You did a bang up job on that!
Just be careful with your initial curing fires. You'll want to dry all that moisture (from grout, etc.) from it slowly. If you create steam internally bad things happen.
I gave it a couple acid baths this morning and I don't think it's going to come as clean as I want it to. I could up the strength of my muriatic acid mix a tad but I do like to follow the rules on that stuff and not color outside the lines. I'm going to let it dry and see where it's at and I may just live with whatever color it comes out. If I was a better brick layer I could have kept my brick clean and avoided the grey residue.
