Le Oven deux

Back to the oven. I have made a bit of progress in the last few weeks. My original intention of just finishing before it got too hot to work outside was altered when we decided to host our family Easter dinner and involve the oven. Here is the progress to date.

At this point I finished the dome and brought the roof down to the doorway as you can see. The bricks coming out from the door way are to support the outer arch and chimney.

Here is the outer arch completed. I used something called a "soldier arch" which I guess is named because the bricks are arranged standing upright. I also built the walls out from the arch to add support to the arch and chimney.

Here is another picture with the walls built out and the base of the chimney.

Next came the insulation. Around the body of the oven there is a thick layer of aluminum foil. This is a way to keep the 4" of steel reinforced concrete from bonding to the bricks of the oven. As the oven heats the bricks will expand at a slightly different rate to the concrete and the allows "slippage" so the concrete doesn't crack.

Here is another view prior to pouring the concrete. The steel wire is held up off the foil by a couple of inches allowing good bonding by the concrete.

 After the concrete had cured I continued working on the chimney. This was by far the most difficult part of the job. There is basically no instruction of how to build the chimney up over an open area. I spent a bit of time just thinking about what to do and then figured I would just start building. Fortunately I had poured a small concrete slab across the doorway which gave me some extra area to build on. I tried to interweave the bricks until I reached the width of the final chimney and then went straight up. It isn't too pretty but it worked.

 This is just the walls built up. It will house a loose vermiculite insulator.

Today, unable to wait any longer, I built my first fire. I just built a small fire to make sure the smoke goes where it is supposed to and start the series of small fires to make sure everything expands and contracts without cracking.

I have to say, this is pretty awesome. Next time...pizza pictures!