* After surfing from the Gizmodo article to the Forno Bravo site, I actually recognized it as a site that I had seen at some point in the past year while doing some cursory brick oven research once or twice. Nothing ever came of these previous forays until I rediscovered Forno Bravo via the Gizmodo article however. After that, this project quickly kicked into high gear.
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| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 Saw a Gizmodo article about Forno Bravo*. Downloaded the Forno Bravo Pompeii Oven plans. |
28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |
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* After surfing from the Gizmodo article to the Forno Bravo site, I actually recognized it as a site that I had seen at some point in the past year while doing some cursory brick oven research once or twice. Nothing ever came of these previous forays until I rediscovered Forno Bravo via the Gizmodo article however. After that, this project quickly kicked into high gear.
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1 Spent a few weeks designing the dome, sourcing/pricing materials, studying the plans, basically procrastinating out of fear. |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 First money spent: a load of concrete blocks and a square transfer shovel. |
| 13 Broke ground! Started digging the foundation pit. |
14 I was purchasing tools and materials every day between the 12th and the 23rd. |
15 Finished digging the basic pit, much refinement to come. |
16 Bought the Harbor Freight tile/brick saw. That was a commitment. |
17 First gravel dump. |
18 17th, 18th, & 21st: Pipe-bent 13x1/2"x20' rebar in the Home Depot parking lot to fit them on my car, then cut them at home (with an angle grinder). |
19 Most of the gravel placed, concrete block footprint laid out to verify foundation area. |
| 20 Cut the foundation form 2x6s. |
21 21st and 23rd: Four trips to Home Depot, loading/unloading 50x60lbs of concrete in the process. Awesome sale, which ended before I got all my concrete. Sigh. |
22 While purchasing materials during this time, I was also cutting up the rebar. |
23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 |
29 Bought 50lbs of InsWool HP Bulk. Also obtained a huge quantity of free leftover vermiculite. |
30 Nailed the foundation form together, including masonite in two curved sections. Added more gravel. Obtained my neighbor's concrete mixer. |
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1 Finished cutting the rebar for the foundation. Still need to bend it to fit the form. |
2 | 3 Poured the foundation, 5x80lbs + 29x60lbs Sakrete, about 20lbs discarded. THANKS A MILLION ANGIE, KEVIN AND TOM! |
| 4 For the next week I zealously misted the foundation and kept it covered with plastic since I almost certainly mixed it too dry. |
5 Bought 250 fire bricks (one trip caravaning Tom's Tacoma and my Forester). Tom also helped unload the bricks. Swell! Finally, finished cutting all the rebar. |
6 | 7 Dry-stacked the concrete blocks on the foundation. Discovered the foundation is not perfectly flat (much less level). Not too worried though. |
8 | 9 | 10 Arranged the hearth rebar and filled the vertical wall cores, 4x80lbs + 9.5x60lbs Sakrete. Thanks again Kevin and Tom. |
| 11 | 12 Spent this week building the hearth slab form and buying more supplies. |
13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 Desperately wanted to pour the hearth, but rain prevented it...so I spent all day amending and appending the rain awning. |
| 18 Poured the hearth, 7.5x80lbs + 11.5x60lbs Sakrete. Angie and I did this alone. It was pretty arduous. Mixed it too dry again, dammit! |
19 Spent this week building the tile-saw stand and cleaning up the basement. |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 Took the forms off the hearth and finished the tile-saw stand. |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 Built a plastic room in the corner of the basement to confine the tile-saw's mess. |
30 | 31 Cut the 1" InsBlock 19 for three layers of hearth insulation and started laying it out on the hearth. |
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| 1 Finished laying the InsBlock 19 out. Laid out the floor bricks and cut most of the floor bricks. |
2 I spent this week cutting bricks and getting final supplies. |
3 | 4 | 5 Awning was destroyed in a thunderstorm. Multiple layers of tarps wrapped over the hearth would hopefully protect the InsBlock 19 from disintegrating. Hail followed later the same night. |
6 Started building a new awning from scratch. |
7 Finished awning, cut plywood floor to protect floor bricks during dome build. Mortared pairs of first-course bricks together, but nothing mortared on site. |
| 8 Mortared the first two courses and some of the third course in place. |
9 Parged a very small section of the foundation to see if I had a clue how to do it. |
10 | 11 Parged one side of the hearth, still figuring this out. Finished mortaring the first-course-entryway merge. Finished building the entry arch form. Mortared all but one brick of the innermost arch. Mortared more of the third course. |
12 | 13 It went below 32 at night this weekend, which would have damaged the mortar, so I left a halogen worklight under the tarp all night. Upper 70s on the inside, 50s on the outside. Phew! |
14 Almost finished the inner arch. Added wall-to-dome wedges. Finished the brick-placement tool. |
| 15 Finished the inner arch, except the need to fill some crevices with additional mortar. Finished cutting bricks for the outer arch. |
16 Finished the inner arch. |
17 Spent this week cutting bricks for the first tilted course and mortaring pieces of the outer arch together for transport to the site. |
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 Built the first tilted course of the dome using the brick placement tool. |
| 22 Cut and mortared arch merges for the first tilted course. Finished the outer arch. |
23 | 24 | 25 Completed the second tilted course. |
26 Completed the third tilted course. |
27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Fourth course done except arch merges. |
5 Was forced to slow way down by a severe cold snap. |
| 6 Spent the cold weather cutting bricks for the fourth arch merge and the fifth course. |
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 Temporary scare. Broke the tile saw. Turned out to be a seventy-cent fix. |
14 Fixed the tile saw. |
15 | 16 First mortar work since 12/5. Placed the fourth course arch merges and four fifth course bricks. |
17 | 18 | 19 Finished the fifth course except for a partial wedge to fill in the closure gap (but it's cut, ready to go). Cut all the sixth course bricks. Finally wore out the first saw blade. |
| 20 | 21 Finished the sixth course except for a partial wedge to fill in the closure gap. |
22 | 23 | 24 Finished the seventh course except for a partial wedge to fill in the closure gap. |
25 | 26 |
| 27 Finished the eighth course except for a partial wedge to fill in the closure gap. |
28 Finished the eighth course. Placed the keystone, thus finishing the dome!!! Broke the entry arch by hitting it with my head as I entered the oven to clean the mortar. Sigh. |
29 | 30 Cleaned up the mortar, did a little rebuilding on the entry arch. |
31 Left for vacation |
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1 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Returned from vacation |
8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 Spent much of this week cutting bricks for the vent. |
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 A little progress on rebuilding the broken entry arch. |
16 |
| 17 Finished rebuilding the broken entry arch. |
18 | 19 | 20 Started mortaring the vent bricks. |
21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 Finished vent construction. |
25 Spent this week building the InsWool HP Bulk cage and cutting the chimney shoe bricks. |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 Built the chimney shoe. |
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Bought 1/2 cord green maple, 1/2 cord dry fir. |
5 Dismantled the suspended tarp in prep for curing fires. Pretty big step. |
6 Installed the InsWool HP Bulk insulation. |
| 7 Lit the first curing fire (Goal: 100F at dome apex). |
8 Spent this week framing the first terrace with hardibacker. |
9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 Filled the first terrace vermicrete and lit the second curing fire (two 100Fs on sides of oven). |
15 Lit the third (200F) and fourth curing fires (morning/evening). |
16 Lit the fifth curing fire (300F). |
17 Lit the sixth curing fire (400F). First fire with full-size firewood. |
18 Designing a door this week, measuring the second terrace forms. |
19 Lit the seventh curing fire (500F). |
20 Lit the eighth curing fire (600F). |
| 21 Filled the second terrace vermiperlcrete and lit the ninth curing fire (750F, spiked to 800F). |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 Began construction of the door. |
26 | 27 |
| 28 Framed the third terrace. Fired the oven for the first pizzas (over 1000F, much lower for cooking). Cooked the inaugural pizzas. |
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Finished construction of the door. |
5 | 6 |
| 7 Second pizza attempt didnt go too well. |
8 | 9 Third pizza attempt, success. |
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 Filled the third terrace vermiperlcrete. |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 Parged the lower two terraces. |
20 |
| 21 Parged the upper terrace. |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 Started building the planter walls. |
| 28 | 29 Spent this week building the planter walls and cutting forms to pour the countertop. |
30 | 31 | |
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1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 Finished building the planter walls. Fourth pizza cooking, first bread from-scratch. |
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 Filled the extended counter support wall cores. |
| 11 Spent this week building the counter form. |
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 Poured the counter, 8x80lbs Sakrete. |
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 Took forms off the counter. Started stuccoing the oven. |
| 25 Glued most of the tiles on, except the east side. Party for six people, four pizzas, numbers 9-12. |
26 | 27 | 28 Finished gluing the tiles on. |
29 | 30 | |
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1 |
| 2 Finished the first stucco coat. |
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 Finished the second stucco coat. |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 Finished the third (and final) stucco coat (minus some touching up). |
13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 Sixth pizza night (margherita, pepperoni) plus french bread. |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 Seventh pizza night: pepperoni/kalamata, tiramisu-mascarpone/chocolate/strawberries. |
22 |
| 23 Filled the planter beds with soil, almost finished planting the planter beds. |
24 | 25 Finished planting the planter beds. |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |
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No notable events
31st: Biggest pizza party yet, seven pizzas (twelve doughballs prepped, but there were no-shows).
23rd: First roasted chicken, Thanksgiving practice.
...Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec 2010, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr 2011...
16th: (about a year after finishing and planting the planter beds) Finished backfilling behind the oven and stuccoing the stand.