Day 9 - The Dome

My original idea for starting the arch was to lay guide bricks on the wall at just the right angle to start the first arch bricks like in this picture below: 

However, getting these bricks cut in this way seemed more trouble than I was willing to bother going through when I knew I could fairly easily do it another way using hand-cut bricks. When we build our big oven someday however, this will undoubtedly be how we approach it. You will see what we decided to do below:

Before anything gets cemented in, make sure your arches are in just the right place by using wooden wedges.  Also, in order to fit an even number of bricks in the arch (to avoid special cutting a keystone piece), I had to actually lower the arch form just a tad and raise the first bricks out a bit so that they did not actually touch the wall bricks. This is OK though because all of its pressure is being thrusted into those wedge pieces. 

Special-cut wedge pieces were placed under the first bricks. You can see in this picture that the first brick actually is not touching the wall. This will be filled in with mortar as well. 

Fill in that bottom joint before you take the other bricks off the arch. This way you know that these first (and most critical) bricks are in the exact right height and angle. 

Then you start working your way to the center from both sides. 

I found it best to place the brick in with mortar on the back side only. Hold it in place with a wedge, and then stuff mortar into the joint. The most critical thing is to get the right angle so that the bottom edge has no gap and is a smooth transition from the previous brick. 

First arch done!

Second arch up and ready to mortar in. 

The last arch is in, and I am taking out the arch form for the last time. Exciting moment! 

It held just as expected!

Next row to go in is the front row. The bottom ends are resting in the angle iron and the tops are temporarily resting on a some lumber. 

I cut a special piece for each joint. 

Ready to be mortared in. 

This was by far the easiest mortar job yet. All you have to do is slap some mortar in between each brick and stick them together.

After you mortar in the special cuts, you can take the lumber out. Now its time to cut pieces for those pesky corners. You can see I mortared in some thin pieces of brick on top of the wall there to bring it to the same level as the longer firebrick door jam.  

Looks pretty good! You can see that the corner pieces are just to the best fit. I was able to just special cut the bottom piece and then just use half bricks for the top two layers.  

Now that's looking like something I can bake in!

It is best to let this fully cure before pouring the cement. What a convenient time to be going on a vacation so I don't have to be tempted to pour right away!