09/08/2009
I needed an outside summer project, and decided on a Brick Pizza Oven. It took more planning than building a new software release, mostly because I have never built a pizza oven before, so I had to think it out. Thankfully, many people shared their experiences online, so I was able to get some good ideas on a shape and style. Being the son of a stone mason helped somewhat, as I had an idea on how to build stone and brickwork.
First, I had to build a rectangular base in stone, and then level it for the base of the oven. Then, I had to make the oven floor out of firebricks. I made a mock-up of a pizza and a fire to make sure I had enough room for everything. Brickwork is harder to fix than software, so I only wanted to do this once!
![](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/0.3A0?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
The Arch
Laying out the arch was the hardest part. Arches are very strong, and were critical in ancient building techniques. Men who specialized in them were called "arch-i-tects"
Here is a photo of a Roman aqueduct, with the force vectors pushing outwards and downwards along the arch:
![This picture shows how the loads on an arch bridge are transferred to the abutments for support](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/5.2890?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
So with this in mind, I laid out the arch of the oven on a board to make a template for the wood arch supports:
![](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/6.3206?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
Here is the resultant form to hold the arch while it dries:
![](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/12.483E?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
It took about a week to put the brick oven together. Luckily, my brother Steve helped me out with laying the bricks on the arch, which was the hardest part of the project.
Here I am near the end, unshaven and tired, but satisfied with the end result:
![](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/18.35E8?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
Here is the finished oven:
![](/info.nsf/3c233f852d4489678625838d006f2f51/bd73eccf6719d7b28625874b001ef31c/Body/30.323E?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg)
Building a Brick Oven in One Minute
I did a time-lapse series of photos to track progress over one week. I took over 100 photos, and collapsed them into a one minute video of the project.
In the video are my brother Steve, my son Dominic and daughter Sophie, as well as a friend Andy Sturtz and my dog, Duke, who was wondering when the pizza would be ready.
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Pizza