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Wood fired oven - housed in dry stone structure

33K views 190 replies 24 participants last post by  drystoneoven 
#1 ·
I'm in the process of building a wood fired oven within a dry-stone structure. I've been at this at least since September 2010, when I started brainstorming. Since I started so long ago, I have already come quite far, and am currently working on the oven itself. You may notice that I'm not a professional mason in the sense that I don't make my money doing this. I'm actually an attorney, but I take stone work very seriously. I hope no one will hold that against me!

That said, I started out doing dry stone masonry in 2008. I've done quite a few free standing walls and retaining walls, including some corners, steps, an arch, etc... However my wife wasn't very impressed, considering the time I was spending outside. So I set off to build a brick oven housed in a dry stone structure, meaning there would be no mortar to set the stones in. I realized that in order to do this, I would invariably have to find a gigantic capstone to cap everything together at the end, or the oven would get wet and I wouldn't get all the stones tied together properly. So I went in search of a stone that might work, so that I could design an oven and structure underneath it. I found one on a creek bank which was already almost rectangular. After I split a section off, it was 6'x4'x9" thick, and more importantly, it was accessible by the creek in only 2 feet of water, meaning I could drive a tractor up the creek to get it. So that's what I did first. I built a sled to lay the rock on, went down to the creek and jacked it up and slid the sled underneath and towed it out of there. Here is an album of the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/bsS2O

Here are two pics of the stone, for those who don't wish to visit an outside site.



I may be a bit slow on updating, but that's only because I'll be uploading and arranging pics as I go. The next post will be about how I chose a spot in the yard and dug and set the foundation.
 
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#146 ·
Okay so after mixing up 16 cubic feet of perlite (yes I went and got another bag) with close to 3 cubit feet of cement, I've got this insulation poured. I didn't do a mix with less cement because it seemed like it would hardly set up as it is. But it probably just goes to show I don't know the material very well. As with many other jobs, this was one of those jobs that took far more time than I had anticipated. I started last night and finished up today during lunch. It was difficult to do, mostly because I insisted on mixing 5 cubic feet at a time. Building the forms took more time than I thought as well. Anyway, here's what it looked like right after pouring.

I smoothed it up a bit more after the pic but I didn't have time to do more because I had to get back to work and do some lawyering of course. I guess looks don't matter at this point as long as I can keep it from crumbling in the rain before I make it water-resistant. In any case, I'm wanting to know whether there are ideas about a stucco mix? I read on the fornobravo site that one can use a latex based stucco to avoid having to paint after applying it for waterproofing. Anyone ever heard of doing this? I'm going to get my stucco mix at lowes after work and if they don't have some type of latex based one, I'm just going to get whatever and put it on tomorrow. Doesn't seem too much of a trouble to paint it with white latex paint afterwards I guess. Any suggestions?
 
#151 ·
I took the forms off last night and it looked pretty decent. I cut off the edges of the perlcrete on the top of the sides so I can get my stone vault started a little lower. Then I mixed up some stucco and went at it! Of course, I had never stuccoed anything before, but it was pretty self-explanatory. I did it in the dark as well finishing around 10 last night, so it could've looked prettier I'm sure. Here is the album.
Here are the pics of before and after stucco.



I've got me some latex paint as well. How long should I let it dry before I paint?
 
#154 ·
Take a look over on Forno Bravo. I think they suggest starting at 200F and increasing by 50 or 100* everyday until your at 600*. And you should maintain those temps all day, or at least 16hrs. Slow going that's for sure. For a fireplace I recommend small kindling fires periodically for a month before you can have a real fire. not sure if it would apply equally to a pizza oven
 
#157 ·
So I've had some fires burning in the oven as one might expect. The first time I lit a fire after placing the insulation, the outside of the insulation actually got really hot, even though I didn't heat the bricks past 220 or so. I reckon that was because of the moisture still left in the perlcrete etc. Since then It hasn't even gotten warm to the touch, even though the heat has gone way up. Last night I got it near 600 up top and probably near 400 down below. These sensors are about 2 1/2 inches deep in the bricks in the floor and vault. This morning the top was still about 540 and the hearth was 330. I haven't even made a real hell of a fire yet. Wait til I start burning red oak staves in there, I'm going to take it up to 1200.

Anyway, since pizza is close at hand, I'm starting to think about bread, since I've got a sourdough starter going now. But I imagine I need a door before I can do that. So I need to make a door. I was planning on using some kind of metal sheeting for the back which faces into the oven, some sort of insulating layer in between, and then using walnut, white or red oak, cherry, or osange orange for the outside door piece. I've got access to all those woods if anyone thinks one is better than the others for the job. I'm planning on lining the outside edges with silica rope so I can fit the door snugly in place. Add to that a simple needle thermometer which fits in the middle of the door with the sensor just on the other side, and I think it will be nice, although time consuming to construct. Anyone done this and have some thoughts?
 
#159 ·
Made some pizza of course. Went on vacation and have been working in my garden. I'm waiting on a guy to cut a piece of aluminum for my baking door. I'm not really sure when I'll be ready to start adding to the stone. Might be a while yet! Don't worry, I'll post pics when I get around to building.
 
#161 ·
I bet you guys thought I was dead by now. I finally started work on the stone portion about a week ago. Even just organizing stones, cleaning the site, and setting my lines took me something like 8 hours spread over two weeks. I've laid maybe 8 stones since starting again last week. I'll have some real progress soon though. Do you want updates as I go? I was just planning on building the barrel vault and front arch and only then delivering an album of pics.

In other news, I've been making sourdough bread almost every week.


Last night I had about 25 people over and I think we made 15 pizzas while it was raining. The bread was made this morning, about 9 hours after I raked out the coals.
 
#165 ·
So I finally got all the springer stones laid. There are 8 in all, 3 on each side of the oven and two for the smaller arch in front. Here is a pic:


This album is the process of laying the first course after the hearth level

This album is the picking, shaping and laying of the 8 springer stones The last pic is me doing a headstand on the oven, which might give an idea of the size of the thing.

The latest pics should give an idea about where I'm going with this whole thing. You might be asking yourself what I'm going to use for a form for the arch over the over itself. I'm going to use boards on the oven between 10 and 2 o'clock on the arch, and then when the keystones are installed, I'll, in theory, pull out the wood slats.

You never know, thing could be done by spring.
 
#174 ·
Progress, end in sight

The oven is nearly done. All that is left is to lay the gigantic cap stone on top, build a little chimney and some steps up to the oven, and clean up the site. Unfortunately, now that the oven is done but for the capstone, the weather will not cooperate. The guy I have persuaded to attempt to lift the stone has to finish a job before he can move his lift to my place to do the lifting and placing of the cap stone. I have two 3/4" Lewis pins which I will use to do the primary lifting. Besides that I have two 1/2" thick steel brackets which I will use to stabilize the stone from the side. As I write this damn ice storm is killing yet another weekend shot at placing the stone, so I will at least have to wait until next week. I will post those pictures when it's done, which is hopefully next week at some point. Who knows.

But in the meantime, here is some work I've done since I last posted which has distracted me some. The first one is my uncle's fireplace, which he got me to build by buying me the Stihl gas cutoff saw that I have needed with the arch and brick work.



I thought it turned out pretty well. It was the first flat arch I've done and it was challenging to get the angles of the voussoirs correct. He had a little mill stone by his garage door and I asked him if we could put it in there. I really like it. As you can see we don't have a mantle, but we're going to have a solid cherry one made.

Then, during two weekends, I built a footbridge for fun at a friend's cabin in eastern KY using my friends as laborers to help me gather the stone and dig out the foundation. The album is here: http://imgur.com/a/DrVRf#1


I had good fun building the bridge, and all the children appeared to enjoy it very much. And luckily the landowner, who really knew little of the project, approved greatly and gave me license to keep building anything that might add to the enjoyment of the place.
 
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