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Yup...wood fired oven

28K views 217 replies 22 participants last post by  Tscarborough 
#1 · (Edited)
It's a little different than most so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight. This is what i'm working with. I have the structural pad poured but not the insulating pad and the bricks are all full size because it's just for layout at the moment.





The oven is going to be quite small I realise that and am OK with it. I'm sure i would be happier with a larger oven but I'll be glad to have anything really. That said, I want to make it as large as possible. So, would a 2.25" thick (firebrick laid as a shiner, or a header) be enough. That while it wouldn't be a huge gain it would be better than nothing. the other thing I could do would be 3"= 1/3 of a stretcher or 1.5 shiners, not fun all that cutting but that extra 1/3 of strength seems significant to me. The narrower i make the walls the taller I'll have to make the rise of the vault to lessen the thrust.

next...On advice from you guys I've made the floor of the oven quite high, it's @ 44" at the structural pad and if i go 3.5" of insulating pad and another 2.5" of firebrick and fireclay, that brings it to 52" . That seemed alright on paper but 44" is seeming pretty high right now (granted I'm 4-5 " below finished grade right now because flagstone isn't in yet so maybe that's it but even when i stand on the pad it seems high). So IF i feel like the floor of the oven will be too high and i want to lower it a couple inches do you think that 2" of perlcrete would be sufficient or what about going with splits for the floor?

And lastly. As you can see to try and save room i've got the front as a barrel vault and the back as a dome....so what I'm wondering is am I out to lunch? Also, should i make the rear a dome or build it up straight and bring the arch of the vault into it? it will mean some compound angle cutting, mostly by guess and by gosh but I'm into it now.
 
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#133 ·
My mix is roughly (just use shovels) 1:2.5 JBM, it gets hard but takes a good week. I give it a spray every day, even a few times a day at first, the first batch was done when it was still fairly cool, between 5-10c/40-50F during the day and a little less but not too close to freezing during the night, and damp too from the snow having just melted off the bricks, and the ground still being wet etc...that batch took over a week before it was cured enough that it could take a real spraying. the batch i did yesterday is pretty stiff but I'm sure if I popped a brick off the mortar in the frog would come back if I added water. I'm also sure that if I hit the joints with the hose on jet the joints would get eaten away pretty quick...but not the joints I did week before last
 
#141 ·
We used this mix back in school for our projects. After we finished with it and dissembled the brickwork, we take it off the brick with a single blow of the trowel (per side) and off to be recycled in the 2 man roll sieve. It smashed up pretty easy no matter how old it was and we screened it through the sieve which had a large vacuum hood to catch the dust.

The remaining product (powder) was housed in a block wall container and then wheeled over to the mixer as necessary to make new mud.

Off course during breakdown day, if the teacher left the shop for a awhile..."mortar fight', every man for himself :laughing:

That stuff will leave nasty welts on your head if hit from afar :blink:
 
#152 ·
Different regions different terms. We had this discussion last year sometime with the hidden bond/secret bond/ clipped bond. Only thing that's important is that you know what's spec'd in the drawings and that you and the customer/GC/architect are all on the same page. For this project I am builder/customer/architect so I'm mostly on the same page with myself in many of the important matters...other matters not so much
 
#154 ·
Do you have a store that specialises in grilling and barbecue etc...they should have one.

I think I'm going to get a heat gun, like they use in automotive. Fairly cheap at Princess Auto/Harbour Freight and you can get a reading of the walls, the floor the top of the dome whatever. Accurate as well
 
#157 ·
Local terms do differ, but there is a specific language used by architects across the world to define certain architectural details. Note that I said "architectural" twice, since that is what we are discussing, an architectural detail. This question was already determined at least as far back as the first century, although I bet it goes back a millennia further at least.

Vitruvious said (Chapter V, Section 11), "...is apportioned so that the face of each dentil is half as wide as its height and the cavity of each intersection two thrids of this face in width". "Dentil" itself means "tooth", not "sawtooth".

The sawtooth detail does not go back so far, mostly being a function of Victorian brick detailing (the Romans almost always covered brick with stucco, so it wasn't normally used to create details), but prima facie, it most resembles the teeth of a sawblade)
 
#158 · (Edited)
Not quite. Dogtooth is a very old style, and is applicable to ANY triangular projection in a series, usually in a moulding. Outside of brickwork it is commonly found as 2 or 4 flower petals or leaves coming to a point and projecting out like this. This definition say conical but others say triangular
http://www.finedictionary.com/Dog-tooth.html

The only way to do this with regular brick is to lay the brick at a 45
so maybe it's a sawtooth version of a dogtooth. Whatever


And a dentil is a dentil no matter the proportion. You can find dentils of varying proportions throughout architecture from ancient times to modern. Interesting to note that their occurence is most likely from the original Greek temples that were built of wood. the roof timbers were visible and looked like teeth. When the stone temples were built to mimic the wood ones the detail was called dentils
 
#164 ·
I don't normally cook them that fast, usually just one or 2 at the start so I can make my wife's favorite (Guadeloupe-ground tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and cilantro (pic 1)) or a Hangover-rum-soaked cherries, very thin lemon slices marscapone and EVOO(pic 2). After that I go 3-4 minutes, neo-NY style, like this andouie and onion favorite (pic 3).
 

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#166 ·
No pictures cause not much has changed except the stone on the foundation and the back wall has been built so I could pour the perlcrete around it. I've done a couple fires and am hoping to be able to use it for pizza on friday. So a couple of questions

What are the essential tools...pizza peel... what's the tool called that you turn the pizza with, or is that the peel? or is the peel what you put the pizza in the oven with? Or are they the same tool? What about tools for fire management, same andirons you'd use for a fireplace, I'll need a different brush i think to get in there properly.

Also I've done a few fires some just paper, some just softwood, and 2 with a few sticks of hardwood. The oven is black inside, real black, does the soot get burned away somewhat with a hotter fire? I though it would.

No door yet, i'll just be stacking brick sin front for a little while. Still lots of stuff to do, including the roof, and countertop. The countertop has been my biggest holdup. that and basic indecisiveness
 
#167 · (Edited)
You need 2 peels. Most home pizza guys use a wood peel to launch, but almost 100% of (WFO) professionals use a slotted metal peel, and I have found it to work best as well. You also need a smaller round peel, a turning peel, to rotate the pizzas in the oven. Really, those are the only two specialized tools you need. I use a hoe for the ashes and coals and a regular fireplace poker to poke.

The slotted one is 14" wide with a 24" handle, the turning peel is maybe 5" across with a 48" handle. Neither is cheap, but they are worth the investment.

Also, stay away from brushes and mops to remove ash from the floor before cooking. Brushes drop bristles which cause medical issues, and mops cool the floor too much. Use the slotted peel and give the floor a few whacks and it all goes up the flue.
 

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