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Kenning posted:Seeing your oven in use and the pizzas that result is almost as good as doing it myself. Beautiful! Thanks for making this thread! Almost, with a side of jealousy. You're required to post pizzas for at least as long as the build. Thems the rules.
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Jul 21, 2014 14:03
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Awesome, the thread bears fruit. Pizza fruit. You inspire me, I hope someday I might build one.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:54
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Yesterday at midday the oven was still 150c/302f, this morning it was 60c/140f, without an insulated door to keep the heat in. I've got the stuff to make a temporary door which I'll be doing soon, then at some point I'll get a properly insulated metal door fabricated. Then I can use the residual heat for some other cooking use. Over the last few days I've also put together an outer door simply intended for weatherproofing. The wood was part of an old tabletop, sanded down, and four coats of varnish. Then a couple of handles and a weathersealing strip around it.       I also did a small amount more brickcleaning on the front which is the most tedious thing in the world. twoot fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 18:43
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I made a KettlePizza rip off a few months back and thought I was hot poo poo for being able to do pizza's at 7-800 degrees... This thread has put me back in my place. Excellent looking pies twoot, there's just no way to replicate a good WFO pie without a real WFO.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:50
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That oven is starting to look beautiful, and the pizza looks delicious. Very jealous right now.
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Jul 23, 2014 14:08
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I don't think you can ever move now. Holy poo poo that looked like a lot of work but the results are awesome.
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Jul 23, 2014 16:07
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I'm telling you bro, reggae reggae sauce, mozarella, mature cheddar and then whatever toppings you want. Winner. Also sweet chilli sauce and mature cheddar, it's our standard 'starter' pizza but it often gets asked for as a main. Awesome work on the oven, I am so stupidly jealous.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:12
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Are you still on your budget of 1500 moon dollars?
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Jul 23, 2014 22:32
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Laminator posted:Is it possible to use a flavorful wood to get a smoky enhancement, eg pecan, hickory, mesquite? Or does it not much much of a difference since you're cooking so quickly? I've read about other WFO owners using flavourful types of wood as the main fuel but it's usually because they have lots of it nearby cheaply. I can't find anything about the effect of adding smoking wood to a normal oak fire. I might try it at some point. Larrymer posted:I don't think you can ever move now. I've joked about having to hire an enormous crane and then dropping it on the house by accident. PuTTY riot posted:Are you still on your budget of 1500 moon dollars? Probably not. I've got a pile of receipts that I don't want to look at.
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Jul 24, 2014 13:44
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Some truly great work there. Pizza looks delicious.
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Jul 29, 2014 05:36
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Finally the weather cooperated enough with my schedule that I was able to pickup all the necessary remaining parts. Table loaded with just about everything, and it's holding without an issue. That's 400 kg (~875 lbs) of sand and clay, plus 50 fire bricks and ~30 pavers (for surface outside of the oven). Missing in the picture is the 80lbs of high temp (1900F) underlay board/insulation and mortar. Went to pick up the straw bales from a local farm to make the cob, and we found a bee's nest hiding in it - after throwing the bale down 15ft from the hay loft (note: this pisses off bees and stung 3 times), so will attempt that again on the weekend after they deal with that poo poo. Fingers crossed the weather holds up for the long weekend to get this done.
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Jul 30, 2014 22:22
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Not much going on at my end apart from sporadic rain and mind numbing brick cleaning. I told myself I wouldn't start on anything else until it is done.
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Jul 31, 2014 15:41
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What all does brick cleaning entail that makes it so mind-numbing?
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Aug 1, 2014 21:29
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Cleaning bricks.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:43
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Pucklynn posted:What all does brick cleaning entail that makes it so mind-numbing? Mostly that I'd really prefer to be doing anything else. It just entails keeping everything wet with a hose, using a scraper to get rid of lumps of mortar, and using dilute acid and a brush to remove the mortar residue. I feel stupid in a way because I could've avoided having to do this if I had just cleaned the bricks with a wet rag before the mortar had set, but I chose to be lazy and now it is paying off 
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Aug 1, 2014 21:56
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Actually I was wondering about that when I first saw the photos. I thought you were going to do a facade or something over it. That sucks, good luck with the work. This is why you need to procreate as early as possible so you have ready labour at hand.
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Aug 1, 2014 22:13
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Woooo, long weekend. Invited some friends up and got them to help out a bunch. Didn't get enough pictures since working with powdered clay is really quite messy. But you get an awesome exfoliation/spa treatment on your skin afterwards. Started the floor layout and testing a few minor layouts.  Built the sand mold and started the first layer of the sand/clay mixture. It had a slight bit too much moisture/water, so we put the board on the side to stop any slumping. The ending ratio of construction sand to redart clay was around 2.5:1 (3:1 just wouldn't hold together very well)  Further layers didn't have the water issue, and it was really only noticeable on the front part - hence the boards. It was fine the next day once it dried a touch.  Gotta feed the helpers in thanks, so did up a classic chorizo, chicken and shrimp paella on the fire for everyone. Next stage is to do the insulation layer - this layer will take quite a while for it to dry to a stable structure since there's lots of rain forecast for the next week. Normally a couple of days of hot/dry weather, so it's covered for the time being awaiting that.
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Aug 5, 2014 02:22
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Looking good. Are you going for a metal chimney? Here I finished cleaning the brickwork today   (turns out the dome isn't very dome shaped at the top right  )
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Aug 5, 2014 18:43
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That looks really nice. I like it.
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Aug 5, 2014 18:47
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Looks good twoot, hope you're not planning to move any time soon!
mortarr fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Aug 6, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 22:05
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Can't lots of dirt and bugs and random crap get in through the chimney? It'd drive me crazy having it so well sealed aside from that one aspect. Do you sweep out the inside before use or just leave it to 900+ degrees to kill anything bad?
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Aug 6, 2014 03:04
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twoot posted:Looking good. Are you going for a metal chimney? That's actually just a spare piece of pvc pipe and will get removed after the next layer(s). I'll replace it with a metal liner that I'll cover with the cob and put a cap on that. No need for a heat sink type lining (like what's on the main oven) on the exhaust.
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Aug 6, 2014 04:25
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Please post more pictures of delicious pizza, tia.
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Aug 6, 2014 15:32
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It looks fantastic, good job! I want some decent pizza now...
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Aug 6, 2014 16:06
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unknown posted:That's actually just a spare piece of pvc pipe and will get removed after the next layer(s). I'll replace it with a metal liner that I'll cover with the cob and put a cap on that. No need for a heat sink type lining (like what's on the main oven) on the exhaust. I'm sure you've already thought about it, but I asked because I've seen some clay oven builds where they've not compensated for the differing expansion rate of the metal at temperature and it lead to the exterior finish cracking around it.
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Aug 6, 2014 16:42
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twoot posted:I'm sure you've already thought about it, but I asked because I've seen some clay oven builds where they've not compensated for the differing expansion rate of the metal at temperature and it lead to the exterior finish cracking around it. Yeah, there's a small part of me that just wants to build the chimney without the metal liner, or to just go find a simple clay prefab chimney to place on there. I'm still seeing whats out there/available. This is one advantage of doing a cob build - it's very adaptable material and process.
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Aug 6, 2014 17:56
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Your workmanship is so good that I hesitate to post pictures of my build. But, I'd like to get some opinions before I cast the floor: I'm building a base for a Forno Bravo Casa kit (pre-cast dome, brick tile over 3" ceramic board floor). Since the picture below was taken I've build a wooden support within the interior of the oven base. I am planning on having my 3.5" (9cm)rebar/wire mesh/concrete tabletop span across the 25" (650mm)gap at the front. The concrete will be resting on cement board. Does this seem dangerous to anyone? Seems to me that if you can span between the two sides, then crossing the little gap on one end would not make much structural difference. 
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Aug 6, 2014 22:24
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winnydpu posted:Does this seem dangerous to anyone? Seems to me that if you can span between the two sides, then crossing the little gap on one end would not make much structural difference. Nah I've seen lots of builds where people do that. All you have to make sure is that the board is properly supported.
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Aug 6, 2014 22:44
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 This looks amazing.
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Aug 7, 2014 00:32
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Alright, got some work done on my oven over the weekend! There was a ton of rain over the week and with the oven fairly tightly covered, it only slightly dried. It was still malleable to the touch when I started.  Filled with soil, pieces of scrap wood, and basically anything else that was lying around. I still ended up using ~300lbs of sand to make the interior shape. I'm getting sick of sand.  Cracks in the top of the drat oven. Turns out that using wood supports inside a damp oven isn't the smartest of ideas. Wood expands as it absorbs moisture, and the clay shrinks. Fortunately I was able to empty the oven in time, so it wasn't bad.  Cleaned up the front a bit, and the cracks on the top actually settled perfectly and naturally re-sealed itself perfectly.  Fully cleaned out of 99% of the sand, although a bunch of the newspaper lining has yet to be removed. I've ended up with a 27" interior, and approximately a 4" thick wall around, which will make for a very nice heatsink. Forgot to take a final photo, but cleaned up the front further and fitted a very basic door to keep the wildlife out during the week along with a larger covering so the oven could dry out better. Here's hoping it survives any storm. This coming weekend will be the start of fires in the oven. Size dependent upon the dryness of the clay.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:48
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Oh yeah, good weather today! First fire! Things were looking great, so went whole hog and ran a fire for a couple of hours to dry the oven out. And you know what that means...  First pizza! This is just store bought dough, didn't want to go nuts in case things weren't ready,or there was a problem. Flavour level? Still awesome.   But as the oven cooled down, a crack showed up in the side. turns out there is an air bubble in the wall right around there that's visible from the inside now that the paper lining has been burnt away. I'll fill and patch it when doing the insulation layer shortly. Otherwise everything else is looking good!
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Aug 18, 2014 04:52
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Looking good, unknown. We had pizzas today too. Unfortunately I made a bunch of dumb mistakes; worst of which was leaving the lid off of the dough tray, which caused the doughballs to have a dry top layer which meant they were really fragile during shaping. I turned one of the pizzas into a Calzone because it tore so many times. I also let the fire die down too soon again which prolonged everything further. Practice makes perfect I guess  pics  Chorizo pizza    Homemade BBQ sauce pizza, with chicken and sausage  I bought a high temp oven thermometer   Goats cheese and spinach pizza  Assortment made to eat another day
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Aug 19, 2014 20:52
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Can I ask what temp your deck / dome are at when you're firing your pies? How are the bottoms coming out? I've been having an issue with my bottoms charring too much, and almost immediately. Also, are you using semolina on your peel?
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Aug 22, 2014 23:37
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Sointenly posted:Can I ask what temp your deck / dome are at when you're firing your pies? I haven't been paying attention to the firing temperatures so far. I've been burning wood for 2 hrs, raking the embers across the floor for 15 mins, then pushing them back and brushing the floor, and then going to prepare the first pizza. Preparing the pizzas is my stumbling block so I get caught up in that and forget everything else, notably continuing to feed the fire which means I've run out of flames too early I've not charred any bases so far. I used plain flour on the first bake and 50/50 flour/semolina on the 2nd and I didn't notice much difference. One thing I have noticed is that I've been using too much flour on the peel, which leaves a nice coating of burned flour on the oven floor. I think I can reduce that as I get better at prep. twoot fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 00:00
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Sointenly posted:Can I ask what temp your deck / dome are at when you're firing your pies? On my parents' pizza oven the deck is usually ~800 degrees when they cook pizza. And they sometimes use semolina on the peel and sometimes go with cornmeal.
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Aug 23, 2014 02:32
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twoot posted:I haven't been paying attention to the firing temperatures so far. I've been burning wood for 2 hrs, raking the embers across the floor for 15 mins, then pushing them back and brushing the floor, and then going to prepare the first pizza. Preparing the pizzas is my stumbling block so I get caught up in that and forget everything else, notably continuing to feed the fire which means I've run out of flames too early Can I suggest using cornmeal on your peel/bottom of your pizzas? I've gotten infinitely better results doing that. It doesn't seem to burn as readily as flour, so you don't get a dry, brown powder on the bottom of your pies.
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Aug 23, 2014 15:31
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Rotten Cookies posted:Can I suggest using cornmeal on your peel/bottom of your pizzas? I've gotten infinitely better results doing that. It doesn't seem to burn as readily as flour, so you don't get a dry, brown powder on the bottom of your pies. Sure, I'll try cornmeal next time. Some build progress;   Starting last week I've done a 2 coat cement render on the plinth, finished it a few days ago but took pics today after I cleaned up the mess around the area. I've added this to my list of things to never do again. If I could go back two weeks I'd hire a plasterer in to do it - I was pulling my hair out trying to get a decent finish. I ran out of time to smooth off the front and back panels before I had to go out and do something that day so they've set with trowel marks and stuff . It'll get painted once it's cured.
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Aug 23, 2014 18:58
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Finally got the drat straw from a local farm this weekend, but it was lovely weather so couldn't do anything about it to make the insulation layer. So much bad luck with picking that last item up. But was able to get enough firewood drying (maple tree and two walnut trees worth) to cover the next year I think. Nothing like realizing that my wood consumption is about to go up considerably. When I do pizzas, I'd build them using flour, but transfer them using cornmeal into the oven. Flour burns too easily and cornmeal doesn't roll well if it absorbs too much moisture from the dough.
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Aug 24, 2014 01:47
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I live in a rowhome in the city and only have a patio for a backyard that is a concrete floor. Would it be possible to pull something like this off still? I have the space.
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Aug 27, 2014 06:14
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Pukestain Pal posted:I live in a rowhome in the city and only have a patio for a backyard that is a concrete floor. Would it be possible to pull something like this off still? I have the space. I've seen others built on an existing concrete slab, I think most of them just check that it is of decent thickness. If you are in a city then you may also want to check your local smoke regulations. I've read that some places can be really strict about chimney lengths, distances from fences, ect.
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Aug 27, 2014 13:24
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