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I am SOOO glad I found this site as I was getting ready to build a barrel vault style WFO and luckily found this forum.
I had my summer project this year which consisted of a pool and outdoor cooking area. One of the central points is a pergola with a fireplace and grill station and prep area.
The design evolved and I realized that I could fit WFO along side my fireplace and still keep my 7' overall width. The oven had to be a little smaller then I would like....but I got it all to fit in. It is 36" od and I cut the bricks to 3 1/2" to give me a 29" id.
I fired it up for the first time without any top insulation and had no problems getting over 1000 (off the scale on my ir thermometer). I did a single cure with a 4 hour fire at low temps and then ramped it up. (yes I was impatient
) I ended up with a few superficial small cracks in mortar....but nothing bad. You cant even slide paper into them. I'll just parge them prior to closing it all in.
Overall, I am very happy with the way it turned out as I have been a pizza fanatic for a loooooong time.
My normal conventional oven dough did not fare so well at the high temps though. I add nonfat dry milk and powdered egg whites to help with oven browning in a conventional oven.
I made a second batch of dough with just my 80% bread flour and 20% semolina. I use a lot of water (72%) and it handled quite good in the high oven temps. I have never had a crust rise as high as it does when you put it in the WFO! I need to refine my cooking techniques now over time and get used to how the oven works.
On a side note....even without the dome insulation, it was still 220 12 hours later the next morning! I will be putting 2" of ceramic blanket over it before it is stoned in.
The fireplace is a modified design of my own....kind of a hybrid Rumford without the throat. It drafts incredibly well and will still get another 2' of flue as it gets completed.
Now all that is left is to finish laying stone and build the pergola! I bought 22 tons of stone for this whole project and think I will about use it all!
Here are some progress pics. What do you guys think?
(ps) foil was there because I laid in my floor while the vermiculite and portland was still wet.(same day) I did not want bricks to stick to the floor so the foil made a good barrier. It did make it very easy to level the bricks just by laying them in there and tapping them to level. When the insulation mix was set up....they were all perfectly level all in one shot. Overall it took me about 3 days to build the oven itself from slab to finished dome and front arch. Now all the stone....and the fireplace and rest of the project.....that will be another story!
I had my summer project this year which consisted of a pool and outdoor cooking area. One of the central points is a pergola with a fireplace and grill station and prep area.
The design evolved and I realized that I could fit WFO along side my fireplace and still keep my 7' overall width. The oven had to be a little smaller then I would like....but I got it all to fit in. It is 36" od and I cut the bricks to 3 1/2" to give me a 29" id.
I fired it up for the first time without any top insulation and had no problems getting over 1000 (off the scale on my ir thermometer). I did a single cure with a 4 hour fire at low temps and then ramped it up. (yes I was impatient
) I ended up with a few superficial small cracks in mortar....but nothing bad. You cant even slide paper into them. I'll just parge them prior to closing it all in.Overall, I am very happy with the way it turned out as I have been a pizza fanatic for a loooooong time.
My normal conventional oven dough did not fare so well at the high temps though. I add nonfat dry milk and powdered egg whites to help with oven browning in a conventional oven.
I made a second batch of dough with just my 80% bread flour and 20% semolina. I use a lot of water (72%) and it handled quite good in the high oven temps. I have never had a crust rise as high as it does when you put it in the WFO! I need to refine my cooking techniques now over time and get used to how the oven works.
On a side note....even without the dome insulation, it was still 220 12 hours later the next morning! I will be putting 2" of ceramic blanket over it before it is stoned in.
The fireplace is a modified design of my own....kind of a hybrid Rumford without the throat. It drafts incredibly well and will still get another 2' of flue as it gets completed.
Now all that is left is to finish laying stone and build the pergola! I bought 22 tons of stone for this whole project and think I will about use it all!
Here are some progress pics. What do you guys think?
(ps) foil was there because I laid in my floor while the vermiculite and portland was still wet.(same day) I did not want bricks to stick to the floor so the foil made a good barrier. It did make it very easy to level the bricks just by laying them in there and tapping them to level. When the insulation mix was set up....they were all perfectly level all in one shot. Overall it took me about 3 days to build the oven itself from slab to finished dome and front arch. Now all the stone....and the fireplace and rest of the project.....that will be another story!
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