42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

I am enjoying finding uses for each day of the oven's cool down cycle - different recipe for each day. I suppose I should get back to actually finishing the construction. Humph.

[Laurentius]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Make mine 3 rolls, and 1 piece of chicken,and hot sauce on the side. Thank you.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Did something new (for me) with the oven today.
I fired it yesterday morning with almond wood (as usual). After some pizza for lunch I removed all of the coals to an air tight ash bin and left the door off for a few hours until the oven reached 475 degrees. I then baked two dozen 200 gram garlic and herb roles last night. After baking I closed the oven up tight.
At noon today I put the (now cold) wood coals along with a few splinters of pine and a 2 inch Almond branch into the (350 degree) oven. With some encouragement from my torch, it ignited and began to produce lots of smoke.
I put chicken on a rack over an aluminum pan and placed the door ajar. When the temp probe in the meat read 180 degrees I pulled it out - the result was great! Good smokey flavor, Attractive browned skin and the meat remained moist.
WFOs are not just for Pizza and bread any more!

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Yes the poor guy does look much like me - and we have a younger (13 year old) copy too. We are having a good time with the oven!

[Laurentius]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Hi DvM,

Looking at the photo of you and your son, I see your past and his future. A truly spitting image. It looks as you two really enjoy each others company.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Had a great WFO weekend. My oldest was home from college and wanted to bake. I modified my basic pizza dough to a garlic-herb-parmesan bread and my son found a recipe for chocolate, cinnamon bread; made a mixer full (2.5 kilos) of each.


I did a bit of mortar mixing too. Placing firebrick in the fireplace adjacent to the oven. First attempt was to create and install a "panel" of splits tilted off the back wall - that was a fail. Second attempt is buttering and placing bricks one at a time - using a plywood profile to set the angle - so far so good. It does take a bit of contortion to get in there.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

dvm,

Way to go, keeping on plugging along. Looking nice.

[deejayoh]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Looking good dvm!

I have completely stalled out on the stucco application for my oven. The lath and paper are on, I just have a lot of inertia with taking on the stucco application. Not sure why!

anyway, good on you for pushing forward - and the results look great.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

After troweling on the brown coat stucco and bringing some texture to the surface with rubber float:

I was ready for an easier way to apply the color coat.

I decided to spray on the color coat; managed to get all 350 sq feet applied! I used 3) 90 pound bags of grey base stucco, pigment, and a sprayer designed to apply drywall texture. I will post photos of finished stucco after some clean-up.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Mild weather does allow WFO progress! I placed a stucco scratch coat on the metal framed surround for the oven chimney. On rest of the block structure needing stucco, I went strait to brown coat. Here are some photos of the oven enclosure ready for color.

Notice the tortoise den on the back side of the oven stand.

I plant to bolt wooden back rests to the Pony wall seating.

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Applied 320 pounds of stucco this weekend (brown coat)... sigh... have about the same to go before color coat. But is is good exercise! The oven's efficiency continues to improve; The oven is 315 degrees tonight - last fire was Halloween (Pizza 10/31, Bread 11/1 and again 11/3). It was about 80 degrees here today - lots of misting to keep the stucco curing - not drying.

[WesinThailand]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Brian, I used a similar form for the last chains but only an IT for the initial ones. I found that the dome is pretty forgiving and once all the chains are finished, I could stand on the dome and it would not fall in. Guess thats the beauty of this design. I used white styrofoam for the final form - easy to remove.

[moderator]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Hi DVM,
Thanks for the photos! We hope your oven project goes well.

We're excited to see your progress!

[dvm]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

Sometimes simple is best... I like it.

[deejayoh]

Re: 42" FB Pompeii Oven with 19" dome, and adjacent fireplace, in the O.C.

dvm -
I attached my decorative arch just as you describe - mortared it to the firebrick and the hardiboard. As a matter of fact, I didn't even use refractory mortar. I haven't used the oven much since installing - but it seems fine. The arch doesnt really get very hot so I don't think cracking will be any more of an issue than it would be in an ordinary fireplace surround. I think many others have used the same approach without issues.