Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Concrats on the plug!

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Concrats on the plug!

Thanks Utah, cant wait to cook my first pizza!

[TxTanner]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

I'm glad to hear that the rain has stopped.Now you can get on it....

Love the up shot of the dome. Now that's the way to save money on mortar!!!!Gooodandtighttt

Bill

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Progress update.

I finished building the chimney this weekend and doing some touch up work here and there. I also did something ive not taken the time to do since starting this project and that is "clean up". Two five gallon pails full of brick cuts plus one nearly full of the clean-out muck from water reservoir on the brick saw. The chimney turned out very much to my liking and I'm contemplating keeping it exposed when I do my enclosure.

I will give it a week more to dry then im going to start curing fires. I have not secured the stainless adapter plate for the double wall pipe yet, Do I need to use Tap-Cons to anchor it to the bricks or can I just mortar it in place?? Im a little worried about drilling into the brick and possibly cracking something.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Hodgey,

I used expanding concrete concrete bolts with a high temp sealant underneath then capped with a row of brick. make sure you plate is plumb and adjust accordingly because if not it will show up on your chimney as you go extend up.

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Hodgey,

I used expanding concrete concrete bolts with a high temp sealant underneath then capped with a row of brick. make sure you plate is plumb and adjust accordingly because if not it will show up on your chimney as you go extend up.

Thanks Utah, I stopped and looked at your build today, what a beautiful job. Where you able to do the copper finish on the dome? If so Id like to see it.

Chris

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

I am a slow poke, I have all the copper but I need to practice my copper forming skill on some cheap steel duct work. At $4 a square foot I do not want to screw to many pieces up. So I am putting along on the final cladding. But when I start in earnest I will be photo logging the progress. BTW, you build turn out very nice.

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Update: This weekend I started the curing process with my first fire, insulated the dome and started building the enclosure. Today after work I will be starting my third day of curing, the amount of heat held overnight is amazing. Cant wait for my first pizza, maybe this coming weekend if weather holds out so I can finish the cure.

[texman]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Great Job! That is a great oven in a beautiful setting. Enjoy!
Texman

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Thanks Texman! I can't wait to be able to use it.

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Worked all weekend and made some real good progress and have finally gotten my oven weathered in for the most part which really gets a monkey off my back.

It has taken a very long time to get here, but we cooked in our brick oven for the first time this weekend. Very satisfying and frustrating all at the same time. I've been making homemade dough, thin crust pizza with a brick oven insert in my home oven for years with very good success at 550*.

Cooking in the WFO at 750+* is going to take some getting used to, to say the least. My first cooking experience went really well and turned out three very tasty pies. The very next day, I cooked six pizzas and only 3 or 4 turned out good. One I flat out ruined and two or so the bottoms were a bit over charred. I guess I've got a new process to learn, go figure....

Is there a good method of cooling down the cooking floor? I'm sure the answer is just hold my pants on and wait till it is a bit cooler and drink a beer?

[texman]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Drinking beer while cooking always helps.

It is just a learning process i think. You have to learn to cook in these beauties and you also have to learn how these beauties cook. The floor will typically be hotter just because of the fire location sitting directly on it. you can mitigate that by spreading the fire to the outer dome as the dome starts to clear and leaving the door off for awhile. The draw of the fresh air at the floor will help equalize the oven temps while the dome still heats from the remaining fire. Keep turning it. one of the other forum members suggested crowning i think. He elevated the pizza with his peel closer to dome to continue cooking the top and stop the bottom cooking.

I was (am) totally amazed everytime a pizza is fully cooked in 90 seconds. These ovens are serious business and another of the SWMBO in our lives. But hey, if the worst thing that happens is a little dough and sauce in the trash and some cold beer consumed. I call that a great day.

do you have an Infrared thermomoeter? really nice.

Texman

PS - the ovens are female, right?

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Drinking beer while cooking always helps.


do you have an Infrared thermomoeter? really nice.

Texman

PS - the ovens are female, right?

I do have a Infrared and three imbedded thermocouples. One in each, the dome, floor and back wall. I'm certain after a few more cooking sessions that she and I will get to know each other better.

[hodgey1]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Hello all, another weekend in the bag. The holiday created a nice stretch of time to get alot accomplished on the oven plus entertain with some awesome pizza out of the WFO. I started the roof and it is a little more than 75% complete, I still have to get the cap finished and some other flashing issues. I was able to find locally these beautiful slate tiles taken off a reclaimed barn, i can't be any happier how they look.

I have four cooking sessions under my belt and have already learned alot and I am beginning to get a handle on the temperatures that work best with our homemade dough. It's all an enjoyable learning expeirience.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Starting 42" NW Pensylvania

Those slate shingles are a very nice touch!