Here is my desire coming to fruition

[dmun]

Door opening

Here's a good idea from the gallery:

http://www.fornobravo.com/pizza_oven_photos/commercial_ovens/Barga.html

Note the wide slot for pizza and peel at the bottom of the arch. This also lets you bring the arch farther forward, giving you more cooking area.

That said, not a trivial build. The one in the picture has a cast iron door sill.

David

[Robert Musa]

My main concern as well is that I can build an oven with a door at least wide enough to fit a standard peel into, what is the minimum door openening 14"?

steffen, imho, you should err on the side of making the door too wide as opposed to too narrow. i often wish that my door were wider.

[james]

Dmun,

I think the opening into the Barga oven is cool -- its a Forno Bravo commercial oven with a cast iron opening that is wide at the bottom for pizza and tall in the middle for roasts. The rest of the opening keeps in heat. In general, the opening needs to balance the need to hold in heat, and the need to put a pizza in the oven. For example, the Casa100, a 39" precast FB oven, has an opening of about 18.5"W x 12.5"H.

The restaurant oven also has that large landing in front of the opening. I am becoming a big fan of the larger landing in the front. We are pouring a custom concrete landing and arch for the demonstration kitchen in Healdsburg.

James

[steffen]

I think I figured it out

I will be using an 18" overhand on the structure to accomodate the largest oven that is possible on this block foundation. I think all will be well once I have the block structure in place. Took a few beers and alot of head scratching to figure it out, but this is why engineering is work in progress. Pictures will follow, when the wife lets me get back in the backyard.....

She will only understand when it is all done and the za's are a flowing.....

Steffen

[james]

I think I posted this somewhere else before, but I installed a 26" precast oven in our first Italian rental as an experiment -- and it was NOT big enough. Not enough room for both the fire and the food, and the door opening was too large relative to the volume of the oven. It had to be out of sync because the opening still had to be big enough for a pizza peel. The result was that it gave up heat way too fast. It cooled down as fast as it heated up. :-)

All in all a good lesson, and the nice family that owns the house are happy to have it and use it as a one pizza a time oven for weekends. Still, you should want to do more than that with your oven.

James

[steffen]

Now this is progress

What a weekend,

I am now in my office after quite an exhausting weekend. I think if i knew how much work was going to be involved in this project, i may have reconsidered. But all the hard hard work is behind me. All the block is in place, and all the slabs have been poured, now its only the dome which is needed. Here are a few pics of the progress at this point. You will notice that the barbq side of the unit has had its first firing, and have even made two meals on charcoal. Ohhh what a taste, and i was able to make 16 burgers at a time on the one grill, so i can feed a small army when i put the other two grills in. Inside the firebox i also used Slate as a facing material, which has stood up to my massive fires and hot coals and splattering food brilliantly. I will be facing the entire unit with Stucco, but i knew inside the grilling areas, the stucco would not have held up. Next step is the dome itself now. Rolling with it now, should be finished in 6 weeks max i bet. Let me know what you think, i think the inside diameter of the dome will be a maximum of 38", is that ok, because i built it as big as possible?

Steffen

[Fio]

I answered your post in pizzamaking.com.

BTW, congrats on the BBQ pit. It's nice to have some useable outcome of all your labor so far.

I've spent tons of money and hours of time and all I have is a huge block of concrete in my backyard.

[steffen]

man cannot survive on beer alone

Yes Fio,

This was one of the preliminary design ideas that i had. I knew it would take some time to finish the dome itself, so why not feed yourself(and some unknowing helping friends) while the work is being done. What a wonderful conversation piece for the boys, we all had fun hanging around and watching the coals heat up. I would definately recomend to anyone who is building one, to incorporate both ideas into the same monstrosity. Because until Saturday all i had was alot of cementitious materials in my backyard. Burgers were great. I actually saw an episode of King of the Hill last night, where the wife and son were addicted to charcoal burgers instead of a propane bbq burger. Quite funny if you have seen that one, a good testament to all my hard work

I will keep everyone in the loop;

Steffen

[Marcel]

..., but its fun to try!

(S) "man cannot survive on beer alone"

(M) but its fun to try!

==========================================

(M) This is somewhat off topic as it concerns a BBQ and not the pizza oven but since I plan to also make it wood burning I'll ask anyway:

(M) First, congratulations on work well done, and burgers medium rare.

(M) I see something like an enclosure on the picture between the dome slab and the BBQ. What is it to be used for? _____

(M) Will you be building any kind of flue for your BBQ? _____

(M) How did you determine its design? ___

(M) I want to allow for good venting, ash removal, and water protection. Can you direct me to any BBQ masonry plans on line? ___

(M) How did you decide on the height of the grate above the floor? ___

(M) My BBQ will probably be longer but narrower than yours. Will that be a mistake? _____

(M) Any other suggestions for me? ___

Ciao,

Marcel

[steffen]

Thank you Marcel,

I have been following your project as well, and you seem to have come across all the areas where i would have a question. So it is nice to be able to learn as i go. As for the Barbq, this is an oven forum, but all can appreciate the sear of a good steak

Please see below;

(M) I see something like an enclosure on the picture between the dome slab and the BBQ. What is it to be used for?
(S)This is a 12x12 slate tile which is wrapped around the top course of block on the structure. It is more of a durable face to the inside of the barbq area, and doesnt have really anything to do with the oven. The final finish of the structure will be stucco, except for the bbq area which is slate.

(M) Will you be building any kind of flue for your BBQ?
(S) I dont think so, as it has two purposes, but the main purpose is to have a nice firepit for the cool nights, and if the fire department show up, i simply drop on the grill, and i am well within the fire bylaws around here. I live in the middle of the city, so there is no open burning allowed, unless it is for cooking

(M) How did you determine its design?
(S) This is the greatest part, and it will have relevance to some of the questions below. I determined the size of the barbq by the standard sizes of barbq grills that i found at my local hardware store. So first buy the 18 x 27 grill, then build the barbq around it! Not too technical, as you say as simple as possible, and no more.

(M) I want to allow for good venting, ash removal, and water protection. Can you direct me to any BBQ masonry plans on line?
(S) I didnt find any, and i dont think i would use them anyway, concrete blocks are pretty easy, as long as you have a nice level surface to start with. I have one ash hole and two vents on the barbq side, i noticed it worked better though with the tiles on the back top of the pit area, so i will put them in permanently soon.

(M) How did you decide on the height of the grate above the floor?
(S) This was the trial and error part i was worried about but it worked perfect. 7-1/2" off the floor will give you 1-1/2 bags of coal spread across an 18 x 27 grill. This is technical, remember the formula. Just lucky i guess, but what i will be doing once all the slate is finished around the q area is predrilling and putting pegs at various intervals so i may raise or lower the grill depending on the fire.

(M) My BBQ will probably be longer but narrower than yours. Will that be a mistake?
(S) Longer is never a problem, as long as you can buy or have made, the grill itself. But narrower i dont think is a good idea, as there is a nice little area in the design i built to have a good warm fire without being cooled significantly by the winds.

(M) Any other suggestions for me?
(S) One of the things the boys and i were discussing is if you use a standard size grill to build the oven around, essentially you could also buy the barbq hood that could go on the grill as well, that way you can creat a small smoker unit, that "wood" be nice.

go forth and conquer sir;

Steffen

[Marcel]

Thanks for your BBQ help.

(S) "I have one ash hole ....."

(M) Well that gives me a great deal more confidence in your suggestions

(M) I was LOL when I read your line so much that I had to re-read your advice 3 times before it sunk in.

(M) I think the idea of locating the grate first, and possibly a hood is a grate idea.

Ciao,

Marcel