New build - 1.2M dome

[cobblerdave]

Just got to figure out again. I'd think you wouldnt mind this on your thread

[cobblerdave]

G'day
i use a handmade Aluminium flat rake to move ash and coals around the oven. The wood handle tends to char a bit do you get cut a section off and reconnect it ever now and then. It's softer than the bricks so you can also scrape at the blackened remains of a pizza on the brick without harming anything.

[JRPizza]

Yep, I use my garden hoe to rake out the coals when I want the oven fairly clean (then I do the peel slap or mop) and my worn out weed tool when I just want to get the main coals out. I would rather have the pleasure of building a tool though. Besides, I'll probably need the hoe this Spring

[jonv]

A draw hoe would probably make a serviceable rake, and an all metal sort can be had quite cheaply.

[Gulf]

It was real easy to make. The hardwood handle lasted about 3 years. It would have taken about 15 minutes to replace it like kind. But, I cut a piece of thin square metal tubing and made sort of an interface to protect the wood from the hot coals.

The Rooker and other tools.

[JRPizza]

Gulf, thanks for that link. I'm currently using a worn out old weed cutter like the one shown . Functional but ugly and not completely flat so leaves more ash than desired. I was having trouble with the blade handle interface, so the idea of slitting the handle and thru bolting looks like the trick! I think that is going to be on my to do list.

[jonv]

Nice. I've got plenty of steel here so I can make another shape if need be.

[Gulf]

I made mine after a design that navyintel found in an 18th century French encyclopedia of oven tools. Rooker-what was old is now new . A straight blade alows for 100% contact with the floor, no matter the angle that the rake (rooker) is held.

[jonv]

I have an aluminium peel like that with a short handle that I've used in my normal oven and I did wonder about just sticking a longer handle on it.

I forgot about the rake - I used some 3mm flat bar for that. Bent to the radius of the dome.

[JRPizza]

Thanks. I was able to pick up a lightweight aluminum peel with wooden handle (about $14) that I use for turning and removing pizza, but need steel for fire management tools. I have some 16 gauge steel left over from my outer door skin (1.3mm) that I may use to copy your coal rake.

[jonv]

I used 1.5mm for sheet and tube. I wasn't sure what would be needed - could perhaps have used something lighter. The peel is 15" wide so with a long handle is quite heavy. I'll see what it's like with a pizza on the end and whether I can slim it down.

[JRPizza]

NIce! What gauge steel did you use for the sheet and tube, if you don't mind me asking?

[jonv]

A bit of metal work today. They're a bit agricultural but hopefully they'll get me started

Thinking of hi-temp paint for the handles and I'll burn some olive oil on the blades to help keep rust away and give a reasonably non-stick finish. Quicker, easier, and cheaper to make from mild steel but at some point, once I'm happy with the size and shape, I would like to make a set of stainless tools.

[jonv]

Well I guess I've actually finished the oven. Can't quite believe it. Loads of work still to do on the external cladding of both oven and stand, but the oven itself is done, providing nothing disastrous happens during curing

Many thanks to those folks who have helped me along the way, whether directly or by providing their build threads for folk like me to study

I got the floor set in the entry, fitted the stainless threshold, and finished the insulation. Also fitted the stainless twin wall flue - I have a taller section to use when the patio roof is in place but the short tube should be fine for now. I'm in the middle of constructing a temporary cover that will keep the weather off and allow me to move the party tent away and start the curing fires. Then I'll knock up some peels and other oven tools. After that I'll take break from it until mid January

[jonv]

The brickwork does look nice, but my patio roof, when I get round to building it, will only get so close to the oven that I can secure the flue to it with a bracket. So I need to cover the exposed brickwork anyway. Thinking I'll provide an outer skin of brick around the whole chimney, with a decorative arch at the front.