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38" Cast Dome Oven

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  • 38" Cast Dome Oven

    I thought I would post some pictures of my cast oven project. Thank you FB for hosting this forum I have found it to be informational and inspirational. My design ideas came together after I saw pictures of Ironpony's project here. I was unsure how to resize these pictures so hopefully they are not too small.

  • #2
    This is a lot of trouble to go to if you are just making one casting. A simple sandcastle covered in wet newspaper is far quicker. If you intend on reusing the mould a number of times then make sure you use a durable material as the casting mix is pretty hard on any mould material used.
    Kindled with zeal and fired with passion.

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    • #3
      Your correct David S. There are easier ways.The mould toke me two days. I wasn't planning on reusing mould. I had almost every thing I needed in scrap so the mould cost me 20$ out of pocket. I did have a blast making it. Which, to me, is the objective.

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      • #4
        Nice job on mold, yes, Iron Pony did a first rate cast and mold job.
        Russell
        Google Photo Album [https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...JneXVXc3hVNHd3/]

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        • #5
          That is very impressive work ...good job.
          Mike

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          • #6
            Thank you UtahBeehiver and Lc45 (Mike).
            I have assembled dome and gallery, insulated, lathed, dried outout refractory cement, applied first coat stucco for igloo, and cooked first test pizza.
            My gallery/vent did not draft as well as I wished. I did have a bit of a wind which didn't help... I think my design of vent could use some improvement anyway. The other misstep I made which occurred to me too late was to thermally isolate galley from dome with a conductive gap.
            The up side is the oven cooked as well as I had hoped. The first pizza produced was well received by my 4, 7, and 9 year olds. Tough critics all.
            I am looking forward to making bread, pizza, and more this summer. I am thankful for the help and info this forum and it's contributers have provided. Thank you also Forno Bravo for hosting.
            I may post some more pictures when I get a chance if there is any interest.

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            • #7
              Hi PizzaIowa,

              Do you have some detailed picture of the ovens entrance form work. Hope you could help me out.

              Tks.

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              • #8

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                • #9
                  PizzaIowa, good to see you still follow the blog. So how about some pics of the finish product and commentary on what went well and what you would do differently. There has been a large uptick in cast ovens during the pandemic so how your project went would be useful to future builders.
                  Russell
                  Google Photo Album [https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...JneXVXc3hVNHd3/]

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                  • #10
                    Have some patience because new ovens are always rather smoky. There's way more moisture in them than you'd think and for that reason the drying fires should also be taken slower than you'd think. You should find the performance continues to improve markedly the more you use the oven and smoke issues will probably disappear.
                    Kindled with zeal and fired with passion.

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                    • #11
                      What did I do wrong? Good Question, UtahBeehiver.

                      #1 I would say my biggest mistake was to have a flat topped opening to the oven. It needs to be to be oval so the smoke is lined up with the chimney. I have modified opening so the smoke goes up the chimney.
                      #2 I started cooking with it before I finished. (So, I haven't finished)

                      I sourced my refractory cement and ceramic insulation from Harbison Walker (international company with US branch locations). There was a vender 50 miles away from my home.. They were hungry for for the pizza oven business a few years ago when I built. I'm guessing it is the same now. The manufacturing sales are going elsewhere, it seems, unfortunately.
                      (I have no association with the company)

                      Note: When mixing refractory cement it takes what seems like too long to mix with too little water. Follow the directions. It is amazing to see the change in the cement when properly mixed. When doing a oven pour, next time, I will have two people mixing at the same time. The cement sets up fast and it takes 8 plus minutes to mix. Have an extra drill for mixing ready when your Milwaukee right angle decides to cash in its chips (or smoke). I learned that the hard way.

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