Northern Ontario oven build

[UtahBeehiver]

New ovens have a tendency to smoke quite a bit during the initial fires,

[hillscp]

Hey Shawnr What gauge is that metal? Looks good!

[Shawnr]

Thanks UtahBeehiver .

hillscp I am not sure. It was just a piece of stainless that I had but I would guess 18 gauge. I cannot cut it with hand tin snips. Might even be 16. I will measure the thickness and let you know

[Shawnr]

Got the roof on! Woo Woo!! In good shape now for winter.

We are going with steel shingles and they are not on order yet (Sales guy has been off) but at least I got the water proofing membrane on so I can relax and quit playing with tarps. I will play around a bit over the next few days and finish closing it up better but feeling good about it.

I am hesitating on the arch. In an earlier post #54, I showed the look of the 2 inch bricks in an arch. Not really big on that look but still trying to come up with something else, now that I mortared the side walls in. Something will come to me. We know we want an arch (versus a flat top) but the 2" full bricks don't look great, imho. Maybe 2 1/2" would have been better but stock was out at the time. I will keep surfing for other ideas. I am pondering cutting the bricks down (from say 4.5" to around 3" before putting them into the arch. Won't be as high but the sides are the full brick width. I could also cast a top for the tunnel and then face it with something that boss girl decides next summer. Any suggestions anyone?

I had another fire today. I checked in the stand and found moisture (more like water) coming out of the drain holes. I ran a bit through them to make sure they were all clear and am surprised how much water was coming out. I did not really look before so not sure if the moisture was driven out by the fire today or has just been dripping all along. I don't doubt the insulation got wet during the build. As much as I was pretty strict on tarping it, the hearth still got wet so the insulation must have picked up more than I thought. The fire today was around 400 F with one high around 500. That might have been right over the fire at the time. I moved the fire around in the dome too. I was surprised how big the fire was to only get those temps. I think I read that as the moisture comes out, the temps will rise more quickly for a given amount of wood. Wood was relatively small, older birch branch stock (ie not split). The fire was going for several hours and I checked often with an IR gun to make sure I was not creeping up in temp. I hope I am understanding the curing process correctly. Several small fires increasing in temps. I think the longer lasting fires though would be more effective at forcing the moisture out.....as long at the temps do not increase beyond the expected.

That is it for now.

Cheers,

[hillscp]

Shawnr THanks. I'm referring to the metal studs I think theyre usually 18g. Probably doesn't matter much though once you screw the board to it.

Nice work BTW

[Shawnr]

hillscp that I do not know. I just went to the lumber yard and said I needed metal studs so probably the usual residential ones. I don't know much about them (and that is why you won't see any close ups of the framing....... )

[Shawnr]

Roof is on. I have had several curing fires, although not always on successive days. I tried to up the temperatures (kind of averaging what my gun tells me) each day and on Sunday, the soot started clearing off the bricks. So I let it burn down and took advantage of the coals to cook something....all I had handy was burgers.

Today, I thawed some frozen pizzas which I don't really expect to be very good anyways..(as I read here somewhere too as an option to making nice pizzas to practice with) . Glad I did...burnt the first one....well done in 3 minutes, but then, burnt the second one (both thin crust) and then, after waiting a bit before inserting the next one, burnt the third one....

The pizzas were actually edible..... if one cut off the edge and did not mind a little over done,... but considering they were frozen ones, way better than from a kitchen oven! Now that I have done some cooking, I will go back to the cooking forums and get more tips/hints/direction. I think it will make more sense. I recall reading to heat the oven up, then let it cool down to around 800, then put pizzas in. Mine was less than that today. Oh well, I am sure it will get easier with practice.

I had to make a quick peel as I have not gotten to that yet so just cut a 1/4" piece of ply wood for today. Sacrificial pizzas cooked on a sacrificial wooden peel. Good fun!!

[Shawnr]

Well, used the oven a couple of times over the winter. Pizzas gradually got ...less burnt... ;-)

We are now enjoying them though. There is definitely a steep learning curve to cooking in a wood fired oven.

Question...a friend gave me a Type K thermocouple from industry, quite a solid looking device so I am now wondering about installing it. The oven still sits as per the last photo so I would have to make a hole in the wall to install it in the dome or can easily install in the floor from underneath. I am learning to go by the look of the dome to judge cooking but just think that a sensor in the over would become is igeneral indicator. Also, a conversation starter. If you were to install only one thermocouple, where would you put it? And, extending into the dome, or terminating in the brick so as to measure brick temperature?

Or, if I recall correctly, those that have installed them seldom use them after a while.

Opinions ?

Thanks

Shawn

[david s]

I think the best spot is about half way up the dome. You will need to make sure that the probe is long enough Toto reach all the way through the bricks/refractory and the insulation. The tip of the probe should protrude at least an inch inside the dome. Be careful that you don’t damage the porcelain sheath around the probe when installing it or when operating and cleaning the oven. Yes after some experience using your oven you won’t rely on it much.

[Shawnr]

Thank you for the response David I will go with the dome location you suggest.

[JRPizza]

Are you planning on drilling through all the way thru your bricks to the inside of the oven? If you are, you might want to consider doing it in two steps. I would first just install the probe (length permitting) so it reads the temperature on the outside of the bricks. Using an IR thermometer it is easy to get a reading of the inside temp. What I would find useful is knowing the brick OD temp so I could tell when the bricks were saturated with heat. There are times I want to do a quick firing and the dome gets cleared, but if I don't fire long enough the temperature falls off too fast and it's below where I want it before the meal is done. If I had an idea of the temp on the outside of the bricks I'd know how long to keep burning. If you didn't like that placement you could drill all the way through and get an interior reading. Short firings are the only reason I wish I had installed a measuring device against the outside of the heat mass.

[Shawnr]

JRPizza good advice too. I noted last week that the oven was cooling already after a few pizzas and in the morning, it was only about 360 degrees. The interior was not totally cleared when I started cooking but the pizzas were great! However, if I hope to bake bread in the morning, I will need to get a deeper heat, I suppose. The thermocouples would be really good for this.

Thanks

[JRPizza]

I don't see where you have a door - have you made one yet? For any retained cooking you are going to need one as I don't think you can get enough heat into the bricks to overcome heat loss out the big opening. I started with a temp door made out of concrete board and even that really helped hold in the heat. Lots of ideas here for both weld and non-weld designs.

[Shawnr]

I have cut a door out of steel to fit over the entry and another to fit into the entry. I planned on building a 2" door, using some left over ridgid insulation for the middle. To test the oven as mentioned above, I placed the bigger piece of steel in place, then held it in place with a fire brick. It was just to give me an idea of heat retention. I still need to figure out what we want to do with the tunnel. I don't think I like the look of the thinner bricks but was using up what I had left over. I may get the thicker ones to form the arch, although whatever it is built out of can be faced with something anyways. I do plan on stuccoing the house and top of the arch, just not the front of the arch. I like the looks of the brick face.

I have seen tunnels of various lengths. Is the 13.5" the most common? (brick and a half long) Does it make it harder to get things in and out? I can't seem to go near the stove without soot on my sleeve and I think with the tunnel complete, it will be even worse. Unless the planned chimney extension and complete tunnel makes airflow and draft better. Post #60 has a photo of the cast chimney adapter before the house went on.

Thank you

Shawn

[JRPizza]

I forgot you went with a cast chimney vent. The 13.5 inch "tunnel" that is common with brick ovens is a distance that allows a good "structural" build for the vent - enough opening to get airflow up the chimney and supporting structure to hold it all together. The 13.5 is from the dome arch to the front of the landing. You already have the vent part taken care of so the landing length/depth is whatever you want it to be. You probably want to extend it to the edge of your raised area, but you could go shorter than that if you want. david s uses his cast vents to make his landings relatively short - you should look at some of the ovens he has built for ideas.
I do wonder how hard it is going to be to build the upper part of any arch you do build with the backer board already installed. Do you have a plan for that?