The Morgan's WFO build

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

It's been a while since we last reported on our oven. Happy to report that all is good. The couple of small cracks that happened very early on remain to be the only ones, and they're not wide at all.

We have a large stash of small diameter oak wood to burn through. It works OK - it burns hot, but lacks some flame volume and leaves a lot of ashes. The best wood we have burnt to date is some maple. We were really happy with it, but will try some cherry soon too. After this oak runs out, we want to replenish it with something else.

So far, mostly pizzas. We've had several large parties, the largest being about 35 people. A couple of the kids pitched-in and offered to make pizzas. They did great! With minimal supervision, they were able to help keep the pies coming.

We want to get serious soon with some bread and meat roasting. No excuses now - we have everything we need and just need to do it.

Here's a more updated pic of our oven.



Regards,

The Morgans

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

We used a 1X4 too, but it was MDF instead of wood. We just bent it and and held it in place with little blocks placed around it.

[ArkansasOven]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

I have a question:
How did you bend that board to give you a curved landing on the outside of the oven? I bought a 1x4 to do something similar but am having trouble getting the desired result.

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

We're glad that you could find it useful, and happy to feel that we may have somehow contributed back after gleening so much help and inspiration from this wonderful forum for ourselves.

Best wishes,

The Morgans

[ArkansasOven]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

This is a great build. Very inspiring.
Thanks for sharing it with us, especially the detailed pictures. They have helped me visualize what I have to do more than any instructions could.

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

We started to add a BBQ to our oven area. We're posting the build over on the Traditional Grill Design forum for anyone who is interested...

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f38/...html#post92787

We hope everyone is enjoying their labors of love!

Regards,

The Morgans

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

We made pizzas on Saturday and plugged it with our new door afterward. We checked the temperature the next morning and it was a little over 250 F. I thought that seemed a bit low, but we did let the fire die-down during the last two pizzas and perhaps we let it cool-off with an open door too long?

Anyway, we fired it back up for a short while and took Mark's advice and did the beer-can chicken. AWESOME! It was very good. First, we baked some baguettes, then put the chicken and a side of veggies in and checked every so often. It took the chicken about an hour and 1/2, and was so worth the wait!

We're excited to keep learning and experimenting.

Perhaps we'll take Mark's recommendation and do the dirty steak next!







The Morgans

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Hey Morgans,
Go for the Beer Can Chicken,,, Reallly good.... Just put a beer can in the chickens um "cavity" open of course and standing up... season and cook... one of my favorites besides dirty steak;;;;

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Thanks Badkama, John

I upload my photos to the photo gallery then view them so I can copy the URL's and save them to notepad. Then when writing a reply to my thread, I use the insert photo icon and cut-and-paste the respective URL from notepad into the URL prompt. That's the only way I know how to do it. I do re-size my photos and compress them to be less than 200KB before hand as well.

I'm not sure if we have any cracks around the arches are not. Having said that, if there are any they are definitely not obvious. It seems like everyone is running with cracks and that it is just a natural thing and nothing to worry too much about. I know we have a few small ones inside the dome.

Thanks for the comments! We're planning on pizza tomorrow so we can see how well our door works - perhaps a chicken on Sunday!

The Morgans

[stonejohn]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Hi Morgans, just wanted to say that your build is inspirational. I would like to post my photos in the same format. so far I've only done the thumbnails. could you tell me how you were able to get large photos in the text? any and all help is appreciated. Also, many of the ovens have cracking issues around the arches, I assume you have not had any if so any conclusions as to why not? Again great build
Thanks
John

[Badkama]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

G'day mate....Have to say you ROCK...that is awesome!!! I just loved wathcing how you put this together...
Not up to your standards but have a lot of fun here too..It is just down right bloody good fun and I reckon you should be damm proud of your efforts

Good on you...

Best wishes to you and your family from Australia

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

I think a "gasket" made from a thin piece of blanket would be fine - it's going to be under compression and probably never messed with.

The anchor plate I got a hold of was used and had a very tightly woven fiberglass gasket, about 1/4" thick, stuck to it that was in good shape. I drilled holes in the firebrick aligned with the holes in the anchor plate. I then tapped-in lead anchors (mollies) and used some #12 screws. This is a very firm attachment when you consider we encapsulated the entire chimney in perlcrete as well.

That's how we did it - 'Hope it helps you in some way.

The Morgans

[schallert]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Morgans, great build. I have a question. How did you attach the chimney anchor plate? Did you use a high temp adhesive and concrete screws? Some have sandwiched a piece of the blanket, my local fireplace guys said this was not recommended.

Thanks,

Dan

[vintagemx0]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Thanks Guys,

We had the opportunity to use the counter on Halloween. There was plenty of room on the right side to lay-out ingredients and perform some pizza assembly. The left side ends-up being a place where people set their drinks, but an occasional pizza fresh-out of the oven ends up there too when people are starting to fill-up and they aren't consumed immediately.

We are looking forward to finishing and using our oven this spring. We're equally looking forward to seeing the explosion of activity that will surely happen with everyone else's ovens when spring arrives.

Best regards,

The Morgans

[Tscarborough]

Re: The Morgan's WFO build

Second the long counter. Verra' nice!