Continuation of papavino's oven thread

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Well, we finished up the dome this weekend! It was pretty exciting to see the dome close. And we got the front arch and chimney anchor plate in place. Now, I just need to resist the urge to fire it up before next Sunday.
James - I hope you've got insulating blankets in stock.

For the keystone, I put a piece of paper over the hole and rubbed a pencil over it. I then inflated a yoga ball and put the paper on it so that it was held tightly against the bricks on the inside of the arch and traced that out from above. I measured the angles that each brick made to determine how far in from the edge to trace out the inner hole on the keystone. It took a couple iterations with the wet saw to get the keystone to fit flush, but with a couple taps of the rubber mallet, I got it in.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Here are some pictures of the arch.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I'm sure I've seen this question before, but I can't remember where. Last night it rained unexpectedly. I hadn't covered the oven, so it got a little wet between the time it started raining and about 5 am when I woke up and tossed the tarp over it. I'm not sure how much prior to 5 that it started raining, but I'm guessing 20 to 30 minutes of light rain and drizzle. I had two curing fires, but now I'm pretty sure I need to wait a few days before I start the curing schedule over, correct?

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

So, prior to the rain we received this morning, I got some cherry wood last night. 1/2 cord to check it out.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Cherry wood...I am so jealous.

Looks like a real oven Papvino! Keystone is nice, and you did your vent transition fast! Looks good.

Since you got some rain, do you have a small electric heater and maybe a fan you could use for a day to dry it out some? I guess you could stretch out the drying schedule and stay in the 100 and 200 deg range longer. Just please take your time and resist the urge to stay on a 100 deg per day schedule since it got wet.

I got my "serious" crack on the 2nd day when it hit 300 deg briefly. It's funny, now I can throw tons of dry wood almost at once and have a 500 deg inferno in minutes and I wonder how a little twig fire cracked my dome that 2nd day!

MORAL OF THE STORY: show caution now and throw it out the window later when it don't matter. -Dino

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Good advice, Dino. I'll build another small fire today to try to slowly drive out the extra moisture it took on. I don't want to ruin it now that I'm so close!

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I've got my insulation covering my oven, and I'm trying to get the metal studs attached (thanks, John). I need a hammer drill. My rotary drill was good enough to get two tapcons piloted and attached, but the bit or the drill aren't up to the task of doing any more.

Getting married in 10 days, so the work on the oven has been spotty as of late. At least I've got a can of San Marzanos in my pantry awaiting my first cooking fire. That's keeping my motivation alive. I need to get it covered before the fall really sets in and the rain soaks my oven.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I went out and picked up some used chimney bricks for the opening arch. I have to cover up that fine work that we did earlier so I can fit some metal studs in front of the chimney. A little bit of a shame, but the used bricks look pretty nice. I am hoping to place a stone from the Foss river as the keystone. It's diamond shaped and I think it would look fantastic. I have about half a bag of heatstop left over, so I'm probably just going to use that. Any issues with using it on stone? I wouldn't think so.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I've got my brush and peel and I'm picking up an infrared thermometer from Schuck's today. Pizza photos to come in the next couple of days. My fingers are crossed.

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

...and a nice week of weather ahead to enjoy the fruits of you labor! Make a lot of dough. Leftovers are great...if there are any!

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

Oh, one more question to the forum: I went to get some cement board for enclosing my dome this past weekend and the guy at the store showed me how easily the hardibacker breaks (1/4" thick). I'm thinking if I get 1/2" thick it won't be that much of an issue. And I can just score the stuff with a razor blade, right? I'll make sure to have a box of blades nearby since it'll dull them quickly.

*Edit:
Yeah, John. This weather is fantastic! I'm loving it. I'm making some dough and a friend of mine is making some, too. It's a battle royale... I'm tossing your three entries into the ring, too.

[jrparks]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

1/2" cuts nicely with a scoring tool. 1/4" is designed for flooring applications.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

We fired it up last night to see how well it cooks pizzas. 10 or 11 pizzas (not sure of the exact count) and 3 bottles of wine were consumed between 6 people over the course of 2 1/2 hours. I'd say we did pretty well. I'll be posting pictures in the What You Cooked Last Night folder later today.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

One note about last night's firing: A crack developed in the front arch that you can see light through. It doesn't look too bad and I doubt I have anything to worry about. I'm going to be putting some decorative red brick on the front of it, so I'll squeeze some mortar in there at that time. I had a good time watching all of the soot burn off the bricks as the dome slowly transitioned from black to white.
Without a door, the oven still registered 335 F this morning. Can't wait to build a door.

[papavino]

Re: Continuation of papavino's oven thread

I continued work on the surrounding gabled house over the weekend. I filled in some of the joints with fiberglass tape and mortar. I still need to close it off on a couple of sides, but the score-and-snap method is pretty tough. I also need to fix the gap between the chimney and the roof. I picked up some aluminum flashing that I'm going to try to bend around it, but I don't know if that will work very well.

In terms of roofing material, I looked at metal roofing and am thinking of going the route that Ken did for his roof. I think it looks nice. I just need to get something a little better than aviation snips to cut through it. I am thinking reciprocating saw. I'm a little worried about the exposed edges. Do they sell stuff that you can put around the edge of the roof that will leave a nice, clean edge?

I also finished up the front arch on the oven Sunday. I had hoped to incorporate a river rock into the keystone, but it didn't work out. I still think it looks nice. I have a slightly offset brick in the front to give it some depth. I'll post a picture once I take one.

I contacted a foundry to see how much it would be to have an iron door made for my opening. Needless to say, my fears of this plan were valid. It would cost waaaaaaaay too much to get a custom door made. Sheet metal seems to be the best option.