36" in Seattle

[eprante]

Re: 36" in Seattle

It is unlikely that you will seal the oven completely enough to trap the moisture in forever( though you seem to be pretty thorough, you might), but it is still a good plan to get the oven thoroughly dried out before sealing it up. I would heat the oven several times until the dome goes white before sealing it.
Eric

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Thanks. I desperately want to fill the third vermiperlcrete terrace, which would fully enclose the InsWool. Problem is, I've only truly fired the oven up full blast once (only one cooking session so far) and it steamed a ton. What I want to do is push all the steam out the exposed InsWool before enclosing it in vermicrete (much less SBC). So far, I have only seen steam come out the InsWool at the top, not through the vermicrete that has partially covered the lower terraces. That makes me nervous about finishing the vermicrete before working out all the water.

Does that seem like a sensible concern and plan...or should I just go ahead and fill in the vermicrete for the last terrace, thus fully burying the InsWool? (I won't be stuccoing it with SBC for quite a while, so I'm not talking about that, just the vermicrete). Will the moisture underneath be trapped forever if I do that?

[eprante]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Keith,
That door looks like it should work very well. I don't think it will burn up( at least not right away). Nice job.
Eric

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Steam-punk oven door. Sweeet!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Hey Keb,
I think that looks like the door to fort knox... Pretty solid, dont see any reason why it would burn up....

Cheers
Mark

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Behold, the mighty door of ridiculousness. I'll be happy if it lasts at least as long as it took to build.

• 22-gauge weldable (aka rustable) steel
• 1" (aka 3/4") red oak (I hate that nothing is the described size)
• 2x1" InsBlock 19
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• stainless steel screws, aluminum rivets
• 3/4" copper pipe
• ordinary tie plates and brass braces
• 1000F thermometer

Brother, I have no idea if it's going to last, what with the rust-susceptible metal and burn-susceptible wood. We'll see how it goes. If it disintegrates, I suspect v2.0 will be despairingly simple by comparison.

Cheers!

[tfasz]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Nice to see the curing fires going well.

I'm a big PFI fan too - we usually hit some combination of PFI, Uwajimaya, Pho Cyclo (for lunch), and/or Costco every weekend. I've had a big bag of Caputo in the basement since November and it seems to be holding up. I actually like regular King Arthur flour better for cooking in our kitchen oven but hope to start using the Caputo once I get the oven built (by July maybe?).

[papavino]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I'd say that your floor should have been much hotter than what you were operating at. We usually have near 500 to 650 degree temps on the floor before we start cooking pizzas. It's a pretty simple premise to test. It may also have to do with your proofing of the dough.

And PFI isn't quite near the West Seattle Bridge. Just take the Dearborn St. exit near the stadiums. It's not as if Seattle is that big. That spits you out right by PFI.

*Edit:
I checked the map and it's 8.7 miles from my house to PFI with an estimated time of 13 minutes in free traffic or 25 with heavy traffic.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Oh, I hadn't looked into it in too much detail. I don't head down toward the West Seattle Bridge too often.

How long will Caputo 00 flour last in a cool basement (not a freezer)?

Are your cornicones puffing up properly? Mine didn't on my first pizzas this weekend, but I don't think I was cooking at full temperature. Does the cornicone not puff up if the temp isn't high enough?

[papavino]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Half a day to go to PFI? It usually takes us 20 to 25 minutes to drive there, 15 to 30 minutes in store (depending on how much we buy and browse) and a comparable amount of time to come back. And we sometimes combine that with a trip to Uwajimaya. It's really not that inconvenient.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Well, at some point you have to have a big fire to hit those temps. It just seems to me to be moderately more efficient to ramp it up to that level.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I see, so a long moderate fire as opposed to an instantaneous bonfire. I suppose I can see the argument for that. I don't know if it's within the purview of my personality though.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I am a believer in a small fire to start then the big one. It seems to me that if you just start with a Big Scary Fire, then you are losing a lot of BTU's up the stack. There is a limit to the rate of heat absorption of the masonry mass, and I don't think it is linear. That is, the hotter it is, the faster it will absorb heat up to the point where it is heat-saturated.

I could be and am probably wrong, but that is my theory.

[vintagemx0]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I have to agree that you probably still have some moisture in the brick. I don't know how long your fire is, but I find I need to run mine hard for 1-1/2 hours for the bricks to saturate with heat. It used to take about 2 hours, but is easier to light and takes less time now. If you only burn it for about 50 or 60 minutes, I would think that a tremendous amount of heat is travelling through the bricks to their cooler side. There's a lot of mass to thoroughly heat there.

I was having the same performance "issues" you were, but you'll quickly learn what your particular oven needs. After my last pizza cook, I was amazed at the heat retention with the door installed. We had usable heat degrading only to 225 degrees after 2 days! I don't think it would have been very good with only 50 or 60 minutes though.

At this stage in your curing, try a good hard 2 hour burn, then cook your pizzas with a small log burning on the coals off to the side. I think the proper temperatures are a variable you need to consider in the quality of your dough too.

Congratulations! It's good to see your ready for summer.

Ken

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Re: Big John's Pacific Food Importers:

I intend to head down that way at some point. They have bulk and large volume Caputo flour, but they're so far away that the savings are only realizable if I buy a pretty significant amount. I'm not sure of the rate I'll go through it relative to its shelf-life. Bottom line, it's about $2/lb at Metropolitan Market and $1/lb at BFI, and it costs me about $2 and half a Saturday to drive there and back. If I buy 20lbs, that's $18 saved and much of a weekend shot. I dunno, maybe it's worth it.

Anyway.........