36" in Seattle

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

It's a fine line between meticulous and obsessive-compulsive and a slippery rope between obsessive compulsive and debilitatingly slow.

Thank you for the compliment.

[bruced]

Re: 36" in Seattle

That castle is creative, and functional. You are a great dad. Wish I had thought of that for my three daughters!

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

The people living in that house now like it too, or I should say their Dog loves it. They put a plywood roof on it and it is now his castle.

[Raffy]

Re: 36" in Seattle

It's a fine line between meticulous and obsessive-compulsive and a slippery rope between obsessive compulsive and debilitatingly slow.

I totally understand the obsessive compulsive part. If it's worth doing it's worth being done right (or it's worth over-doing). As slow as you think you went, you have made an amazing oven.

Bravo on such great work.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I noticed a pretty complete crack in my entry arch tonight. It's a hairline on the right side of the keystone and seems to run most of the length of the entire joint. I'm a little perplexed because I haven't fired the oven in quite a while, a week or two I'd guess. I'm not sure how a crack suddenly appeared.

Grrr...I hope it's okay. My concern is obviously that in the worst case the arch could actually settle or (unthinkably) collapse. I think that is highly unlikely, but I am a little concerned that it might settle and that consequently much of the brickwork above it could crack as well. It is a very "important" joint in that it is vertical and near the keystone. In a more horizontal joint, the adjoining bricks would simply press against one another, but in this vertical joint I'm worried that there may be a significant amount of sheer that could permit the disconnected pieces to slide relative to one another.

Ironically, this crack seems to have developed along one of my thinnest, tightest joints. Seems a little odd to me.

<sigh>

[kebwi]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

As promised (long ago), here's a shot showing how my vent transitions to my steel pipe. The vent opening is about 6"x9" and the steel pipe is 8" interior, 10" exterior. It isn't optimal, but it's not too bad either.

Cheers!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Hey Keb,
Your oven is great, I dodnt think your crack is horrible or even bad... Just keep an eye on it,,, Maybe you can clean it out with a dremel and repoint it ?? or if you have any cutting dust left pack it in and mist it with water, You could try doing it while the oven is hot (just after cooking and cooling down) and the crack is a little larger from expansion.. It is a thin tight joint perhaps there just wasnt enough mortar in there to grab and you lost too much moisture from the bricks sucking it in... Either way, I would just keep an eye on it, then decide what you want to do.. Your oven was one of the best jobs I have seen here in quite a while.. relax and enjoy
Mark

[kebwi]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Two more almost-hairline cracks, one in each of the two layers of my inner arch, the arch into which the dome merges.

As stated before, these seem to have appeared long after any firing. It has been, um, two weeks I think since I fired the oven.

I hope it's all okay.

Ah me.

[sjmeff]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

I would tend to think that because you have a semi-circular arch, the weight of the arch and the bricks above it will keep the arch structurally sound.

I have a hairline crack in my inner arch (same position as the picture you first posted), but the weight of the dome and the rest of the arch keep it solidly in place.

[kebwi]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Started building the planter walls. It was frustratingly slow work. I was trying to ensure that the wall is perfectly vertical and perfectly level. I'm a very slow brick-layer.

It's hard to see in the second photo, but many of the drain hole cuts are actually cut on two axes since they occur at corners of the wall and need to be a consistent width as they project through the wall. Whatever, it doesn't matter.

Someday I'll finish this oven.

Cheers!

[kebwi]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Finally finished building the planter walls. I've been chipping away at them slowly over the last week. The weather has not helped.

Made pizzas seven and eight, thai chicken and hawaiian. They worked very well. I have noticed a trend however. My crust is always very tough, veritably difficult to eat. One has to positively gnaw through it. Any suggestions would be welcome, I'm not sure what to change, either in recipe, dough handling/preparation, or cooking practice.

Made the first real bread. We've made store-frozen bread before but not from-scratch bread. This is an Outback Steakhouse copycat recipe that we like a lot. We've made it in the house before and thought we'd try it as our inaugural WFO bread. We put a few in loaf pans because they weren't rising very effectively and were worried they would stay flat when we cooked them. However, the three we cooked directly on the hearth puffed up vertically very nicely, so we could have done all of them without the pans it turns out.

Note, that since the bread's recipe online assumed people were using normal ovens, it prescribed temperatures in the 350 range, so that is how we cooked them. The hearth was 350-375 and the dome was about 400-450, door (air) thermometer registering about 220. I sprayed mist in the oven a few times while baking. When I follow the FB hearth bread recipes I intend to cook them at the higher temperature associated with such breads, but since we didn't know what effects what, we stuck with the lower temperatures that corresponding to the recipe we were following. I'm not really sure how this all plays out.

On a final note, one can easily observe that I fully cleared my dome this time (both in-oven photos show this). Woo hoo!

Cheers!

[david s]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Hey Kebwi,
Try adding some semoiina to your dough mix. Also, are you using pizza flour?

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Hey Keb,,,
Your planters are looking great !!! pizzas and bread are looking good too... Your attention to detail is impressive, I wish I could help you with the dough recipes bot thats not my areas,,, Knowin you I'm sure it will work out

Cheers
Mark

[kebwi]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

Hey Kebwi,
Try adding some semoiina to your dough mix. Also, are you using pizza flour?

We're using the uber stuff, the Caputo Pizzeria flour. You can see a photo of the 55lb blue bag in one of my previous posts. Should I still add semolina to that or did you only mean to add that to "cheapo" flour?

[tfasz]

Re: 36&quot; in Seattle

What is your dough mixing/rising routine?

I've been using Sourdough starter for the past year, and have been really happy with it for both pizza dough and home made bread (cooked in our kitchen oven for the time being). I usually mix the dough on a Wed/Thur night for pizza and then let it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days and cook on the weekends. The crusts have been turning out great though I prefer using a mix of Caputo and King Arthur flour as 100% Caputo does not seem to brown/crisp well in our kitchen oven.

I'm more than happy to pass along some starter if you want to swing by sometime - once you get used to it, it is really easy to use and keep going. I haven't touched my yeast in the last 6 months.