Alabama oven

[DixieDwayne]

Greetings,
I attended the North House Folk School May 20th to learn how to build ovens from Mr. Allan Scott. This was one of the best experiences I have had in my life! These are some pics of the oven I have nearly finished. They were taken when we cooked our first pizza. The best advice I can give to anyone building their own oven is to SLOW DOWN, think about each step and enjoy the experience.

[james]

Welcome Alabama

Great advice Dwayne,

We're looking forward to you photos, and hearing about how the oven cooks.
James

[cdavis]

Howdy

Dwayne, I'm from Auburn Alabama. But I live down Mexico now. check out my unfinished oven.
aspv.edu.mx/~cdavis/OvenWeb/

[maver]

Beautiful oven Chris, that wire trick is smart, and the final pictures show you executed the semisphere dome perfectly. The close up of the coals with the blossoming flames above is my favorite though - it's hard to capture the beauty of billowing flames.

The pumice block sounds like a nice way to insulate. How long does it take to heat to a white hot dome? Can you feel any heat on the outside walls when it's been fired for a few hours (I'm guessing no with that thickness)?

[Marcel]

Great oven in Mexico. Worth a trip, even to just his site!

(M) Really a fabulous oven with terrific photo documentation found at:

www.aspv.edu.mx/~cdavis/OvenWeb/

(M) Question for you, Chris: How did you support your dome as you started to close it in? ____

(M) I found the shape, and especially the chimney to be very much in character with that Mexican landscape. Also, using those light "jol"? insulating bricks under your hearth fire bricks was a great use of existing materials.

(M) I recommend everyone visit his site for a great sight!

Ciao,

Marcel

[james]

I can't get that URL to load. Is anyone else having a problem?

Looking forward to seeing it. When I get there, can I post a photo on Forno Bravo Photos?
James

[jengineer]

James it does take a while to load.

I am using Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 as my browser on a very fast system - not mine as my home system still uses dial-up.

This is what cdvis's link will resolve to and it may be quicke to go this route. Also if the server is down then you won't get in.

http://201.116.226.229:8080/~cdavis/OvenWeb/

[cdavis]

Mexico Oven

Thanks for the enthusiasm.
Takes about 2 hrs to heat it up good enough to cook some bread and then a chicken or something. White hot? I don't know yet. I have been bringing it to about 550 F. and it cools slow enough to get the job done, about 4 hrs total above 350.The dome warms up a tiny bit on the outside but just noticeable. The front part of my dome is where the flew is and that can get hot. And I have a little crack there...whaaa.
I supported the last part of the dome with a plastic 5 gal bucket with some sand on top. That wire trick is really cool and so simple. I built a large, 2 meter diameter, cupola on top of my house using that technique.
Another trick is to make some wire hooks with a brick on one side and the hook on the other. so when you start laying your 5th or 6th row of bricks you can slap your morter and brick down and then put one of these hangers on the outside of the dome and it will hold you brick in place while you stick your next brick.
It's kind of hard to explain but very simple if you could see it. I should add a picture of that to my site.
Thanks y'all.
cd

[maver]

wire hooks

I think I follow you with the wire hooks but a picture would be great - I think these different techniques others have used to build the brick oven or create great food in it are the best function of this site!