Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

[pjk]

Hi Everyone,

I've just started building my oven (layed concrete pad) even though I don't know exactly the final design or how it might end up. I just got a little impatient, so I bought a stack of materials, and have been collecting others and figured that I'd use most of them somewhere as I go. Not the best plan I know, but sometimes there is nothing like having the bricks etc.. sitting around so that you can lay them out and ponder different ideas over a cold one, or two. I've got a few questions that I'll post soon, but I'll poke around the site first and take in some of the info available.

I look forward to whatever advice you can all give me along the way, and then to cook a pizza, or roast, or ribs, or bread, or whatever.....

Cheers,
Peter

Toolman/Dave, I'll check out your photos on oven style and progress, maybe we can swap some local knowledge/ideas. Probably a pity I've already got most of what I need, it sounds like you might have been able to save me a few dollars. I got fire bricks etc.. from Darley. Nice staff, but maybe a little more $ than required, but never mind it's done now.

[toolman]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

I've only just joined the site myself so I don't know if I'm qualified to welcome you but hey....Welcome!!!

I look forward to watching your progress. If I can be of assistance any way please let me know.

Dave

[Bacterium]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

Hi Peter and welcome

have been on a number of holidays over your way and Keyneton is a nice spot.

Have a good read through here as there are some keys steps between an average oven and a good one.

So whats your thoughts on the next step?

[waitingtocook]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

Hey PJK, good to hear form another aussie and particularily another Vic! Carn the Cats! (Vicotrians will know what that means). Anyways, you said you have purchased your materials form Darley? What dii you get and what were the prices if you dont mind my asking. Im shopping around at the mo and any info would be great thanks.

[pjk]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the welcome, this site will surely make the project more fun and successfull.

Tooolman - you might be new to the site, but I checked your progress last night, and it looks pretty impressive. I haven't seen the idea of laying vermiculite slab under the structure of the hearth, I figure it's for insulation, but can't quite guage the benefit. Any further info on this concept would be great, my hearth was only going to be concrete slab around 90mm, 25mm (1 inch) silica insulation board and 38mm firebrick tiles with a bit of sand to bed it down. This might be looking a bit thin now?

Bacterium - My biggest quandry now is deciding whether to build a single oven, or twins side by side. I've struggled with what size to duild it, so now have an idea on building two. One for just me and the 2 kids that will fit enough for a large pizza, roast chook or leg of lamb, a couple of loafs of bread, or just mucking around with whatever. I figure this one would be about 600mm x 700mm, and then have a bigger one around 900 X 1200 (both tunnel shape). My rationale is practicability around heating it up for use. I figure I could heat the little one up for a pizza or roast in a couple of hours, whereas the a big one could take between 4 to 6 to organise a decent cook. Maybe my logic is a little skewed on this and I should just do the larger one, or sacrifice a little size and build one somewhere in the middle. Any thoughts amongst the group?

Waitingtocook - I'll PM you with some details on what I got from Darley and prices. Not sure if it's the done thing to post here. (Not at all suggesting that I'm disappointed with them, nor that I got some secret deal, good people and got what I wanted)

Having said all that, I checked out the "one hour oven" on this site last night, and it makes you wonder why we go to all the effort. I might whip one up to do a couple of cook ups while building.

Thanks again, cheers,
Peter

[dmun]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

My biggest quandry now is deciding whether to build a single oven, or twins side by side. I've struggled with what size to duild it, so now have an idea on building two.

If you are going to build twin ovens, consider building a high-mass rectangular bread oven and a low-mass round pizza oven. They do very different jobs, and the high-mass barrel vault ovens never do a very good or efficient job with pizza. They shine where you need hours of constant temperature, like for multiple bread bakes, or big roasts. If your primary interest is pizza, you may not be happy with just a bread oven: It's hard to get that much mass that hot.

[Bacterium]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

From what I read on here - heat up time for most ovens (unless large amounts of mass are added) are maybe between 45mins and 2-3hours Max.
-others will correct me if my assumption is incorrect
An all firebrick built oven(internals) will be quicker whereas "pressed reds" type of materials(like mine) take longer - however mine heats within 3hrs. worst case scenario.- cold weather and moist wood
By "heated up" I mean the dome (internal) becomes heat soaked to the point where it burns all the soot off the top - sometimes call "white hot"

Also it depends on the order in which you will cook/eat things . For example if I was to do a roast meat and Veg kind of meal I generally wouldn't be doing pizza. However I could do pizzas first (using the higher heat) and then do the roast as the oven temp drops down.
Having said that I've cooked pizzas (oven at high heat) and then in a cast iron skillet(fry pan) cooked stuff in the oven opening(where its a lower heat) at the same time eg. Meatballs.
They are a pretty versatile oven - and don't forget pizzas only take around 2mins. so say you have 2 in the oven and are preparing the next two you will find it all happens very quick and you don't really need more floor space than that.

So the main question is - What you intend to cook and who you will feed - its it mainly for entertaining or do you want to bake/sell eg. bread ???

.....I'm ranting a bit but hopefully it makes some sense for ya.

[pjk]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

Guys,

Thanks for the responses, why is it that for every answer another couple of questions arise. The life of a newbie I guess. Anyway I'll ponder the info you have past on, and start posting a few queations on various topics in the newbie section.

Lots of food for thought, can't wait until I can cook some of it.

Cheers,
Peter

[nissanneill]

Re: Hi from Kyneton, Vic, Australia

Hi Peter,
my 40" Pompeii heats up in around 2 hours and used around 15 to 20kg of split redgum.
Once at 500?C, it's time to cook pizzas for an hour or so (including some for the freezer) then breads , rolls and spicy fruit buns (at around 350?C) and then time to put in the lamb leg for roasting and around an hour later the veg. When ready, I put in the apple pie which finishes the day.
Cooking starts at 1:00pm and finishes at around 7:30pm. Close the oven doors (which incidentally are not yet insulates, just cast aluminium) and next morning it is still at 170?C.
Check out my threads for the progress at:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f21/...-4-a-2045.html

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f21/...10-a-2119.html

for most of the construction details.

Neill