Hello to a Newbie

[Buzard]

Hey there Pizza fans,

I have been lurking here for a while and decided I need to sign up and be able to ask questions to all the knowledgeable people on this forum. I have been looking to build my own cast over sand pizza oven soon, but in the mean time I had built a dry stack oven to use and see if the location was to my liking before committing to building the real thing. I have used this oven now for 2 years and have loved the pizza coming out of it.

I had my first home cooked wood fired pizza in Vancouver, Washington while visiting my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in Dec 2014. We were invited across the street to have pizza by a fellow Canadian (sister-in-law is from Calgary) to have Dec 24 meal. I was instantly hooked and then when I was told that he had built his own oven and this was his 5th he had built I knew that I needed to do the same.

I have been researching a lot in the recent months on the site and am thinking of starting soon.

Thanks for all the info and expertise everyone has supplied.

B

[UtahBeehiver]

I suggest you down load the eplans from our forum host Forno Bravo, they are only a few bucks, a little dated but will give you a good baseline to design from. Then peruse the Treasure Archives in the Newbie section to see some of the more documented brick builds, finally look at David S posts, he is our resident cast oven builder.

[Buzard]

I have tried to post a few pics of my oven but it says that my pocs are in a wrong type of file the using the left side camera tab. Not sure maybe its an issue when posting through my phone. Will try another day after transferring pics to the computer

[UtahBeehiver]

Pictures cannot be any larger than about 1.25 meg with about a maximum of 5 pics per post. You may have to reduce the file size in order to post or take with less resolution.

[SableSprings]

Glad to have you on board the forum Buzard! One of the main problems for posting pictures is the file size. The current limits on photos are just above 1 MB. Lots of ways to reduce your resolution. My android phone has an option to resize pics before I send them and I use a free utility on my desktop that works great. If you shoot for 800x600 pixels (screen standard), the photos will be well below the forum limits and extremely useful from "our end" in viewing. The free desktop utility (Windows) that I have used for years is FastStone Photo Resizer, but there are lots of them available on the web. Also there is a limit of 6 photos per post.

Hope that helps and again welcome to the forum.

Chuckle...as you can see, there are always several folks willing to help answer questions...Russell just beat me to this one.

[Buzard]

[Buzard]

Well I messed that up. I was going to comment then add pics after I was sure they would load up.

Thanks for the help. Looks like file size was the issue. Downloaded an app to resize and ta dah there they are.

My oven. Simple and cheap built. Used cinder blocks. Lined with used solid red bricks on the floor and sides. Side walk blocks for the top and some other pavers to block in leaks. As you can see, the sidewalk blocks don't always survive. The one above the opening broke over winter and the rear was in 4 pieces for over a year. Since this pic a few weeks ago i have since changed the set up a bit. I went with another course of blocks in the rear so it is 3 blocks high now ans 2 high on the front. I was trying to get a more dome like shape. I was having my flame be right under the top slab so I wanted more room for that.

I did a prime rib for the first time in the oven after changing the design to see what i could get for heat. Spaghetti squash and new potatoes i put on the slab about the flame covered to cook and later I put them in to get some char in the oven. roasted heads of garlic on top of the oven also. I was very happy on how the prime rib tuned out. Seared both sides then bathed in beer and covered to protect it from the 400-500 f heat i was getting. was hoping to do it again this weekend but we are having rain this weekend it says so. Maybe the next weekend. Or pizzas. Have not had pizzas since Xmas week.

[Buzard]

I did some wood fired cooking on the weekend. 1/ 4 chickens, baked potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. All turned out real nice