Newbie Oven Project

[dmun]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Thank you Dmun for telling us about Royal Oak Lump charcoal for oven curing

That wasn't me: I still cook with the cheap stuff that smells like West Virginia when it burns.

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Sorry about two mistakes in my last comment. First I meant to thank Travis, but I wrote Tracy. Next I meant to thank Dmun about mentioning that Royal Oak is a lump charcoal available at Walmart. In the PDF on oven curing, it warns not to use charcoal and we were confused because some people in the forum were using it to cure there ovens with good results. We first tried a small wood fire, but the temperature was fluctuating and we couldn't maintain a temperature of 300 degrees for a whole day. The lump charcoal burns so steadily, a constant low temperature was possible to maintain.

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hi everyone,
Our oven project is finished and we've enjoyed it for the past couple of months. The dome design used dimensions obtained from the website:
Desert Domes - The 2v Dome Calculator
It is so stable that we can't see any hairline cracks between joints after numerous firings. The following photos show the finished exterior and the interior as it now appears.
We're still working on how to use a peel to place the pizza in the oven without spilling some of the toppings on the oven floor.

[Tim F]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

I've found that if you are having trouble getting the pizza off the peel, vibrating it back and forth quickly but not with a lot of movement if that makes sense, while you slowly move the peel back, usually gets it off. Love the oven!

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Thank you Tim for the advice. Tonight we tried your suggestion and it certainly reduced the loss of toppings off the pizza when I put it in the stove. With a little more practice I'm sure we'll be able to place the raw pizza just where we want in the stove without difficulty.

[Les]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Tiomarquito,

Dude - I missed your previous posts, your oven rocks! I love the interior as well as what you have done on the outside. The center stone - very cool!

Les...

[RTflorida]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

I will second all of the comments Les made...I do have one question - where the hell have I been, that I missed this thread until today?
Looks fantastic, and you've taken on a design that is far beyond what I am willing to do.....makes my head hurt thinking about all of the geometry involved. This is yet another testament to the skills and creativity of this forums members.

RT

[nissanneill]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hi Tiomarquito
following on from Tim's suggestion for sliding the peel from under your pizza without shaking off your toppings, I experienced your problems initially and got advice to sprinkle the peel with a little salt, place your finished pizza on it (or carefully assemble your pizza on it but don't press it down causing it to stick to the peel) and it will easily slide off with a short sharp jig, ie. push the peel into the oven and quickly slide the peel out with the front/leading edge sliding along the hearth..
Great work on your oven too by the way and I also just fell upon your thread.

Neill

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hi everyone.
Thanks for all the nice comments.
RT, All our angle calculations just confirmed the data given on the Desert Domes website mentioned in post#18. You only need 2 triangle shapes to form the dome and the angles of the edges between the inner and outer faces of each triangular casting are listed in post #6.
Neill, Thanks for the suggestion. Do you use regular table salt? Do you use a wood peel to make and insert the pizza in the oven?
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year!!!

[nissanneill]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Tiomarquito,
I use the cooking salt, (larger grains than the finer table salt) on an aluminium peel (because I haven't yet made my timber ones).
When I put in another similar post, one replied with the belief that I was adding excess salt to the delicate pizza base, but it is a hard material and just acts like ball bearings under the dough.
Other recommend using coarse rice flour or rye flour but that tends to burn on a HOT hearth and even though I don't use much if any salt in my cooking, I can't taste any from using it this way.
Seeing as it is 31 December here down under, and new years eve, I wish you and all the members a happy, safe and prosperous new year with many happy wonderful pizzas from their ovens.

Cheers.

Neill

[tdibratt]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Wow this is amazing. I have some questions.
1. I went to the desertdome site looking at the results for the 2V desert dome. If I key in 18 as the radius I presume this results in a dome that is 18 inches high.
Strut Length Dome Sphere
A 11.12 35 60
B 9.837 30 60

I presume this means I have 35 A sides and 30 B sides with the length's defined?

2. With a total of 65 sides and each triangle being 3 sides, is that 21-22 triangles I need to make?

3. The instructions state that for 2V Domes: 2v dome: bend A's 18?, and B's 16? on each end
It appears as thought you did that in your mold process, is that correct?

Great idea! And Great Job!

Thx

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Depending on the thickness of your oven, you will have another set of "A"s and "B"s for the outer surface of the castings. For each isosceles and equilateral triangular forms you will make, since A "outer" and "inner" and B "outer" and "inner" are different, you will have triangular shaped castings that interlock with the angles that we gave in our earlier posting in the forum.

Hope this helps.

[wemme]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hi tiomarquito,
Has the Cast floor worn at all over time?

Regards
Bart

[tiomarquito]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hello Bart,

The cast floor has not worn noticeably at all. After firing the oven to make pizzas,we use an aluminum bladed scraper to push the coals to the sides of the oven and then a brass brush to clean the ash off the baking surface before sliding in the pizzas.

Mark

[wemme]

Re: Newbie Oven Project

Hi Mark,
Thank you for posting back.
I Have poured the base of my oven and looking at putting down the insulation layer.
I'm still deciding if i build mine out of cast or brick or both.

You went for 2.25" thickness ~60mm how well does it heat up and how long does it hold it's heat for?

Dmun mentioned something about his oven breaking apart due to the thin walls have you had any issues like him?

Regards
Bart