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Hi all
At the start of 2015 I started doing research and collecting materials. In July my father and i got cracking and built a WFO which is 850mm diameter, based on the Pompeii plans and a design that is common in NZ. I wanted to build this oven as cheap as possible, so we got a free hearth, free bricks for the base, free firebricks, some free insulation, and a very cheap flue, additional insulation at cost, and made our own tools.
I read so many pages on here, and while I didnt post much I learnt a whole lot. We ended up spending $500-600 nzd on it, plus a few new tools.
Thanks to everyone who said Insulate insulate insulate. We did. We have a rigid fibre blanket layer sandwiched between 5 layers of 9mm calcium silicate under the cooking floor and 2 layers of ceramic fibre blanket over the whole dome (3 on the top). We have brand new bricks for the cooking floor, and we have fire mortar between the dome bricks.
We had really bad cracking despite trying to cure it properly - so I ground them out, re mortared them, then slapped the insulation over and just assume it all looks perfect in there. We have a few cracks on the shell, but nothing major, and a few cracks through the bricks inside - perhaps a cost of using really old bricks, but they still hold heat.
We use free wood from pallets, and drift wood. Some of the pallets are tropical hardwood which is pretty great for heat.
We've had the dome up to 720 degC, and the cooking floor up to 550, but it is all a bit out of control at that heat - and I prefer it a bit cooler. We've held high temps for a good few hours and the outside of the dome gets to..... about 65 degrees. And under the hearth gets to about ... 28. maybe 30. So happy with that. It holds its heat brilliantly. If we do pizzas in the evening the floor will still be 100 in the morning (and that is without a proper door - just an oven tray over the outer arch (have plans for a really good thermal door, but also have a toddler and another on the way).
I've cooked ciabatta, flat breads, biscuits (cookies), garlic bread, stew, rhubarb, passionfruit, broadbeans, slow cooked goat, lots of baked potatoes, lots of frying pan stuff in the entrance, and of course PIZZA.
We've also used it for drying herbs, and drying fruit.
After a summer I have humbled myself and read a little about how to do the fire properly, and now have very little smoke. good times.
I have to get that door made, and finish a few cosmetic things to clean up the appearance, then we are done. (then it is time to start on the patio area and outdoor sink bench....)
Anyway - I just wanted to say THANKS to everyone on the forum.
I've recommended to quite a few people that they should just buy a pizza stone for their oven if they want good pizzas, and if they want a top spec. oven like ours, then $3000 (about what they cost here) is not a bad option - and no I wont build it for them.
Thanks once again
P.S. Things we could not have done without - Indispensable tool (how good is that thing), Diamond skill saw blade, diamond cutting blade for grinder
For those in NZ - real fire bricks hold a lot more heat than the cheap pizza ovens on trademe.
fire cement from MasterMix in Foxton.
Calcium silicate from http://www.forman.co.nz/ - they sold me some damaged stuff at cost (only damaged on the edges - no worries)
And I think I got my ceramic fiber blanket from firepro.
At the start of 2015 I started doing research and collecting materials. In July my father and i got cracking and built a WFO which is 850mm diameter, based on the Pompeii plans and a design that is common in NZ. I wanted to build this oven as cheap as possible, so we got a free hearth, free bricks for the base, free firebricks, some free insulation, and a very cheap flue, additional insulation at cost, and made our own tools.
I read so many pages on here, and while I didnt post much I learnt a whole lot. We ended up spending $500-600 nzd on it, plus a few new tools.
Thanks to everyone who said Insulate insulate insulate. We did. We have a rigid fibre blanket layer sandwiched between 5 layers of 9mm calcium silicate under the cooking floor and 2 layers of ceramic fibre blanket over the whole dome (3 on the top). We have brand new bricks for the cooking floor, and we have fire mortar between the dome bricks.
We had really bad cracking despite trying to cure it properly - so I ground them out, re mortared them, then slapped the insulation over and just assume it all looks perfect in there. We have a few cracks on the shell, but nothing major, and a few cracks through the bricks inside - perhaps a cost of using really old bricks, but they still hold heat.
We use free wood from pallets, and drift wood. Some of the pallets are tropical hardwood which is pretty great for heat.
We've had the dome up to 720 degC, and the cooking floor up to 550, but it is all a bit out of control at that heat - and I prefer it a bit cooler. We've held high temps for a good few hours and the outside of the dome gets to..... about 65 degrees. And under the hearth gets to about ... 28. maybe 30. So happy with that. It holds its heat brilliantly. If we do pizzas in the evening the floor will still be 100 in the morning (and that is without a proper door - just an oven tray over the outer arch (have plans for a really good thermal door, but also have a toddler and another on the way).
I've cooked ciabatta, flat breads, biscuits (cookies), garlic bread, stew, rhubarb, passionfruit, broadbeans, slow cooked goat, lots of baked potatoes, lots of frying pan stuff in the entrance, and of course PIZZA.
We've also used it for drying herbs, and drying fruit.
After a summer I have humbled myself and read a little about how to do the fire properly, and now have very little smoke. good times.
I have to get that door made, and finish a few cosmetic things to clean up the appearance, then we are done. (then it is time to start on the patio area and outdoor sink bench....)
Anyway - I just wanted to say THANKS to everyone on the forum.
I've recommended to quite a few people that they should just buy a pizza stone for their oven if they want good pizzas, and if they want a top spec. oven like ours, then $3000 (about what they cost here) is not a bad option - and no I wont build it for them.
Thanks once again
P.S. Things we could not have done without - Indispensable tool (how good is that thing), Diamond skill saw blade, diamond cutting blade for grinder
For those in NZ - real fire bricks hold a lot more heat than the cheap pizza ovens on trademe.
fire cement from MasterMix in Foxton.
Calcium silicate from http://www.forman.co.nz/ - they sold me some damaged stuff at cost (only damaged on the edges - no worries)
And I think I got my ceramic fiber blanket from firepro.
. How about some pics? And, make sure those pallets ain't been chemically treated.
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