The Meados Oven

[ChrisMead]

Thanks to all the advice I've read over the past few months I've started building my WFO. The idea's and design keep changing as I go along but hopefully now it's nearly sorted (!!)

The oven's going to be a barrel vault as this seemed to give the most cooking area. Whilst I want to cook pizza's most of the time I think we will be using it instead of our electric indoor oven - anything to cut down on the electric bill.

Anyway I dug the footings out on 21st September then had a few weeks rest until I started with the block work. Since then everything has been going at full pelt and tonight Iv'e been putting the first layer of insulation onto the oven. I've got a deadline of 21st November for my 'little helper's' pizza and firework birthday party (weather permitting) if not it will have to be Pizza Hut!!

I've attached some photo's but there will be more in the photo gallery

Thanks again for everyone's advice

Chris

[staestc]

Re: The Meados Oven

Well, welcome Chris!! It looks good! Please join in and keep posting the pictures!

Travis n'Texas

[nodoubt68]

Re: The Meados Oven

Hi there Chris,
I really like your "stand" , your design is one I may have to borrow :-)
We are still in the throws of gathering materials and information. Hope to continue watching your progress, good luck matey.
Cheers Lee :-)

[ChrisMead]

Re: The Meados Oven

Had a full day's building today - whilst dodging the good old British rain/wind. Had to rig up a makeshift tent to keep working.

Got the entrance arch done and started on my chimney. Also added more vermiculite insulation to the dome. It's weird stuff to work with, just when you think it is sticking a bulge appears and next thing you know you've got an avalance.

Rain finally stopped play at about 6pm. I'll start again first thing in the morning - weather forecast is good so hopefully I'll be able to make a start on rendering the stand.

Chris

[ChrisMead]

Re: The Meados Oven

Been busy again for the past couple of days. Got a first coat of render on the stand and have had a couple of curing fires.

Was raining on and off yesterday so I took the time to lay somes slabes around the front of the oven - had to get rid of the grass that was turning into a swamp!!

Had some bigger fires today. It looks as if there is some smoke coming through the vermiculite. I'm thinking about getting some fire cement to point up the joints inside the oven to stop the smoke/heat escaping. The vermiculite layer also started to get warm on the top of the oven so I'm going to put another layer on.

Chris

[Dutchoven]

Re: The Meados Oven

Had some bigger fires today. It looks as if there is some smoke coming through the vermiculite. I'm thinking about getting some fire cement to point up the joints inside the oven to stop the smoke/heat escaping. The vermiculite layer also started to get warm on the top of the oven so I'm going to put another layer on.

Chris

Chris
More likely steam and not smoke...there is a lot of moisture in hydrated concrete and mortar ezpecially vermicrete as the vermiculite additive holds a lot as well...continue to fire it and drive all of that moisture out...you should see progressively less steam as time goes on and certainly keep it dry by covering with a tarp or such until you get an enclosure or weatherproof layer on it...a wet insulator isn't an insulator...
Best
Dutch

[Frances]

Re: The Meados Oven

I really like the the look of your double archways, very nice!

[ChrisMead]

Re: The Meados Oven

Dutch,
Thanks for the advice. I had another fire last night and when there was loads of smoke in the oven there seemed to be some coming through the vermiculite. Later when the smoke in the oven had died down the vermiculite layer was definately giving off loads of steam. It's gone cold and damp here in the UK and I think its going to take some time to completely dry the oven out.

I've been covering the oven with a tarp every night and when I take it off there's lots of condensation on the inside of it. Tonight I'm going to try and build a make-shift frame over the oven so that the moisture doesn't get trapped by the tarp resting on the oven.

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisMead]

Re: The Meados Oven

I've been trying to increase the size of the fires but I think the wood I've got is too damp to get any real heat into the oven. I suppose at least it's forcing me to take the curing process slowly.

It's been really cold here over the past couple of days - struggling to get above freezing during the day. Last night after the fire had died down I blocked the oven door with some spare fire bricks. This morning, with frost all over the garden and an air temperature of -2Celcius, the oven was still warm so at least I must have done something right!!

Hopefully I'll be able to get hold of some drier wood by the weekend so that I can really get the fire going well and have a go at cooking something. I'm starting to get hungry.

Chris

[christo]

Re: The Meados Oven

Hi Chris,

Great progress!!! After your next curing fire dies out, put tomrrows wood in the oven and put the door on. That should help to dry the wood out.

I don't believe driving the moisture out of the wood this way will have an adverse affect on drying your oven out.

Make sure the fire is completly out and very few coals left - I made a mistake once and my leaky door allowed my whole load of wood to catch fire!

I know what you mean about being hungry!! I've been out of the country for a while and am looking forward to getting home and firing my oven back up.

Christo

[ChrisMead]

Re: The Meados Oven

Christo

Thanks for the advice. I'd already read something along these lines on the forum so last night after my fire I shoved a load of split logs in the oven and shut off the door with some left over fire bricks.

Tonights fire got started a lot quicker with the 'dried' logs. It was probably helped by the fact that I managed to get hold of some old wooden pallets from work which provided a lot of kindling!!

At last the oven really looked as I hoped it would with flames licking the roof. In some places the soot has started to burn off.

After me and my little helper had been stoking the fire for about 90 minutes my wife came home from work, cracked an egg in an old roasting tin and shoved it in the oven. A couple of minutes later there was a perfect fried egg - slapped it on a slice of toast (also done in the oven) and we had our first meal!!

Next was a couple of sausages - no photo''s of these as we'd ate them before I thought about photo's.

I'm going to have to sort out some lighting around the oven as cooking by torchlight, whilst fun, probably isn't the best way to go.

Anyway after the food I let the fire die down and shoved in more logs to dry for tomorrow's fire. There was lots of steam coming off the oven so I was hoping to leave it uncovered for a while to get rid of the moisture, unfortunately I've just had to rush outside and cover everything up as we're having a wintery shower.

Can't wait for tomorrow night when I can fire it up again - I must be one of those people that the Fire Brigade hate to see out on the loose!!

Chris