Burned up my door!

[DrakeRemoray]

Well, I fired the oven all day yesterday for a pizza party. About 10 PM I scraped out the coals and put the door on to retain heat for cooking today...

I came out this morning to a totally burned door. All the wood burned out of it. I have been using this door for a while, so not sure what the difference was...there could have still been some coals in the oven, I usually swab it down a bit and did not do that...anyway, I needed a new door, because mine was ugly, but no baking or retained heat cooking today!

No damage to the oven at all...it actually burned out some of the soot from the vent.

Drake

[Frances]

Re: Burned up my door!

ooops!

Makes a good story though...

[SpringJim]

Re: Burned up my door!

Wooden door...sounds like a three little pigs story.....Wasn't it straw, wood or brick......

Good luck with the new one!

[jengineer]

Re: Burned up my door!

cal-sil the new wood substitute

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Burned up my door!

cal-sil the new wood substitute

Is that the current thinking, make the door out of FB board?
Drake

[SpringJim]

Re: Burned up my door!

CJ used a castable insulation material but FB board would be great. I'm wondering about recycling an old stove door and casting insulation on the back..might be pretty heavy!

[Wiley]

Re: Burned up my door!

Drake,
Do you know what the temperature inside your WFO was when you closed her up?

It seems to me that two doors are in order. One, very well insulated, that is designed to hold high heat for long periods. And a second for shorter periods of time at lower temps. The second would be for baking bread and the first for holding the heat overnight.

At the moment I'm planning on building two doors (and I'm planning on stacking block for the stand today so my oven is not completed). Since I have to wait while concrete cures I may build my doors while I'm waiting. I may be speeding things up too much right now.... I just poured the slab last Friday. A delay of a day is just 24 hours, while a crack lasts forever.

Wiley

[asudavew]

Re: Burned up my door!

Hey Man!

I am not sure if you noticed.
But from your pictures.. it looks like your door burned up.

What a bummer.

But... you get to make another.. and sometimes that is good.
That way you can change the things that you may not have liked.... or that didn't work the way that you wanted.

I have to build a new one too.

Mine is just to tight and it hangs on the bricks.

I made it out of sheet metal, with the intention of filling it with vermiculite.
I have some pictures some where........

Post some pics when you finish your new one. It will be neat to compare the two.

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: Burned up my door!

Is that the current thinking, make the door out of FB board?
Drake

I'm not sure, but I think there are some concerns about small fibers from the board. I know some WFO'ers are doing it that way. But I think it would be best to encapsulate the board somehow.

Or maybe I'm just full of it.

[jengineer]

Re: Burned up my door!

tongue was somewhat planted in cheek but yes encapsulate it like you would is you got your hands on a batch of asbestos. I would tend to frome inside of steel angle iron and then "plaster" over it with FB mortar mix. Yep heat sink and then insulation.

[asudavew]

Re: Burned up my door!

tongue was somewhat planted in cheek but yes encapsulate it like you would is you got your hands on a batch of asbestos. I would tend to frome inside of steel angle iron and then "plaster" over it with FB mortar mix. Yep heat sink and then insulation.

Thanks
I thought that was sort of the consensus.

[david s]

Re: Burned up my door!

If the fibres are ceramic fibre then they are a class 2 (whatever that is) carcinogen. I wouldn't put that near my food. Have just made my third attempt at insulating wooden door.
1. dense castable refractory fired to 1000 C and screwed to wooden door. This proved to be a poor insulator and still cooks the door.
2. vermicrete door coated with a lime/cement/kaolin wash. This insulated ok but is too brittle and crumbly and I don't think it'll last.
3. dense castable refractory mixed with perlite and fired to 1000 C The face closest to the fire I used less perlite so it's stronger and denser than the face against the wood.
All these three insulating panels were about an inch thick. The firing resulted in negligible shrinkage. Hoping no. 3 will be most successful

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Burned up my door!

Let me know how number 3 goes. I may just rebuild my wooden door and not use it unattended. Mine was very successful for many many retained heat bakes...I think a spark must have just gotten into the wood.

Maybe I will just stack firebrick in the door if I am going to leave it overnight.

[david s]

Re: Burned up my door!

I tried heatproof paint, sodium silicate and soaking the door in water. None of these methods work very well. Not placing the door in position unless the oven is below 300C is about the best method. I am hoping my latest insulating panel will work well and be sufficiently strong and durable- time will tell. The biggest hassle is firing it to 1000 C. You need access to a pottery kiln. I'll report back after I've used a fair bit.

[asudavew]

Re: Burned up my door!

If you guys are after the look of a wood door, why not try some of the cement board for house siding and house trim.
And then some high temp paint. You could paint it brown, let it dry real well, and then paint over it with a thinned out black paint. Before the black paint has much time to dry wipe it off really well. It will stay in the cracks and crevices and make it look more realistic. The technique is called antiquing.

Just a thought.