48" Mobile Oven Build

[nuovopizzas]

Thank you gio this was the perfect suggestion it solves a few of my problems.

[Giovanni Rossi]

You're welcome. Also, if you have some 1/4" or 1/2" hardware cloth laying around; that flue cap will come apart and you can wrap a piece of the hardware cloth inside to make a spark arrestor.

[nuovopizzas]

Well fast forward 4 or 5 steps and this is what you end up with

[nuovopizzas]

Hey guys,

(ALL PICTURES ATTACHED IN GOOGLE FOLDER BELOW)

I have some time to do a more formal write up of my process to get to my finished product.

Last update I left on my page, I had cast the inner dome over my fiberglass mold on my wooden table. Then I had my custom metal stand fabricated, and the big question I was facing was how was I going to transport my inner dome from my mold to my metal stand where it would sit in one piece.

Before that, I laid 4 inch CaSi board (expensive stuff off amazon) in the shape of my dome on my tabletop, with fire bricks then cut out to shape on top of that. My metal stand has a metal band that is 6 inches wider in diameter leaving me 3 inches to pour 5:1 vermiculite between it and the firebrick/CaSi board which would effectively lock my bricks in place while also allowing some expansion and contraction due to the softness of the vermiculite.

After doing that, with the help of some straps and a forklift, I cut 4 inch circular holes through my plywood, fed the straps through the outer edge and inner edge of the dome on both sides. I then used my forklift to lift it off the ground, and hammered the table down to dislodge it from the dome. (I either didn't use enough release agent, or it was just stuck after sitting for a couple months on the mold), did not release easily.

Once the inner dome was placed on firebricks, I faced the problem of getting straps out from underneath the ~400 lb dome. For this, I used a burnout technique. I changed the straps I was using to thinner ones by placing the dome down on a pallet, disconnecting the straps and connecting new thinner ones. I then used thin fire starter squares that are these thin pieces of dense material used to start fires, they have extended burn times. I placed those around edge of dome, placed dome on top, removed straps, and pretty much lit those up, and they slowly burned out and dropped dome into final position, creating a good seal between fire bricks and dome.

Steps after this were placing around 4-6 inches of insulating blanket that I picked up directly from the Forno Bravo factory in Monterey (about a 3 hour trip where I am from and well worth it to see how they do things over there). I tightened chicken wire around the fire blanket as lathe, and used a 2:2:2:2 mix sand, Portland, fireclay, vermiculite mix with AR fibers and stainless steel needles added for strength. I do not think this was the best mix and wasn't necessary because further insulation was not required for the amount of fire blanket I used. It added unnecssary weight to my oven which is not helpful for being in a trailer. In hindsight would have just done a thin layer of stucco. I also do not think this mix is very strong. I got a lot of shrinkage hairline cracking, that I think could cause some problems down the road, but I am hoping it holds up for now. It was a 1.5-2" thick layer.

I test fit my flue into my dome, made sure everything fit, used a special double wall to single wall adapter thing suggested by Giovanni to get my flue in place. and it was ready to go into the trailer. Thankfully I measured everything correctly and i used a forklift to drop the oven into the trailer through the back barn doors, I cut a hole in my roof, and place the flue in. I used a high heat flashing and sealed it with some flex seal rubber stuff.

Lastly, I had a friend of mine cut out a 5 inch granite table and arch and install that for me, gives it a professional finish.


Guys, I am astonished by the smoke pull created by this 8 inch diameter flue. Not even a little smoke ever escapes out the front.


I haven't taken it on the road yet, because I have yet to bolt it down to the frame of the trailer. Going to work on that this week. The inner dome seems very strong and I don't see any cracking anywhere, even with bringing it up to temp 3 or 4 times now. ~850*. I did about 5 or 6 small fires that I gradually grew to get the concrete used to the expanding and contracting. I kind of the just brain barfed out everything, and if you have any other specific questions let me know, because I'm sure I'm missing a lot of details that some of you might be interested in. This was a 3-4 month process and I feel like a freakin' pro now! I can pump out wood fired oven trailer all day! Now just to find out how it holds up to being on the road haha! The ultimate test.


Look at pictures here https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...usp=drive_link

[nuovopizzas]

It's been about a month of running my wood fired oven trailer. Everything is still working great. I am cranking out beautiful traditional neapolitan pizzas, and the oven is working perfectly. Might have dropped the dome height a little bit if I were to do it again so that I get better melting on the pizza but it is rly no big deal.

[david s]

Great work, now the fun begins with cooking in it. Did you remember to fit shocks to the trailer. Bumps and vibration are your enemy with a mobile oven.