What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

[thamnophis]

Sorry for you not old enough to appreciate a little Elvis reference :-)

We all know that the arched doorways are pretty, but from a purely functional standpoint, do they serve any purpose over a flat topped, square doorway?

Speed is of the essence for me and I think I can build a squared off doorway much easier and with much less mortar than an arched one.

I was also curious about the idea of a smoke chamber? How does it enhance change things? How would the oven function differently if there was just a flat surface before the chimney opening?

[Alter ego]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

....How would the oven function differently if there was just a flat surface before the chimney opening?

I can help out on this bit. I initially built my chimney opening as an arch with the chimney directly in to it. I found that it was not very effective at collecting the smoke and about 50% came out the front.

I rebuilt my arch with a smoke chamber and now I do not get any smoke out the front.

Of course none of the made any difference how the oven cooked pizza it was just that I didn't want smoked stained bricks at the front of the arch.

Below are pics of the two different systems.

[brickie in oz]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

A flat front would require a steel support, the steel will/should expand differently to a brick arch and cause problems.

[Tscarborough]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

An arch is a structural method to bridge an opening. The fact that it is aesthetically pleasing is a bonus.

The purpose of a smoke chamber is to provide a smooth transition from the oven to the flue, thus improving the draft.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

Hey Tham,

I have a square (rectangular) door. I cast a lintel out of refractory materials with rebar inside. There was some trepidation about the difference of expansion of the rebar withing my lintel, but so far no problems (several years now). I also cast a vent out of the same material and the large smoke chamber means no smoke out of the front. If I had it to do over again, I would do it the same way as I think it is much superior to a an arched opening without a smoke chamber (many builders seem to just have a hole in the top of the arch and attach the chimney there). An alternative would be to build up a smoke chamber out of bricks above the arch. I have seen that in some builds and it seems successful. But really casting the vent was pretty easy and it made attaching the dome to the chimney stack really easy. The only thing I would do differently would be to use a different refractory material. I used an insulating refractory which is a little flimsy. I would use one that has a little more strength to it, though as I said, no issues with performance at all really.

You can see my process in my thread below.

Drake

[thamnophis]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

Thanks all - Drake, I like how you went about your build - I'll have to get some feedback from you about the metal structure you built - I plan to go that route, but don't even know what its called :-)

Brickie - I seem to recall someone, maybe Tscar say that the angle iron is "free iron" so should not be mortared, allowing for expansion. Don't quote me, but its searchable here.

Thanks for the photos and info AlterEgo, it looks like I'll have to implement that as you have.

Here's a pic from a curing fire I did today. Turns out it should have been smaller and later :-(

[brickie in oz]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

I love the way the chook is queuing up to get cooked.....

[thamnophis]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

She wouldn't stay out of the oven until I actually got the fire going! Even then she tried to get in. I figured she was volunteering :-)

[Tscarborough]

Re: What's so funny about (peace, love and) square doors?

That is a good looking big oven. Have you mortared in the brick on the end? It looks like you should move the opening up one more brick for the optimal size for draw. Overall inside oven height appears to be about 23", and your opening is only a tad over 11". 14.5 would be the 63% optimal, but even moving it up 2-1/4 would help.