Show us your Door Thread

[Pete C]

Hi folks

I am going to try and build door out of two 1" pieces of CaSi board wrapped in .002" 304 stainless steel foil. I will cover all exposed edges of the CaSi board with the foil and glue it on with Rutland metal-to-masonry furnace cement. I plan to add an oak or walnut backing to the entire assembly. I may also add a thicker plate of stainless for the bottom portion of the door which contacts the brick floor. Here is a pic of the foil and both CaSi pieces. What do you guys think? Is there another adhesive that you would recommend for attaching stainless to CaSi and CaSi to wood? I will post again once I start putting it together.

[SableSprings]

You are correct, the door will snuff out the fire and it is not intended that you have an active fire while using the door. The door is used during baking with retained heat and to keep the oven chamber relatively clean & dry when not in use (and it looks better as well...nobody likes looking at a bunch of ashes and charcoal pieces).

There are basically two ways you can use the oven: 1) Hot with active fire--pizza or 2) lower temperature, no fire/coals, for roasting and baking. My personal opinion is when you are starting fires in the oven, I like to heat the oven "gently" at first and then increase the burn rate for both uses. You can heat your oven one of three ways: 1) build a small fire and gradually add more wood to increase the oven temp to pizza target levels; or 2) use the door as a damper to keep the fire from growing too fast, opening the door more and more and gradually removing it as the fire grows and the oven heats up; or 3) just load up the oven with wood and light it off without the door in place . Lots of folks just build a medium fire right away and then add wood as the fire gets going well...I'm just more in favor of the gentle start approach for my oven and I'm mainly looking at baking bread the next day after firing. In general, I don't think many people use the door when firing up for pizza or during the pizza cooking. After the pizzas are cooked and the fire has burned down to coals, closing the door does starve the fire and basically puts it out (depending on how airtight your door is). I believe Gulf does this and then uses the resulting charcoal in his next firing.

For the lower temp, baking option--for instance baking bread or roasting meats, you want to heat the oven and then remove the fire/coals. When the coals have been removed and the oven temperature has cooled down slightly over your target temperature, putting the door on tightly for half and hour, allows the oven to equalize all your baking mass to the same temperature. I start fires for my bread bakes the night before and once the fire is going, I put the door on so there is an inch or two open on the top & sides--dampening position. This slows down the fire rate because of the reduced available air and as a result it burns more slowly and heats the oven up more gradually through the night. Usually in the morning my oven is well saturated with heat and the fire has been reduced to coals. I clear out the remaining coals, blow the ashes off the cooking floor, and put the door on tightly. After a half and hour, I open the equalized oven and check the temperature. I've done this often enough that I'm generally within 25°F of my target baking temp. I load my bread loaves in the oven, mist the oven chamber, and then close the door to keep in the moisture and maintain temperature. Roasting meats and other things works pretty much the same way...oven is heated, cleaned, equalized, and then the door is used to maintain the target temp while baking whatever is on the menu.

That's why the door is just inside the landing and against the oven opening, when you close it--the oven's heat does not escape out the chimney and allows you to do retained heat cooking. Sorry to be so long winded and I hope this answers your question. By the way, your oven is beautiful and the door is awesome.

I enjoyed Quito and El Monte very much when I visited there in 2012...beautiful parks and the TelefériQo was really a great experience.

[stovallsh]

I live in Ecuador and this was my first oven build. The oven is made from mud bricks, mud mortar and mud/straw layer on top. All of this is covered with chicken wire, fiber mat and then cement. The oven works very well. We made the door in 3 layers: metal on the inside, fiber mat, then wood on the outside. We made the oven using Forno Bravo's design. As such, the door is just inside the chimney. I've never understood why, exactly. When I close the door, the fire is snuffed out, so I always need to leave the door open a bit. Can someone help make this more clear to me? Is the door not meant to ever be closed when there is an actual fire going?

[Roger705]

2in thick with the same insulting board my oven floor is on.

[plastered]

My sloppy non-weld door based on Greenmans build -- The only thing I'm worried about is the ceramic fiber blanket pokes out a little bit in the corners, since my cuts and bends were poor. Cost me about 80 dollars for the aluminum sheets, sheet metal screws, and angle. Weights about 10 lbs. Took me a full afternoon to build. I wanted wooden handles but the Lowes I went to didn't have any, and I was impatient.

[Mongo]

Metal door!
The dude that made this builds race cars. Very talented.
There's 3 inches of blanket inside. Used it for the first time last Saturday night after a pizza fire. Works like a charm.
The handles are replacements for concrete floats. Bolted to nuts that are tacked onto the backside of the front plate. Thanks to JRPizza

At baking temps we will still use the wood door. Lighter weight so my wife likes it better.

[UtahBeehiver]

Could be a little, K value of oak is about 0.17 and stainless about 8ish. Put some CaSi board or ceramic blanket inside and it will help reduce the heat transmission. But SS would burn up either. PS wood doors work great at lower temps.

[Mongo]

I don't weld so put this wood door together for about $140 and a few hours work. Red oak.
I'm putting it on the oven the morning after a pizza fire and getting a nice baking temp in the 300's for 2 days.
I couldn't resist placing it on the oven before bed on the night of a pizza fire and charred it pretty good. The next day the oven temp was 550 in the afternoon. Stayed in the baking range for 2 more days.
I'm having a metal door made but I really love this little bugger.

Going to be interesting to compare the 'performance' of an insulated stainless door to the wooden version. I suspect it won't be much different.

[JRPizza]

Good job - Nice looking door!

[Yokosuka dweller]

Thanks to deejayoh and JRPizza for guidance on how to weld your own door. I basically managed to do it.
I used 16 gauge/1,5mm mild steel sheet cut and ground it based on the arch form from the bricks work. Then mig welded it all to fit. I also made the door 10cm/4" thick and filled that cavity with leftover inswool from the dome insulation. I had exactly enough wool so that worked well. Then painted with matte black stove paint (650C) and glued some bbq tape on the inside lip. I made two wooden handles from peach wood and a 4cm distance SS pipe for the bolts to go through and into the door. On the rear side I tightened the nuts and when the fit looked alright I welded the nuts to stay in place to allow unscrewing or replacing the handles from the outside at some later stage if necessary.

The door fits like a good shoe. Only area where it isn't flush is caused by my own variations in the inner arch work, where there is some slight degree of 'twist'. This creates a few mm gap in one corner between door an arch, but since the door itself is so hefty thick, I don't think much heat is lost.

I should add that the door works very well in retaining heat. And also if you place it at the very front arch so there is a 1cm cap around the door edge so you can see the fire in the oven it creates a draw that feeds the fire keeps it steady, completely avoiding any smoke to escape from the front. That's a benefit for sure.

Some pics:

[deejayoh]

Thanks for the tips. By front you mean the side to the exit of the oven? I'm not sure entirely I understand your first comment. Mostly I saw only example of the back having a lip, not the front - as it were. And yes as JR says, what is a good sequence for welding together the pieces in your opinion?

And, I put down my first beads yesterday on a piece of scap metal. The weld looked like an explosion of vomit on the metal. Needless to say it will be a little while before I attempt to weld the actual door.

yes - bottom of the door, externally facing. you can cut the front of the door with a flap on the bottom that you bend back if you have a metal brake. That then becomes the bottom of the insulated section of the door. Tack on the rim, and weld on the back plate. Saves you a weld in a visible part of the door.

[Yokosuka dweller]

I used a flux-core welder as well. two tips
1) don't weld the front bottom lip. Cut the metal a bit longer and use a metal brake to put in a 90. that way you only have to weld the back
2) Flap disk and paint are your friend! Flux core will leave quite a bit of spatter to clean up anyway. But end of the day, a grinder & paint make me the welder I ain't!

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips. By front you mean the side to the exit of the oven? I'm not sure entirely I understand your first comment. Mostly I saw only example of the back having a lip, not the front - as it were. And yes as JR says, what is a good sequence for welding together the pieces in your opinion?

And, I put down my first beads yesterday on a piece of scap metal. The weld looked like an explosion of vomit on the metal. Needless to say it will be a little while before I attempt to weld the actual door.

[JRPizza]

I used a flux-core welder as well. two tips
1) don't weld the front bottom lip. Cut the metal a bit longer and use a metal brake to put in a 90. that way you only have to weld the back ...

Dennis, the purpose of the front bottom lip is to give an inside joint to weld while closing up the door. What order did you weld up your door to take advantage of the folded up front bottom edge?

[deejayoh]

Definitely I should practice weld some before going at the door sheet pieces I've cut. Don't want to mess it up. I don't have access to gas, so will have to be flux core mig and try to spot weld as much as possible on the insides so most of the splatter is hidden from plain sight. Then I thought to weld the bottom at the very last, so that the external welds are not in your face. However, if I do 1/2" lip in the front bottom then those welds will be visible. Oh well, as long as it works and is stable.

I used a flux-core welder as well. two tips
1) don't weld the front bottom lip. Cut the metal a bit longer and use a metal brake to put in a 90. that way you only have to weld the back
2) Flap disk and paint are your friend! Flux core will leave quite a bit of spatter to clean up anyway. But end of the day, a grinder & paint make me the welder I ain't!

Good luck!

[JRPizza]

Not sure how much smaller I made mine - it is a nice sliding fit and does not get stuck when hot, but I'm starting to see some minor chipping around the periphery from banging with the door. Nothing to worry about and eventually the edges will round a little making insertion easier.
I hear you about visible tack welds in the front lower edge, but if you pay attention to spacing (which I didn't) I don't think they are too unsightly. It looks better than what my attempt to weld an outside joint would have. Most of the comments I get are like, "OK, you built your oven, where did you buy the door"? It kinda blows people's mind who have known me for ages because I never demonstrated any masonry or welding skills in the past.
I'm also pretty happy with the method of tacking nuts on the door inner face to attach my handles. They loosen occasionally and I don't over-tighten as I'd hate to have a nut break loose but I like the fact I can pull the handles off if I want to paint etc. I've been thinking about making a thin wood veneer for the face that I would just attach using the handle bolts. The face gets warm enough to make the knuckles uncomfortable the morning after a fire and I think wood would have a lower emissivity than the steel face keeping heat in better. I bought some insulating gasket intended for the large egg type cookers, but need to wait till I clean all the cresote and minor rust off the door before I can stick it on (I've had it for a few years )