Chimney design, brick or casting refractory

[JRPizza]

Glad I was able to help. My dome isn't as round as it could be, but it think it gives it character Some of the artisans on the forum built forms to help ensure roundness and indeed their domes look like perfect hemispheres.

[cmendezg2000]

I was going to make a 50 mm perlite/concrete rendering, but I made the mistake of not making any reference point to know when to stop. At this point it looks ok, maybe I will finish it here, I´ll just finish the dome with a little more rendering, just to make it as round as possible and then wait some days before the gradual fires.

As you can see in the photos, I have the door of the oven ready, I just need to finish it, I¨ll buy some nice looking hard wood and work the handles on the lathe. The cutting of the door is the only process of the whole oven that I send out to do it, I wanted a super clean cut, so I looked for a local shop that has laser cut, it came out perfect. I¨l share some photos of the door once is done.

I´m so exited at this point, can´t wait.

[cmendezg2000]

Finally I can say that the main oven construction is over, details of decorations I will do them in the near future, but for now, I¨ll wait a couple more days for the Perlite render to cure before I start with the curing fires.
I¨ll do at least 7 days in a row of gradual fires, using coals for the first couple of days as I think it is easier to control by firing the coals on my grill, then put them inside the oven just the amount of coals that will ensure a constant temperature. During the weekdays I don´t think I will have the time to do more than 3 hours of curing, so, if 7 days are not enough, I will do another 5 or 7.

Here are some photos of the finish oven.

[cmendezg2000]

I started with curing fires, five consecutive days, the first two days I took the oven up to 200 °C for 4 hours, then the next two days up to 300 °C, and on the fifth I decided to take it up a notch and stop if I started to see steam which never occurred, so, I reached 450°C. Profiting the fires I did´t want all the energy to waste, so I took some coals out of the oven and made a T-Bone steak for lunch. For dinner I took some pizza that I had on my fridge and put them in the oven. I put the door after the flame went out to see how much heat retain during the night (I put the door when the dome was around 480°C), the next morning (12 hours later) the dome was at 300°C, so I went to the butcher store and bought some steak to make a traditional Mexican dish called Barbacoa (it is a low temp, long cook dish), being that 300°C still very high temperature, I covered the meat with stock and spices and every hour I was refilling with stock so it doesn´t dry up. At the end it came a very nice soft meat which was delightful.

I share some photos of the process, I show also my inner flue where you can see no smoke came out in the front arch, which means is working properly.

Next week I¨ll be doing the first pizzas Neapolitan style.

Cheers!

[cmendezg2000]

Now the fun begins!!

Saturday night I fired up my oven to make some pizzas, they came out looking and tasting good.

The next morning I profit the residual heat of the oven and made a porchetta and some bread with pizza dough left overs.

I share some photos of the food.

Cheers

[SableSprings]

That porchetta looks fantastic! Good crumb on your bread as well! (...and of course the pizza looks fabulous too!) Thanks for posting the pics and really glad that you are using the oven throughout it's potential cooking ranges. You've made me hungry enough to start looking for an early lunch...

[UtahBeehiver]

Plus one on Mike's comments

[cmendezg2000]

Hello community, I want to share some photos of how I finish my oven door. As you can see, I didn´t use any isolation material to retain heat, I did this mainly for two reasons:

1. I want to be able to use the door as draft control, so I need it to be flat so I can regulated the amount of air by placing it on the outer arch
2. Before finish the door, I used it several times to close the door after pizza nights, and even without insulation, I manage to continue cooking for up to 36 hours, which is more than enough for me.

Please, let me see your comments.

Regards

[Mullster]

When you said refractory concrete I assumed you meant castable refractory which is the correct product to use. This is designed for casting sections and is different to refractory mortars designed for thin joints between bricks.
Regarding the fixing of the flue, here is a pic of a method of fixing the flue pipe without using an anchor plate.You can cast around the pipe before cutting the tabs, but first wrap some cardboard about 1 mm thick around the pipe to allow for expansion against the casting. Failure to do this can result in cracking the casting because the higher conductive stainless pipe will expand first. Also wrap some plastic around it for easier removal after the casting has set.
Fixing an anchor plate is fraught with problems. eg drilling holes in castings issuing for cracks to develop there. Any steel fixings (screws, anchors) that are not stainless are subject to corrosion because of the heat and also any metal fixings are going to expand faster than the surrounding refractory and then loosen when cooled.Sandwiching the anchor plate between two layers of brick is about the best solution I've seen to attach an anchor plate.

david s Hi - this is my first ever post on here and I have a question for you. I’ve been reading this forum a lot over the last week or so - it’s a fantastic resource, but I’m a first time pizza oven builder and I’ve embarked on a fairly simple vermicrete over a gym ball design for my first time out. I’m wondering if your guidance above about the tabs on the chimney is the right way for me to attach a steel chimney to my vermicrete dome? Thank you in advance for any advice you can share. Possibly worth saying I am trying to keep
total cost of build fairly low for my first try.

[UtahBeehiver]

Vcrete dome is not recommended as well as using a gym ball. DavidS has addressed this many times in his threads, Recommended is a dense refractory mortar (could be home brew) then a vcrete over this for insulating the dome. He also highly suggest a sand dome over a gym ball. Do a search on Davids's posts.

[narcosi]

I started with curing fires, five consecutive days, the first two days I took the oven up to 200 °C for 4 hours, then the next two days up to 300 °C, and on the fifth I decided to take it up a notch and stop if I started to see steam which never occurred, so, I reached 450°C. Profiting the fires I did´t want all the energy to waste, so I took some coals out of the oven and made a T-Bone steak for lunch. For dinner I took some pizza that I had on my fridge and put them in the oven. I put the door after the flame went out to see how much heat retain during the night (I put the door when the dome was around 480°C), the next morning (12 hours later) the dome was at 300°C, so I went to the butcher store and bought some steak to make a traditional Mexican dish called Barbacoa (it is a low temp, long cook dish), being that 300°C still very high temperature, I covered the meat with stock and spices and every hour I was refilling with stock so it doesn´t dry up. At the end it came a very nice soft meat which was delightful.

I share some photos of the process, I show also my inner flue where you can see no smoke came out in the front arch, which means is working properly.

Next week I¨ll be doing the first pizzas Neapolitan style.

Cheers!

OMG that looks amazing and the oven too - i cant wait - just started on my journey so would love your help and input: https://community.fornobravo.com/for...-oven-build-uk

jon

[narcosi]

Hi Everyone - thanks for everything above but i am confused about 2 things please help:

1) Should I /Could I thermally break the oven between the chamber and the vent area - i have seen a gap between the oven and the vent walls on some designs - what could I will it with? rope? FB covered in cement on inside and blanket on outside as part of main dome insulation?
- if i did do this? would i have the same break at the top between the top of the oven arch and the chimney?

2) related to the above - can i use NORMAL clay bricks for my vent walls and chimney? they will be seen and thus i would like to match the other bricks near by?

3) do i need a liner in my chimney? or can it just be a brick rectangle on top of the vent?

thanks

Jon

more questions and info here: https://community.fornobravo.com/for...-oven-build-uk