fire brick size

[ikhan42]

Hi every one,

I was just wondering is there any reason why people cut the fire bricks in 1/2 ? is there any reason why I can't cut the bricks in 2/3 and let 1/3 go to waste and increase the thermal mass of the oven.

thanks
ikhan42

[brickie in oz]

Re: fire brick size

You can do that but it increases the heat up time and you will need a forest of wood.

[Cheesesteak]

Re: fire brick size

You can do that but it increases the heat up time and you will need a forest of wood.

And you'll need more bricks. Cutting in half gives you 2 bricks to use.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: fire brick size

If you did have an unlimited supply of free wood and an unlimited supply of really inexpensive firebricks (hey, it's happened!) then an oven built with 6"-thick dome walls would be very, very cool.

[shuboyje]

Re: fire brick size

Your question begs the question what you are looking for out of an oven? Fire bricks are ridiculously expensive in Australia, unless there is a major need for the mass there are many reason not to got that route.

[Double Decker]

Re: fire brick size

This is the hard part for me I have picked up 2 Pallets of Fire Bricks from a Brick Works that closed down.... They are from their own Brick Kiln that they ended up pulling down so I have just over 600Full fire bricks to use so we are wanting to cook pizzas and then do a heap of other cooking ie baking breads, roasting, biscuits, muffins etc...... So is it worth me putting the bricks in full to get the longest cooking time or will that Really limit the Pizza cooking ...... The way i see it is once the fire brick is hot all the way through then it will take the same amount of fire to keep hot as any other Pizza oven..... I have the bricks and they were cheap not to say the least at $1 each so If i use a heap of them it wont matter....I will be cutting all bricks so they form an actual roman arch rather then brick edges touching so i will only be using a miniumal amount of refactory mortar.... The other bonus i have is by using a cad program to work out the angles I need to cut for it to fit nicely together I wish to only make 1 WFO and hopefully have all the things i would like 1st time by talking to others and getting a heap of info so i can figure out where i want to go with things, OK sorry for the long post but all info happily taken

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: fire brick size

Since you aren't a commercial bakery requiring stored heat sufficient to bake multiple batches of bread, the only other justification for a thicker-domed oven would be to maintain pizza-cooking temps on a daily basis, which would be overkill and highly in-efficient for a home operation. Sure, you could re-fire your oven every four or five days to keep it hot all the time, but it would take a helluva lot more wood to saturate a 6"-thick oven than a 4.5"-thick oven. And don't forget - a thicker-domed oven will require more insulation, below the oven as well as above it. Why not build a standard 42" Pompeii and reserve the remaining bricks to build a 1)fireplace 2)tandoor 3)barbecue 4)dedicated low-dome pizza oven?

[brickie in oz]

Re: fire brick size

Why not build a standard 42" Pompeii

Because he is from Queensland.......

[SCChris]

Re: fire brick size

Double Decker, as long as you're carefull you could build two ovens. If you alternated the burns you could cook what ever you wanted. If you built a larger and smaller oven, for example a 32 inch dome and used the remainder in a larger vault or dome oven then you have a load of options. Slow roast in one at 200F while doing pizza or hearth bread in the other.. Just a thought..

Chris