Rocket pot oven

[shuboyje]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Roger,

My comments aren't meant to be patronizing, but they are pretty absolute on purpose. As much as you may see it otherwise I'm trying to help. I understand you are looking for a fun project and to try new things, but the ultimate fun will be when it works well won't it? I know you think you are doing something profoundly different then anything else, but when distilled down to it's core it is a bottom heat only oven like many others and will need the same features as others to have a balance of heat. If you look to the design of gas fired deck ovens and the ever popular little black egg(LBE) which are both bottom heat only ovens like yours that successfully cook pizza you will find two key features in both of them. A deflector of some sort to help buffer the heat from the bottom stone and a very low ceiling to keep the top heat as close to the top of the pizza as possible. Without both of those features(and even sometimes with them) you will end up with a charred bottom and a uncooked top.

I really think the LBE design is gonna be your best friend in working this out. On another pizza website you will find a 100 pages worth of info on that oven and the tweeks that have been developed over the past few years to really dial it in. You are changing the heat source from a gas burner to a rocket stove, and changing the oven chamber from a weber grill to a pot or some other form of masonry, but the concept remains the same.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Well then...
Rather than crafting a witty reply about my deceased fathers overbearing and critical advice I choose to accept all input with the assumption that it is intended to be constructive and given with a spirit of brotherly love. As a psychologist I deal with severe mental illness on a daily basis, so for me the distraction of a hands on project is plenty fun. Any result is a result, failure is always an option, remember to use sunscreen.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program....

Despite what Albert Hammond may have told us, it really does rain in Southern California. But not today. So I got some work done.
Last course of bricks- that was yesterday
In my zeel to get work done I didn't take a lot of pictures but this is what tops the rocket portion of the oven. 6" pipe transitions to an 8x8 cake pan, $1, thrift store. Then two pieces of rebar making an x in the pan, corner to corner. That supports a 6" clay saucer, yup more flower pariphinalia. That about does it, all of that is to keep the direct blast of the rocket from scorching my pizza stone.
Okay, now we are on top of the bricks. The large clay saucer received some judicious slicing with a diamond blade in the grinder. Which works amazingly well by the way. So in the saucer is another standoff of metal, on top of that is a terra cotta tile from Home Depot, and finally the pizza stone. Whew.
I also decided to start flower pot oven version 2.1. So off to the depot for more pots. I went with a lower profile and swapped the new pot to the rocket stove and will use the deeper pot for oven 2.
Perhaps I will give that oven its own thread

Question, what is a minimum door hight? Pizza only

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Green Rocket Oven - The Green Rocket Oven employs several principles which make it very well suited to the task of cooking delicious pizzas quickly and efficiently. Once you see how simple they are you will wonder why no one has done this before (we

Please pardon my lack of url savvy. This is the idea. We shall see.

And the gratuitous picture.

[david s]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Well then...
Rather than crafting a witty reply about my deceased fathers overbearing and critical advice I choose to accept all input with the assumption that it is intended to be constructive and given with a spirit of brotherly love. As a psychologist I deal with severe mental illness on a daily basis, so for me the distraction of a hands on project is plenty fun. Any result is a result, failure is always an option, remember to use sunscreen.

A pity, I would have enjoyed an amusing diatribe about an overbearing father. Apart from providing inventive ideas and valuable information, this forum can also become dangerously addictive. Fortunately as a practicing psycho you'll be able to self diagnose. This forum is probably overrepresented by folk with mental illness so you may even pick up a few new clients. Keep posting we're all enjoying this thread.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Psychdoc, you need to start charging your patients more per visit, the penny pinching to create a cooking area and the pics of your yard looks like you need more money.....

[Laurentius]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Al,

Leave it up to you to start the NEW YEAR, with words of wisdom. Happy New Year, my friend.

[deejayoh]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Read through that Green Rocket Oven site a little. This bit about how it works was interesting:

F - The heat from the fire cools slightly as it rises up the chimney, then strikes the bottom of the cooking platter, keeping it at the ideal cooking temperature (around 500 degrees Fahrenheit or 260 C). It then spreads out and heats the oven walls before it escapes the oven.

I can get my home oven to 500F. I can get my BBQ that hot for pizza too. But it's not really hot enough for great pizza.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Al,

Leave it up to you to start the NEW YEAR, with words of wisdom. Happy New Year, my friend.

Thank you, thank you very much, while youre here please try the veal.

I will be performing shows here twice daily until 2014....arhuh......

[Laurentius]

Re: Rocket pot oven

I think I will! How is it prepared today and what wine would you suggest? By the way, I'm glad to know that your World Tour was a success, was it a trip that you would recommend to a less robust American traverler?

[brickie in oz]

Re: Rocket pot oven

I'm glad to know that your World Tour was a success, was it a trip that you would recommend to a less robust American traverler?

Im not going until our winter, June 2013, it will be too hot out there in summer.

Anyone who is well prepared could make the trip.

[Wiley]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Great link to the Green Rocket Oven site, thanks Deejayoh!

It would appear that the Green Rocket Oven probably works and well enough for some people. Those of us on this forum will probably admit we are pizza snobs and laugh at the idea that somehow a six inch tortilla can be dressed up to masquerade as a pizza. The photos alone of the pizzas on the Green Rocket site are worth the visit.

Over the years I have been on the forum we have had several ovens that are made of converted Weber grills and chopped and modified ex-propane tanks and such like. Many are quite innovative and show a lot of personal inventiveness and creativity. But IMHO the problem with most of these creations is that they are pretty much all a "one trick pony". Those of us with a more traditional WFO (and I'm being pretty loose here to include WFOs like my own and cob ovens) know that our WFOs are capable of so many tricks. There's nothing I can bake in my home oven that I cannot bake in my WFO, and alot more that I can bake in my WFO better than in my home oven.

In defense of the one trick pony, there are several creations whose portability make the idea of pizza at a tailgate party a lot more interesting. Take away the portability and IMHO they are just a curiosity.

Happy New Year to All!
Wiley

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Okay let me see if I can address some of the things of been brought up thus far. Wiley I completely support anybody who believes I should raise my fees. However cracking wise about my yard is just not nice. I agree the idea that a tortilla is not by any means a real pizza. And well, maybe you guys are pizza snobs I felt it was best to go to the experts to get information about ovens.
In my zeal to make a fire I rushed out this morning like a child on Christmas and fired up the stove. It steamed like crazy and eventually developed some cracks. However my internal temperature was up well over 500?.
Clearly patience is not my best suit.
I believe you're right about the one trick pony aspect of the small oven and while I'm more convinced than ever that it's possible to make a woodfired oven that's fed by a rocket stove, There remain some significant hurdles to get over.
The postmortem from this morning's Bernshouse some cracks around the chimney probably due to my lack of masonry skills. The pizza stone and the terra-cotta stone diffuser both survived without incident.

And I'm still waiting for an answer on how small of a door I can make in my pot since I have yet to cut it.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

Over 20 years of education I still can't figure out how to post more than one picture. Oh well. I realize all the black stuff on this is unburned soot. used cheap wet wood which I believe contributed to this condition. I thought it might be good to show you my internal diffuser configuration.

[PsychDoc]

Re: Rocket pot oven

But wait there's more it's a live-action shot of flowerpot Oven 2.0. I thought Gulf might like to see this. The big lump of vermiculite on top is just to cover hole was going to be a chimney earlier.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Rocket pot oven

The cracks in your mortar joints are shrinkage cracks from using too wet mortar. 500 degrees is not going to do you much good, double it, we can talk.