Well i quess im building an oven!

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Hello all my name is lance and i found this site a few days ago and im gonna build an oven! I have been a cook(chef) for about 11 years and have used two different ovens during this time. As all here will agree the food coming out of them is second to none.I also have building experience and friends with all kinds of skills, and huge set of.........hands. Well on with my question, i just wanted to run by my insulation plan on my barrel oven design. I want to;

1. place heavy duty foil over the brick
2. place ceramic fire blanket over the foil
3. place chicken wire or such over blanket
4. a thick layer 8-10 cm of perilite/verculite (spelling?)
5. stucco scratch coat
6. stucco finish

Is this god, bad, ugly........discuss.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Welcome Lance, sounds like another baker. Is this for at home or work? It will nice to have another chef on board.

That sounds okay but I throw in some questions. How do you keep from compressing the blanket? Is there some kind of spacer used? I have not used the blanket so others will provide better advice. Do you put anything over the blanket to separate the wet stucco from the blanket.

And how about chicken wire in the stucco coat? It's cheap enough. do others use that?

I'll be watching the responses as I'm thinking about a portable/mobile oven design.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

I just noticed Edson....my brother is in Edmonton...which way are you?

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Hey i am 2 hrs west of edmonton. As for the questions it for my back yard, yes the ceramic blanket will be somewhat flattened, and chicken or diamond mesh will be used. I watched the process of the pizza oven being installed at the rest. i worked at but it was one of those four peice italy made ones and the inside looks like the refractory we have at my current job (power engineer). Well im gonna start diggin on the weekend, i cant imagine ill get very deep right now but every little bit counts!

[talisker63]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Your plan is almost identical to my barrel. But I placed the blanket on the brick and then the foil on the blanket. I wanted to keep the moisture from the vermiculite render layer off the blanket.
The tricky part was getting the chicken wire on without too many holes getting poked in the foil.

Oh yeah don't try and put the foil on with a windy day like I did - doh!

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Hey thats a better idea i will put the blanket first! I will start my picture diary today starting with site location......! So the insulation plan is ok? Cool.

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

I was walking by one of the wood burners at the mill i work at and saw a whole stack of fire brick that has not been moved for years (i can tell by the dust build up) so i checked the operating temps for the wood burners and average temp is 822 degrees C. Do you guys think i could use some of these bricks for the oven? The fire brick i am buying from a brick dealer said the ones im buying were good up to 1000C, so i could build up the back wall with the ones from work? What do you think.......

[dmun]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Wood fired ovens rarely get above 1000 degrees F (540c). Used bricks are fine for most applications.

I don't get the foil layer at all. Aluminum foil disintegrates in contact with portland cement. Even if you found a foil that would last, why would you want it? In domestic insulation it's used as a vapor barier. Ovens get damp, and damp ovens take longer to heat up.

I used one layer of foil between my inner (refractory) arch and my outside decorative arch, to maintain a slip plane. I knew the foil would rot out, but I mostly didn't want those two parts mortared together.

Everything else sounds good.

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Well then i will take some home with me. So you are saying just foil the brick then insulate with blanket so those two layers dont stick to each other when i coat it with perilite so there is some give with thermal expantion. By the way why do i get logged off automatically after like ten minutes?

[Dutchoven]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Fireandflames
Have you downloaded the FB Pompeii oven plans? If not do so, it is a great resource and really will spell out how best to tackle this project...find it at the FB store...download is free or you can be a good guy and pay a little bit to help support a great charitable cause!...either way we will certainly continue to help!
Best
Dutch

[dmun]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

Most insulators, particularly the blanket, can be compressed enough so that you don't have to worry about the expansion of the firebrick dome.

What's the foil for? I'm confused about the whole foil thing. I would think it's just going to make your wet perlcrete, (which is a treat to work with in the first place), just slide down and peel off your dome as you try to mound it up around the dome.

[gjbingham]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

You get logged off while you're typing probably. Click on the "remember me?" box where you log in. You won't get logged off.

BTW, welcome! Look forward to seeing some pics of your build.

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

FF, so you're 2 hours west...must be getting up in elevation. How far from Sundree? I worked west of there at 6800 feet drilling a deep hole for sour gas!

So you guys don't see compressing the blanket as an issue? (I have not handled the stuff...is it pretty stiff?

X

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Well i guess im building an oven!

Hi Lance,

Welcome aboard!

Why are you planning a barrel oven? Why not a Pompeii?

Are you planning to make a high mass oven? They take longer to heat up but make loads and loads of bread.

If you are going to cook more than bake, you will want to consider the lower mass Pompeii oven. It is much more practical for home use. Mine is still 350F 12-18 hours after removing the fire...so still a lot of mass. Sometimes the biggest problem I have is a too-hot oven. I have waited several hours for mine to cool to a proper bread baking temp (I would call mine a medium mass Pompeii, I have about 1" of additional mass on top of the fire bricks).

Do download the Pompeii plans and let us know your thoughts!

Drake

[CanuckJim]

Re: Well i quess im building an oven!

XJ,

I've layered a refractory insulator over as much as three inches of blanket, and compression is not a factor. Vermic/cement or Matrilite 18 simply are not heavy enough when wet to do it, and they're quite light when dry.

Jim