Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Today and after 2 weeks of curing the oven, building a fire every day, and sometimes twice a day, I baked a pizza in 2.5 minutes, and a roll of pesto bread, which took 3 minutes.
Quite an improvement from one hour. And by the way they both tasted fantastic.
I made a thick crust pizza, baked perfectly inside and out.

Now I know why I built a brick oven...

Thanks everyone for the help.

Eddie

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Thanks indeed. You are absolutely right.

I fired it up again yesterday, but I went and bought an infrared thermometer before I fired it up again today. When I measured the heat it was 632 F. This tells me it is improving. I will keep firing it up every day until I get the temperature that I need.

Thanks again for your advice and feedback, it all counts.

Eddie

[gjbingham]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Good point Christo,
I cured mine without the blanket. I could see the progress of the cures by the very noticeable difference in the bricks and mortar as they drove out the moisture. The first 3 or 4 fires dried out the top third of the dome. It almost seemed that each subsequent fire cured one more course of brick and mortar. Even after I finished the prescribed curing regimine, the exterior of the bottom third of the oven still showed signs of moisture.

As long as you cured the oven Eddie, I'd just keep firing the thing up, or keep a long slow burn going in it for several days. I think you're going to see drastic improvement in its performance soon.

Let us know how it goes.
George

[christo]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

in lieu of a brick vent, you might try drilling a few slanting holes (so water does not go into the oven) in near the base of the roof slab and see if you find any steam escaping. if Drilled in the mortar between bricks you can likely seal them later and not see much evidence.

I was surprised by the number of firings I had before visible steam stopped escaping. I thought my oven was as good as it was going to be, but it kept heating faster, retaining heat longer, and making better pizzas as time went on.

Christo

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Thank you for your response.
Yes I cured the oven (but maybe not enough), although I did not post it, however, I think you are both absolutely right, because we had a lot of cold weather and rain here, I think the oven still retaining a lot of moisture or water, so I will try few more fires.
I am also glad you like the build and the chimney, because your opinion counts, since I've never touched a brick in my life before, and until this oven had no clue in architecture.

Cheers,

Eddie

[dmun]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

This is a good looking build:



I like how the chimney arises from the keystone of the arch in a contrasting brick.

I think your heating problem is retained water: That solid cast slab on top of your insulation layer may be sealing in your moisture. Vermiculite concrete holds a LOT of water - that's vermiculite's use in horticulture. Short of installing a brick vent:



You're going to need to build a lot of fires in succession to dry out that big cube of concrete.

[gjbingham]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Eddie,
Did you cure the oven already?? I looked back but did not see any discussion about you curing it, which is completely necessary to dry out the dome and mortar joints in a methodical fashion, and which hopefully will extend the life of your oven.

Your one-hour pizza bake makes me think that your oven is still saturated with water.

George

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

I tried cooking a pizza today, the fire was lighted according to James Video, that worked really well. But it took 1 hour (one) to cook the pizza. I need to buy me an infrared thermometer, I do not know why. I thought the fire was real good, and it stayed on even after I moved it to the side, and kept adding wood. I suspect the tempreture was not high enough, I even suspect that the floor was not hot enough because the bottom of the pizza was still white, while the cheese an peperoni was cooked.

Any thoughts? anyone/

Thanks

Eddie

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Thanks,

Actually it took me longer than I planned, I started in June last year, and was supposed to eat my first pizza by end October last year, just working every other weekend, but due to hurricanes,and other weather factors, I could not finish until a couple of weeks ago.

How she works?, I am going to try tomorrow, I will post some pictures. I have an issue with the firewood, a lot of moisture and hard to fire up.

The truth is, I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun building this oven. I will do it again in a heartbeat, but I am sure I will do a better job. My advice to everyone who wants to build such an oven is to have a very good wet saw.
cheers

Eddie

[gjbingham]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Geeze,
That went up quick. Nice build! How's she work?

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

The oven is now complete, I still need to do some landscaping and cosmetics to the outside of the oven, but this can wait.
Now it is time for my own first brick oven pizza.
Thank you is in order to all participants in this forum. You have been a great help.
Here is the last page. a presto

My Brick Pizza Oven

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Vent hole 4.5"? That's a half brick width by I'm guessing about about 12" wide. That would be a 54 sq. inch vent opening. However, I've been reading in the posts that the vent pipe should reduce to about 50% of the opening to let the smoke-draw dynamics work right. If you install a 8" vent pipe (50 sq in) then the opening should ideally give you about 100 sq. inches. Is there any problem in making the vent landing (in front of the oven opening) a full brick deep for the vent hole? maybe even 1 and 1/2 bricks so that 4.5" vent hole dimension would be 9" or more? What do you think?
Thanks, Dino.

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

63 is your width side to side.. so the center of your slab should be the center of your dome.
31.5 inches from either side.

Now measure from the center of the back to 31.5 inches.

that will keep the same distance around the sides and the back.

18" + 4.5" + 1/2" + 1" + 4" = 28"
floor / brick / cladding / blanket / vermcrete Total 3.5 inches left

(... Enough room that you could build an enclosure....)

70" - 31.5" = 38.50" left over for the front.

18" + 4.5" + 4.5 " + 4.5" + 4.5" = 36"
floor / brick / inner entry / vent hole / outer entry

Looks like you will have 2.5 inches to spare up front....

I hope this makes sense.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Do you know the formula(mixture) for cladding?

Thanks

Eddie

[efleifel]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Today Saturday 08/02/2008, I completed the hearth. I followed the instructions provided by fornobravo, but I needed more vermiculite and more Portland cement.
I also added an additional internal frame to maintain external space to build surrounding bricks after the dome is built in the near future.

Eddie

my pics:
My Brick Pizza Oven

[tdibratt]

Re: Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

Dave, like your layout for the placement of the oven. Am I mistaken that some people opt not to put in that "inner entry" brick and actually create the vent hole between the "brick" at the oven entry and the "outer entry" brick thus reducing the requirement in front by 4.5 inches and then take up that extra space up fron with a brick cladding?

Thanks, Tony