Mobile oven help

[AudreyNYC]

Hello People,

I am in the process of designing a mobile bread oven with the intent for the oven to travel to different community gardens and hold bread baking events.
I go to school in New York City and am doing this project for my thesis in Architecture.

I need to design the oven to be light enough to be transported on a movable base. I have yet to decide who or what will be doing the moving of the oven. At this point it will either be fully man powered by some sort of dolly/rickshaw or attached to a modified bicycle.

Any advice to reduce the weight of the oven would be greatly appreciated. A friend has suggested that I used sheet steel construction with a fire-brick substrate. Most of the ovens in this forum are masonry/and or clay which are both heavy materials. Any and all suggestions are welcome as well as any other resources.

Thanks!

[sacwoodpusher]

Re: Mobile oven help

Hello People,

I am in the process of designing a mobile bread oven with the intent for the oven to travel to different community gardens and hold bread baking events.
I go to school in New York City and am doing this project for my thesis in Architecture.

I need to design the oven to be light enough to be transported on a movable base. I have yet to decide who or what will be doing the moving of the oven. At this point it will either be fully man powered by some sort of dolly/rickshaw or attached to a modified bicycle.

Any advice to reduce the weight of the oven would be greatly appreciated. A friend has suggested that I used sheet steel construction with a fire-brick substrate. Most of the ovens in this forum are masonry/and or clay which are both heavy materials. Any and all suggestions are welcome as well as any other resources.

Thanks!

1)What are the requirements for fuel source.
2)If you want light weight, then I suggest you build an oven that will bake bread while the fuel is burning, ie do not rely on thermal mass to hold heat. You can still use some terracotta or granite on the floor to give some hearth baked qualities.
3)How many loaves do you want to bake at a time, or what is the size of the oven?
4)What temperature do you want to bake bread at?

[dmun]

Re: Mobile oven help

Although we did have a steel lined oven built here, it had a massive refractory shell cast around it for thermal mass. It was most certainly not portable. Most portable ovens are on trucks or trailers with heavy duty suspensions. A brick oven depends on thermal mass to work, and mass equals weight, for all practical purposes.

If you're planning rickshaw or bicycle operation, you need a lightweight oven. Why not a propane fired conventional oven? Remember, to meet your health department requirements for selling food you're going to need a massive amount of things other than dough and oven. Sounds like a fun architecture thesis, but a nightmare of a business plan. Do you need to execute it, or can it be a paper exercise only?

[PIZZAMANMIKE]

Re: Mobile oven help

I would be more than happy to help you out, if I read your post correctly you would use for teaching not selling. That would help a great deal with health dept. Maybe and oven with back up electric blakes and in the 300lb range. towabale and stopable via bike or scotter. I love this type of stuff. I built my first Mobile wood fired pizza trailer almost 8 years ago because someone told me It can't be done and licensed by fire and Health.

[AudreyNYC]

Re: Mobile oven help

Thanks for all the responses, I'm very thankful for your input.

I would prefer to have a wood-fired oven and not have to rely upon another source of energy to power the thing. I understand the thermal mass of brick is what allows for the heat retention in the oven, which is why this project is challenging, since portable objects should tend to be on the lighter side.

The basic premise of the project is that the oven would travel to different community gardens and parks in NYC for limited durations and have an event around the oven where people bring their own dough, and I will also given demonstrations/information on how to make bread, etc. but there is no plan for me to sell anything, so I don't have to deal with permits or codes. This is a public community activity that I am trying to create.
That being said, it would be nice to accommodate many loaves, but once again, the portable aspect proves to be problematic, which is why I am currently thinking that the oven will be fairly small, and its design will be integrated with the design of the trailer/rickshaw it's attached to so it can be a mobile, self contained unit, which includes all the tools and accessories necessary to do a successful firing. If I go with a small size, then I think the idea would be that there could be more ovens produced in a similar matter, this one acting as a prototype, meaning the simpler the better. So far I've seen many domed ovens, but I was curious as to whether the oven could be designed to be more oblong or linear? And any other suggestions to reduce weight or mass are appreciated, while still keeping the oven wood-fired.
Would an oven made from low-density fire brick retain heat well? I've only seen medium-density fire proof bricks used, but the weight is pretty heavy compared to the low-density brick. I see this as a potential way to reduce the weight, but only if the brick will successfully keep the oven hot.

I can post some preliminary drawings I've made in the next few days to give you guys a better idea of what I'm thinking.

Thanks!

[shuboyje]

Re: Mobile oven help

I believe the low density bricks you are speaking of are insulating fire bricks. Essentially over priced insulation, so no they will not hold heat. I would also think long and hard about building a mobile oven from bricks. A few have done it but it is generally not ideal due to all the bumps of the road destroying the oven.

I think your best bet for low weight would be a low flat dome with the walls built of stainless steel. Would save a bunch of weight and in that situation I don't think you need mass in the walls.

[AudreyNYC]

Re: Mobile oven help

Shuboyje:

Does the stainless steel need some sort of insulation? From what I understand, it isn't good for retaining heat, but maybe if there is insulating firebrick, then it could work. What do you think?

[shuboyje]

Re: Mobile oven help

Yes, any oven should be well insulated all around. Good news is insulation is light. I would not use insulating fire bricks unless you find them very cheap. Other insulations work as good or better for much less.

[AudreyNYC]

Re: Mobile oven help

Could you please recommend some other options for me?