Tweet
After lurking on the site for the last few years I finally decided it was time to put together a budget steel/brick wood oven. Building at the weekend retreat meant that I don't have the time to build a pompeii oven. I also didn't want to spend a few thousand dollars on an oven out there. I liked the last two Aussie drum ovens that were posted on this site so I decided to head down that route as my economical alternative. I found a local drum supplier on Kiiji that was selling food grade drums for $20. I was informed that it had been used for Omega 3 oil for vitamins with an orange flavouring. I didn't put two and two together that orange flavour does not translate to orange scent. After cutting into the barrel with my angle grinder I found out that fish oil and hot steel leave a distinct odour. Thinking even less about fish oil I decided that burning off the last bit of oil in the barrel was the best way to go. I'm not sure if you've read about whaling ships but black smoke and their distinctive odour are noted quite extensively in the history books. I learned first hand why fish oil was used for lamps.....it burns a long time with a little amount of oil. All I can say was luckily I live in Canada and the vacation homes were mostly vacant at this time of year. I then realized the barrel was lined with an epoxy paint to make it "food grade". A few hours of paint remover, grinding with a wire brush and burning it off with a high temp weed torch and I finally had a usable barrel on which to start my oven. This job took a lot longer than expected.
The standard 55 gallon barrel had a 23" diameter and I cut it at the 21" width below centerline using an angle grinder. This will leave me with a 15.5" dome height and I'll cut a semicircle door opening width of about 19" with a height of 9.5". This will give me my golden door ratio of roughly 62%.
I had some leftover Allen Blocks from the patio so I buried 8 of them 90 degree to usual placement and used the fronts as my "concrete base". I fully realize they will settle at different rates but a few shims here and there will solve that issue. I purchased 4X4 posts and cut them in half. I then lag bolted on 2X4's and ran two 4X4's down the middle. I then laid 3/4" plywood on top of all this. My quick and dirty foundation took 3 hours to this point.
For my insulation layer I ran 2X6's around the perimeter and filled with my 5:1 perlcrete mix.
I've attached a few pictures to show progress so far. Next weekend hopefully that popcorn cement has set and I can start on laying the firebrick and putting the bricks over the dome.
The standard 55 gallon barrel had a 23" diameter and I cut it at the 21" width below centerline using an angle grinder. This will leave me with a 15.5" dome height and I'll cut a semicircle door opening width of about 19" with a height of 9.5". This will give me my golden door ratio of roughly 62%.
I had some leftover Allen Blocks from the patio so I buried 8 of them 90 degree to usual placement and used the fronts as my "concrete base". I fully realize they will settle at different rates but a few shims here and there will solve that issue. I purchased 4X4 posts and cut them in half. I then lag bolted on 2X4's and ran two 4X4's down the middle. I then laid 3/4" plywood on top of all this. My quick and dirty foundation took 3 hours to this point.
For my insulation layer I ran 2X6's around the perimeter and filled with my 5:1 perlcrete mix.
I've attached a few pictures to show progress so far. Next weekend hopefully that popcorn cement has set and I can start on laying the firebrick and putting the bricks over the dome.
Comment