Oven on wheels

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

Pizza night last night.
Eight pizzas as fast as I could build them. No bench out side yet to build them on, so I was running back and forth to the kitchen. Which is OK because everyone else retreated out of the weather anyway.
No pics, they got eaten as quick as I could build 'em, too.
Raining when I lit the fire. The "shed" works out really well - this is definitely an all-weather proposition.
I have a covered walkway from the house, so cooking pizza in the rain was no problem.
After a couple of pizza nights, I reckon I know what I want to do with the entrance now with regard to wind exclusion, etc.
Nearly burned the first pizza, no more than 2 minutes, which actually exceeded my expectations.
Seems to be getting hotter, quicker. Wood consumption remarkably low.
Less than an hour to a clear dome, cleaned the cooking floor which measured hotter than the first time - must be drying out, then let a couple of logs keep everything hot while I made the sauce, sliced ingredients, and built the first pizza.
Slid it into the oven about 1.5 hours after striking the match.
I think, apart from abandoning the idea of wheeling it away when I wasn't using it, the oven has fulfilled the design criteria - quick heatup, ideal for pizza nights during the week, total cost a touch over 400 bucks.
I was inspired by the smaller FB ovens like the Primavera 70, and later by the excellent Andiamo 70 - how brilliant is that baby. Unfortunately I was a long way through the process when that beauty came along.
I'm very glad Cobbler Dave and DavidS convinced me to add extra insulation between my floor bricks and my scoriacrete slab. It's not that I think the floor wouldn't have worked without it, but the extra insurance is very comforting.
Pictures soon.
Regards,
Mick

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

What was the point of putting it on wheels and then putting a shed around it?

If you recall, I long ago decided to forgo the wheels and park it up permanently. Actually, apart from the wheels, it's exactly what I intended to do, I just can't wheel it away. A pity in some ways. For instance, I'd be able to move it around to get away from the flaming wind.

One thing about the shed - I've had no dramas at all with water getting in during the rains we've had lately.

Even so, it's still not fully dry - I put my old fashion hygrometer in there today and it's still more humid inside than out.

Dave, I didn't know you could get a high temp decktite - I've currently just run a bead of silicon, which seems to be standing up admirably, but next time I'm at Bunnings (nearest one about 200km away) I'll have a look. BTW, its meant to look like a dunny.

[david s]

Re: Oven on wheels

Mick,
It looks like you could do with a decktite to seal the flue on the roof. You can get them from Bunnings, but you'll need the red one which will handle the temp.
Hope your guests won't confuse your oven with an outdoor dunny.
Cheers,
Dave

[brickie in oz]

Re: Oven on wheels

What was the point of putting it on wheels and then putting a shed around it?

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

Well people,
The oven is near enough to finished. I've stacked up some bricks to exclude those pesky evening winds we get for 7 months a year. When I get time I'll mortar them in permanently. I'm thinking that once I have done that, I'll hinge a stainless outer door off the vent so I can close things off.
Today I made a long handled peel for loading the pizzas in (I already have a nice aluminium one for getting the cooked pizzas out), a stainless steel door, and a hooked scraper for clearing out ash and manoeuvreing pies. Aagh....I've turned into an American - I just called a pizza a PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I used a mirror and a torch to survey the inside of the dome, and I cannot see any problems at all. My dear wife is so confident she has invited her best friend for dinner next pizza night.
What a journey! Funny thing is, I think I've only just begun. It's one thing building it, then you have to learn to drive it!
Many thanks for all the advice and encouragement along the way.
Regards,
Mick

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

The last pizza of the night was a disaster. I've got a long way to go with oven management - I have no work bench out by the oven yet, so I was making the pizzas on the kitchen table, then running out to cook them.
The last pizza was one of my favourites.
Smoked oysters, anchovies, cheese, tomato, topped with an egg.
The egg was my undoing. On the trip out the door I managed to run the egg over the side and that was all she wrote. Could not get the pizza off the peel!
Ended up leaving it on the peel and waiting for the crust to cook a bit then scraping the pizza off. The peel ended up as firewood. The pizza survived, but only just. Anyway I threw it in the fridge at the end of the night, thinking I'd probably throw it to the chooks this morning.
Instead, it looked surprisingly good this morning so I broke the habit of a life time, and had leftover pizza for breakfast.
Turned out it was like most food I have ever smoked in my life, the full smoke flavour isn't apparent straight away, but develops well if left over night in the fridge.
It was really tasty. Talk about moreish. I'm now wishing I'd eaten the lot. Lunch is not too far away I guess.
I reckon this is gunna be good, once I get a few thing sorted.
I need to get a workbench, I need to make a rack or hanging rail or something so the tools fall easily to hand, and I'm hoping the oven will improve as I cook it drier.

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

Well, first pizza night with the wood oven was "OK" to me, rest of family delighted.
My issue - I'd like the floor to be hotter!
The dome cleared in 50 mins from when I lit the newspaper under the kindling.
By this time I was measuring 315 C on the floor bricks.
I think though, its only surface temperature.
When I pushed the fire to the back the floor cooled pretty quickly. I kept a flame going over the dome, but after two pizzas, I raked the fire back over the cooking area while I prepared the next one.
I reckon I still haven't got all the water out of the floor. Last firing was still making visible condensation on the interior of the enclosure, so I suppose its probably not fully dried yet. DavidS did warn me that the water in the vermiculite layer takes a lot of shifting if you don't let it dry out before you lay the floor bricks.
The pizzas were crisp on the bottom, but I'd like them to be browner.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Oven on wheels

Gudday
Goodonya Damon.....I use a a large eyelete in a hardwood pole with strips of old cloth I replace when grubby....just so it doesn't look like the kitchen mope!

Mick the main problem with rough tools is the damn things if they work well you never get around to remaking better looking models! and sometimes it just aint worth it
My favourite ( and roughest looking) is a metal curtain rod with a metal tent peg jammed in the end. You can push logs and fire and such around the oven then use the hook to get out dishes. Cause the handle hollow it never gets hot either. I made Mk 11 but it was to heavy and the handle got hot so I went back to the first.

Regards Dave

[Bacterium]

Re: Oven on wheels

Onya Mick, enjoying the fruits of it all.

For cleaning the floor for pizza..... I picked up a new mop head(old school type) from paramount browns pretty cheap, it goes in a bucket of water on the floor and I just wring it out by hand when ready to use.

Invariably some visitor will ask during the night if its my general house mop at which point you tell em Ahhhh the pizza oven is hot enough to kill all those bugs

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

Thanks Dave,
The pizza was crisp underneath, chewy in the middle. Different to the pizza I make on the stone, but enjoyable. I thought I needed a little more heat, but as you can see in the previous photos, the oven is still giving of water, so I figure it'll get hotter and crisp things up a little better as it dries out.

The oven dome really only cleared down the middle. I'm assuming that ovens built to the classic pompeii style, round with a 63 percent high opening, and fully cured, will clear the whole dome if you try hard enough?

Pizza made as per the wife's instruction. Didn't want to make a batch of sauce for one pizza, so a brush of garlic infused olive oil, sprinkle of sea salt, slices of tomato, sprinkle of herbs.

Just made a batch of dough and, more importantly, a turning peel.
Scrap of stainless sheet, plus a bit of steel tube from an old Hills Hoist that a tree in my back yard demolished when it blew over in a storm. Knocked off work too late for the hardware shop, couldn't find any nice timber for a handle in my "it'll come in handy one day" pile, so steel handle it got.
Its amazing how many tools you need. I confess to having not considered this until now.

I'm improvising at present. I have the big aluminium peel I found on special at Harbourtown, an old garden hoe for fire management, the wooden handle isn't fairing well, a bent piece of flat iron for raking out the ash, homemade turning peel, haven't done a longer handled wooden peel for putting the pizzas in yet, need a steel bucket for the ash, I don't have any sort of heat proof brush, so I'm blowing the ash off the floor with a piece of curtain rod, I've got one of the wife's old tee shirts wrapped around a piece of tree branch for mopping the floor, and no door yet.
Tomorrow night is wednesday night, which is pizza night at my house, so if it isn't too cold and windy, they'll be cooked in the oven.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Oven on wheels

Gudday Mick
Good to see your pumping out food from your oven....makes the journey worthwhile. Your journeys bin a bit hard for oven parts so I think that firstpizza would have been real good.
CONGRATS!!!

Regards Dave

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

G'day Dave.
Sorry I've been a bit tangled up with work. I generally get Sunday arvos to work on it.
Here is my "tin shed oven". Can't see any major cracks. Yesterday and today I got into it and its finished, near enough.
Fired it up with bamboo and got the dome clear in less than one hour, swapped to hardwood and cooked my first pizza.
Roast veggies for tea tonight with the left over heat.
Still making condensation as it fires though, so I reckon it'll get better.
Stainless steel hood performed allright yesterday, but it was windy today, and I ended up stacking loose bricks to keep the drafts from blowing ash over the floor and smoke out the front. I may have to lay them permanently, I think.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Oven on wheels

Gudday Mick
Hows it going? of course I read the bambo post...so your up to drying the oven out? A coupla pics would be nice to see your progress

Regards Dave

[cobblerdave]

Re: Oven on wheels

Gudday Mick
Sorry for the late reply. We are the same up here, full tank and wettest winter for 12 yrs and this is suppost to be the dryest season! Unfortunatly wet oven/ wet wood as well so no pizza or weekend roasting for a while. So know how you feel with lack of progress.
Working on some overhead cover ideas... have the frame from a round trampoline and hope to use it to form a round cover over the WFO... hate the idea of plain square timber structure. Still in the planning stage though.

Regards Dave

[wotavidone]

Re: Oven on wheels

Gudday
Things never come easy to you Mick....congrats on the progress....perhaps some pics are in in order oaround now

Regards Dave

Things aren't coming that hard either, Dave The rain is actually very welcome, my tank is full again, and the thing with the vermiculite was no big deal. Would help if I didn't change my mind all the time. I blame all the thinking I do at work. My hobby projects aren't supposed to require any thought at all.
Still, it hasn't tested my brain as much as my last project. See attached photo of last project celebrating Christmas with the wife's nephews.
I'm "stuck" in a flash hotel in Adelaide at the moment, some times work is so tuff. I'll post some photos later in the week.
Its all about experience. The next one would get every step done right first time, and only take half a dozen weekends.
I was talking to a guy today who has an 8 inch thick concrete slab to build his oven upon, and is not intending to insulate. I shall have to see if I can influence him to at least insulate underneath the floor.