Steel Dome Oven

[jv17]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

i just wish i can also have steel dome oven so that I can cook great pizzas I envy you LOL

[berryst]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Awesome. nice to see progress

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Last evening we roasted some pork ribs for an hour. We have been drying the oven out and figured we might as well use some of that heat.

I brushed them with marinade and placed them on a rack in a SS roasting pan and simply turned the pan around every 20 minutes. After that we placed them on the preheated grill to brown and sear the glaze. Wonderfully moist and tender.

Tonite was our first pizza. Our oven heated fast and within a hour and one half we were ready to start baking. Here's some photos of both the ribs and the first two pizzas to come from the WFO.

Now it's on to insulating and finishing the outside :-)

Wiley

[christo]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Woo Hoo! Looking great.

I've been googling the cement fundu for the past half hour.

Looks like very versatile stuff! I'm going to need to find a local supplier when I start my full scale sculpture. (sometime after the outdoor kitchen is complete!)

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Update;
I finished my last section early yesterday and started stripping forms to reveal just what I have been working on. Just pulled the wet towels from the cure on the last section in order to take these photos. Fondu says it reaches full strength very quickly whereupon it can be dried out and put into service. I'm figuring to let it air dry today with towels back on top without further wetting and then start small fires tomorrow. There's a link below to a Fondu spec sheet.

For my fires I'm going to try something a bit different. I'm going to set an old cookie sheet on some brick chips on the hearth such that there is airflow under the sheet. Upon that sheet I'm going to place some already lit charcoal briquets. Starting with a couple briquets and when they are gone repeat with a few more and continue. My hope is a longer lasting, slower, more controlled heat source.

The photos:

The link: http://www.cimentfondu.com/gb/artisa...apidDrying.pdf

Wiley

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Ok, so I'm more tired than I thought, here's the second photo:

Wiley

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Dave,
I spent alot of time trying to get the proportions of entry to interior height close to the "ideal" 63% that Alan Scott and others have spoken of. The interior height from bricks to top of dome is 18.25 inches my max height of the entry is 11.25 inches for a ratio of 61.6%

Thanks for the input. The counter space seems like something I could envision using and liking. I have done my best with breaking the heat path from inside to outside thru the entry but I know it's going to get hot after it's had a fire inside for a while.

I spent today burning the paint off the entry arch and then pouring the first of the cladding. 4 Inches of 1 to 5 ratio calcium aluminate cement to crushed 1/4 minus basalt. Stuff goes off fast but working in small batches I really never had a batch I had to toss. Also, by the time I was finished going around the dome the first I had poured had gone off enough to pour against!

I covered the dome with aluminum foil and placed strips of foil at regular intervals so that the cladding will crack and separate where I want (?) as the steel dome expands more than the cladding when heated. I then have started up, working in triangles. So what you are looking at in the photo is the first row looks like rectangles with triangles attached to the top and then the second row is separate triangles. First row was poured in a form (6 inches high) and the triangles added and the second triangles (inverted point down) are separate into themselves. Need to add second photo


That's probably clear as mud.

Here's the photo: one more day should have the cladding finished. All goes well first real fire should be on Sunday or Monday :-)

One tired puppy here and, wait.... what's that sound...Ah yes, sure enough, I just heard a beer call my name....

Wiley

[asudavew]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Leave the counter space! You will use it. I would love to have that much.

Plus, that metal will get smoking hot!!! .. so your safety point is probably the most important
one.

Great thread so far.
Very interesting.

How tall is the inside of your dome? And how tall is your entry?

Dave

[dvonk]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Wiley,
The only thing in your list of cons that I really concern is "wood will be harder to place in oven".
Give yourself a try - put some kindling just as you are going to make a fire - with all that stuff, you know, and couple of logs. I think it's an easiest way to see how much effort it takes. It can be bothering (though definitely you'll be able to do that).

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Dvonk,
Interesting that you should ask because I decided that I needed to fit up my granite slab in order to besure the refractory will marry with it. I took a couple of photos.

My depth of entry is 11 inches the depth of the counter top is a whopping 21 3/4 " more. At first I was figuring I maybe needed to cut off a bit of the slab of to make it narrower. Then I began to see and think what I could and could not do with the slab this size.

Cons: I could not reach in and touch the back of the oven. How often would this be necessary I don't know, maybe for cleanout of ashes but I have a shovel and brush for that.

Pros:I could reach and see everywhere within the dome save for the small blind spot on each side of the opening, which would be blind regardless.

Pros: The counterspace would be nice to work as one would have a place to put pizzas and etc. without having to carry it anywhere. A simple partial turn and slide it off. Same for removing bread roasts etc.

Pros: I have some apprehension on just how hot the outer rim of my entry will get. With it further back one is less likely to have an unwary person inadvertantly touch it and get burned.

Pros: I wanted to build a shelf below the counter to hold things like the infrared thermo etc.

Cons: peel needs to have a longer handle.

Cons: wood will be harder to place in oven.

Cons: looks unconventional, most ovens have little counter space. The only one I found in a short search with any similar sized counter is the ancient oven in the restaurant in Pompeii where there is singificant space on either side of the ovens opening beneath the chimney. Looking unconventional isn't a bother but usually there is a reason things are the way they are.

Here's the photos: Thoughts? Anyone?

Oh and the odd looking dam like thing around the back is the form for the refractory. I figured it would help to contain the bottom so I could build higher on the dome on the first pour and not have the bottom slump. Last photo is with the slab removed the interior light is a reflection off the solarium behind me, excuse the solar flares. I thought it convenient that it worked out to have such illumination of the inside of the dome.

Wiley

[dvonk]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

I've asked that because I've just started to use my oven and found that even short landing and opening (totally 15") make the fire works not so easy. My dome is 43" and it tricky to reach the center of the floor.

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Dvonk,
The depth of my landing is approximately 11 inches with an additional 13 inches space in front of that. My opening transition is adjustable and that is the maximum distance. When I did my test fire that was the position that seemed to draw the best and where I expect the final fixed position to be.

Design for this whole seemed less on paper and more "in the field" or "as she came out". When I cut the entrance I deliberately left the doubler ring on the bottom. This was to keep the structural integrity of the hemisphere, as a consequence the hearth bricks extend into the landing. Good or bad time will tell. One thing I wanted was to be able to replace the interior bricks should the need arise and this option allowed that.

The extra space in front is so that I will be able to cut and shape some fire bricks in front of the opening to remove the curve of the doubler ring and leave me with a straight edge. In front of this I will have a granite countertop. A piece of recycle I picked up years ago. It will stick out over the front and be supported by brackets I will make and attach by means of two SS bolts I cast into the top slab. Haven't finalized the design for all that. In my mind's eye I see what I want and that's subject to change moment to moment. Makes putting design details down of paper kind of difficult as most things are subject to change as problems reveal themselves.

Wiley

[dvonk]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Heavy machinery!!!

PS. By the way, what is the length (depth) of your oven lending?

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Update wth photos....

I got to spend "The Fourth" cutting and shaping the hearth bricks which fit inside my steel dome. All went well although I had brick dust everywhere :-(

But today I got to power wire bush my dome and then set it on top of the stand. Inspite of working alone, all went very well. :-)

Wiley

[berryst]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

this is the same thickness I chose for my floor
I'd rather be here than gasworks any time!