Steel Dome Oven

[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).

[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

[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

[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

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

[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

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

[berryst]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Awesome. nice to see progress

[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

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

After what seems like a very long time waiting for my schedule and good weather to coincide, I have managed to spend some more time on my WFO.

Latest is the first permutation of a door for baking bread. This door is not for when the oven has temperatures in excess of the flash point of wood, but simply to seal the oven off when baking bread. The window is a "Fire King" pie plate. It is the smallest pie plate of borosilicate glass I could find (8").

Anyone wishing to use a Pyrex pie plate in their oven as a window should be aware that "Pyrex" make since 1998 is not made of borosilicate glass. "Fire King" is borosilicate glass and IMHO more suitable for this application that merely toughened glass which is what modern "Pyrex" is. I found this plate at our local Goodwill store for $1.49 and from a bit of searching it dates from 1942-1945

We'll see how long before this door burns up, or the glass fails.

Wiley

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Just an update for those curious or following this thread.

Two days ago I put the Kaowool insulation on the dome. There are photos on a reply I made to another thread on insulation. On that posting Les said that 3 " of kaowool is sufficient insulation and that one need not add more vermicrete insulation but that one could proceed to the final finish. But how? Seems that most who are doing a dome are applying a layer of vermicrete or perlcrete and then a layer of wire and directly applying stucco to that surface. That gives something to push against. Pushing wet stucco against the delicate and friable kaowool insulation seemed like a bad idea as this insulation performs better if it is not compressed.

Also my insulation is dry and I do not wish to go thru another drying cycle if I can help it. So what to do.. after a bit of head scratching I decided to build a separate free standing armiture to stucco upon. And to fill the space between that structure and the kaowool with loose dry vermiculite. Here's photos of what I built today. I call it my birdcage.The kaowool is covered with an old sheet to protect it from being abraded by a tarp to protect from the weather. The sheet will be removed in final assembly.

I'll tie window screen to the back surface of the birdcage to contain the vermiculite and to tie chicken wire to the front and stucco to that. The armiture will be glued to the base with construction adhesive.

Wiley

Note: there will be an additional section added to the front of this armiture that will support a stainless sleave so that the chimney can be serviced as needed and to allow expansion and such for the dome.

[Frances]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Cool, I went through the same thought process and ended up doing something pretty similar, loose vermiculite and a second dome over the top... the difference being that my birdcage never looked anywhere near that nice.

Let me guess... you've got some experience working with metal, right?

Btw, I love the way your oven reflects on the polished landing. Only just noticed that, very cool!

[jengineer]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

thanks for the history leson on Pyrex - is this switch why the plates seem to chip easier?

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

jengineer, I do not know why the newer plates tend to chip easier. It is my understanding that the glass used in the new model "Pyrex" is toughened sodium glass as opposed to the borosilicate glass used previously. The relative ease of chipping could be due to the different characteristics of the two glasses. Toughness is of course, different than hardness. Hardness is resistance to being scratched. Toughness is resistance to being broken. Perhaps the chipping is more akin to scratching than to breaking.
Wiley

[christo]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Hey Wiley!

What kind of progress have you made in the last 10 days?

Christo