Steel Dome Oven

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Well it's taken longer than expected... like that's something new. Anyway, the color coat of stucco was unacceptable by SWMBO and so I dropped back and punted by painting the whole structure with an acrylic latex paint. It said it was for stucco and it was made by Valspar which is a reputable enough company. Color selected by my wife was a bit pinker than I would have liked but by contrasting it with a brick red bottom it almost works.

This is not the absolute final finish which will probably come next spring unless we get some very unusual weather that permits a large party or two. The plan is to cover the dome (pink) with handprints done in the brick red color. And the hands being as many friends as we can round up. It may take two or more parties to completely cover the dome.

So for those curious here's what it looks like at present: The usual mug shots: front, back, side, 3/4 and one "artsy shot" I found bending over to pick up some trash to clean up for the photos. After all the work I went thru to make it round it seems fairly close. The glass fishing float I picked up on my first return voyage from Hawaii 28 years ago.

Oh, and that's the oven's "rain hat". I made the chimney so it is easily removed and found this stainless steel bowl that just fits over the stainless tube that is where the stucco ends (see other postings if that isn't clear). And the stainless acorn nuts on the front will eventually be the attachment points for some wrought iron hooks which will hold the rake and the large "shovel peel" for when things really come amiss.
Wiley

[Frances]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

That looks great! It is very round , very clean lines there.

I really like the colour your wife chose, I bet it'll look good with red palm prints on it - and what a cool idea that is.

The oven ties in with the house nicely, too. Looking at the picture of it in front of the house I was thinking that a touch of green same as the window frames might look good on the oven, too. Just an idle idea though....

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Thank you for the kind words, Frances.
Your idea of the green is a good one. The color scheme for our house is the colors of the madrone or arbutis tree, sort of brickish red with a dark green. So yes, a few green hand prints mixed in amongst the red would work well, Thanks for the idea :-)
Wiley

[berryst]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

very professional looking build
Berryst

[davelkins]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

That looks like a great oven. I really like the idea of using recycled items for useful products. Seems to me that it ought to work just fine. LOOKS GREAT! Sounds like you are in my neighborhood somewhere. Maybe I could get a chance to see it sometime. I'm at the stage right now of being sure that I want/need an oven. I just don't know what route I want to take. For my first attempt I'm thinking of an earth oven. The thought of a recycled steel dome is very interesting. Thanks.

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Dave, Quilcene is just a short run away. I'm "free" most of the time and save for a tree I have to cut down and clean up, this Saturday would be fine. PM me if that works for you. I can show you the neighbors' two cob ovens as well. Can you find your way to the store in Nordland?

The rest of you, that's an inside joke ....... Nordland, the nearest town to where I live, has only one store! But directions to where I live are easy from there.
Wiley

[BCiliberto]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Hello Mr. Wiley!

I'm loving the oven i built early this year, and would like to put one together for on the road.

Have been admiring your work and postings-- great idea! Very clever!

How's your baking going? Are you hitting your temps, and is the heat being retained to your satisfaction?

I recently obtained a 500 gall propane tank and will probably be starting a truck mounted version of your oven soon. Any additional observations or advice ?

Thanks!

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

BCiliberto,
Thank you for the kind words :-)
On the whole I have been pleased with my WFO. I have not done as much baking as I expected but that has been due to other circumstances that have placed demands upon my time rather than any fault in the oven. I have still to make a "overnight" insulated door for heat retention, again that is due to time contraints. Heat up is quite quick, I am able to reach pizza temps in about forty to fifty minutes of burn and that is not trying to create some sort of fire storm in the oven. I have developed a routine which allows me to build and bake a pizza, I then rake the coals over the open area and throw on a few small pieces of wood. I can then sit and enjoy the pizza with my company and enjoy the spectacle of the flames and fire thru the windows of our solarium indoor eating area. A second pizza and all subsequent pizzas follow the routine of raking off the coals, giving the hearth a quick sweep and placing the just built pizza, baking and then raking the coals over the hearth and adding a few sticks of wood. Using this technique I have enjoyed as many as five pizzas with my wife and another couple without significant hearth temp drop or extension of cooking time over a period of 2 hours. I imagine many WFO owners have a similar routine for cooking in "off season" (late fall, winter and spring) when one doesn't eat outside.

Regarding alterations of design, I would increase the size of the transition area where the chimney joins the entrance; at present I have a six inch chimney which has just over 28 square inches of area in cross section, the transition opening is 27 square inches (that's the rectangular hole in the wheel). I would increase that 27 sq inches to something larger and perhaps increase to an 8 inch chimney as there are times during initial fireup that there is more smoke created than the chimney can handle and so it escapes out the front.

This is my first WFO and so I have little emperical experience other than this oven. I have seen pictures of ovens which from the soot staining have similar problems yet have larger chimney and transition areas. SO I could be wrong that changes in what I did will be productive. The situation with my oven is by no measure bad enough to warrant a tear down and/or rebuild/modification of my existing oven.

If I were designing one for the road I would think about using two domes with diameters something like 40 and 48 inches. One within the other and the space between filled with my basalt refractory or something similiar. The domes would have the entrance and transition areas in steel and would have all their top insulation exterior to the outer dome. The dome shells would be joined to each other at the the bases and they would be able to be bolted to a trailer frame. The idea being to keep the whole together regardless of road condition. The whole idea of using bricks on a trailer seems to me problem prone and destined to failure. Great for a static build but to paraphase Borat..... "for bouncing down a road... Not so much".

Wiley

[BCiliberto]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Good Stuff Wiley!

Thank you-- I'll post some pics when i get going-- going to build it into an older Ford 150-- supposed to come in this week.

Just in from cooking up 2 stromboli's and 7 pizzas-- just delicious, nothing like fresh bread!! Ran one to my mom, wife, son and I kncoked off the rest. I dough a real thin crust from a 4 oz. dough ball. About a 10 " pizza.

I'm hoping to do some fundraisers at events, serving up small pizzas for donations to the cause of the day (anything but political ) !

I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of the year-- your idea about the steel dome and wheel really puts me at ease about trucking down the road. Being an old mason, the thought of bouncing bricks or a fragile cast shell around made me cringe.


Thanks again and enjoy your baking!

Ben

[jcsforager]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Hello Wiley,

Been enjoying your thread. Oven looks amazing. I have been playing with the idea of a steel oven for some time and was very excited to see your set up. My plan is to have a trailer oven that is built with as few pieces as possible so it doesn't shake apart on the road. My idea is based on a large steel buoy. I have a guy on Craigs List who has one for me, just need to pick it up. So this is where I'm at. I have read your ideas of two domes one inside the other. Great idea. For making pizza do you think it not enough for just one dome with cladding? The buoy is 48" so I could round up a propane tank that is a bit smaller and put this inside and have these two connected. I'm thinking a refractory sand may work as insulation between shells? I would love to chat with you more about this as you have some great ideas. My other issue is that I don't weld so I want to have all the pieces and draw up my plans to have this put together. From a welding standpoint I have attached a picture of the buoy. Is this a huge deal to have this cut in half? I was planning a fire brick floor and then welding brackets on the buoy to secure to the trailer....

thanks,
john

[Wiley]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

John,

Looking at your picture what you have is a mooring bouy. Typically they are thinner than the propane tank that I used but in your case that is a benefit as you are thinking of using it as the outer shell. The bouys are typically constructed of segments welded together as opposed to two single sheet pressing halves welded together. It appears that the bouy you have is made of segments each of which is either a 1/4 sphere or 1/8th sphere.

Since this bouy has a weld around it equator cutting shouldn't be a problem. I would expect that they constructed this with a backing ring all the way around the equator weld. You will want to include this on the half you cut. I may not be clear on this but think of it this way: behind that weld (and running all the way around the inside of the tank) is a band of steel. That band maybe as much as 3/8" thick or as thin as 1/4 inch and maybe an inch and one half wide. When they constructed the dome halves they welded the top and bottom half of smaller pieces welded together on some sort of jig. They then welded the ring of which I'm referring to one half of the sphere. They the set the top half on top of the half with the ring. When welding the ring made for a sound weld as they could use more amperage and not risk burn thru and it kept the two halves in proper alignment (metal moves/expands as welded and alignment can be a pain if it is allowed for). This ring will aid you both in cutting the two in half as well as reinforce/strengthen the dome so when it is cut in half it will be less prone to going out of round. I expect the metal of the dome itself is less than 3/16 inch and maybe a thin as ten guage (1/8th inch). You will know when you go to pick it up as two men can fairly easily pick up a mooring bouy and two me would be hard pressed to pick up a propane tank.

I would suggest using the top half as internal corrosion will be worse on the bottom half. Also looking at the dents the top is less dented.

When you go to cut it I would suggest drilling a couple inch diameter hole about three inches down from that equator weld (on the bottom half of the dome. This will allow you to view the location of the internal ring of which I spoke. How you want to cut it is up to you, with the dome inverted I would mark all the way around the dome a line a small distance away from the backing ring. I would then run a grinder around the dome on that line to give clean metal to burn and to make a line not burned off by a torch. The actual cutting should only take a few minutes. Then grind to the edge of the backing ring.

As to your plan of one steel dome inside the other: I like that plan, it should result in something unaffected by any bumps in traveling. However, I would only have refractory material between the two shells (using a 48 inch with a 40 inch inside would give you about 4 inches of refractory) and have all my insulation exterior to the outer dome. The insulation is light and if you went with a doghouse type enclosure you could get away with filling the space between the domes and the structure with loose vermiculite or perlite. You might give Peninsula recycling a call, they are located just outside of Port Townsend and have contracts to cut decertified propane tanks. They sell halves like I used (mine came from them as part of a trade). Some people are terrified to cut decertified propane tanks (seen too many movies). Yes, they can pose a hazard but using common sense makes the cutting event free. Peninsula used to get tanks from as far away as California because the companies couldn't find anybody there who was willing to cut them!!! LOL What with the cost of fuel this past summer I bet they found somebody rather than pay for transporting them here.

It is unfortunate that you don't weld as there is a bit of fiddly stuff that takes some time...not a problem if one is doing it themselves but paying a professional welder might be a different story.

This answer is long and I apologise for that. There was some info the thread should benefit from as there might be others wanting to go with a steel dome. PM and we can go into details or you could come visit I live just up the road.

Wiley

[jwnorris]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Oh, buoy...

I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist.

J W

[Wiley]

Finally some weather protection

So I've been on a search for something that would give some protection from the weather while using our WFO, especially our Pacific Northwest rains. I was in Costco the other day and spotted this outdoor cover, designed for covering a more typical BBQ. After talking it over with my wife, we decided that perhaps this would meet our needs. So we bought two, they are not inexpensive, costing more than I spent on the oven but upon assembly, they look like what we have been searching for. They are made of aluminum and it should be easy to cut a hole and build a weather tight transition for the chimney.

Here are some photos of one assembled. The number dots are still on the pieces and yes, it's sitting on some 2 x12s at this moment. The plans do not give any dimensions from which one could pour a concrete base without constructing the unit and taking measurements from it. At this point our plan is to pour two parallel concrete strips such that this unit could be supported where it is and the second supported approx 30 inches further away but inline to create an entrance between the two. My wife is a retired boat canvas worker (had her own business) figures she can create a cover between the two that would give good protection for that otherwise open area.
Here's some photos:

Wiley

[Les]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Wiley,

It looks like Costco designed that for your oven - looks great! I see the challenge as sealing the two units together (water tight). There is a double sided tape they sell at automotive paint stores (it's used for attaching decals).

I wanted to build a pergola from the beginning but the wife objected - it would block her view of the yard. We were at a home show last weekend and she mentioned that we should build one - that's when the fight started.

Les...

[jcsforager]

Re: Steel Dome Oven

Hello Wiley,

Few questions as I plan this oven. I have obtained the Buoy. Bigger than I thought, about 6' diameter. Also should be obtaining 1/2 propane tank next week. Filled w/ water now getting the gas out. The tank is 48" diameter. So my #'s are for a large oven but bigger will be fine. I'm thinking of a thick layer of Perlite between two domes. Still working on ideas for connecting two domes and door but I'm first considering the pad these will rest on. Also, have been acquiring welding supplies. Have a neighbor who is will to teach me the basics. Bought an old and heavy Lincoln Arc wedler that will help w/ all this. I will need a troch though. Ahh, now I have a new project....

Because I'm doing a trailer I will have metal framing a few feet off the trailer deck. I'm thinking of pre-poured cement/refractory pad and set this first. Then Fire brick under inner dome only. I noted you cut your brick to shape of the dome thus decreasing inner ht of dome by 2.5". I also see the band of the tank continuous and the door cut out.

Do you think it would harm integrity of the dome to cut door out from edge up. I was thinking of cutting door this way, but now I'm thinking it may be best to insert bricks to allow dome to have continuos bottom rim. If it isn't that important I was thinking to frame up a square fire brick slab that would be just under inner dome. The inner dome would rest on top of bricks and would not decrease my 24" ht. Fire brick slab would continue out through door and make nice transition. The outer dome (buoy) is large enough that there would still be enough room of its inner ht to fit over inner dome and connect to slab. I could bracket all this to built up trailer frame.

Need to figure all this out before I cut door in propane tank.

john