Clay Oven

[Jaychale]

Hi there, my dad decided that he wanted to build a clay oven, and I've always wanted to design one.
Neither of us was thrilled with the idea of the fire being in the same chamber, or of not getting any of the smoke flavor coming in, so I've been playing with stealing bits from various designs.

The bottom door is on the other side because we were thinking to have this come up to a deck, but I may change it so both doors are accessible from the deck. Not totally sure.

Anyway, both chambers would be built out of sand, and then clay on top. I've been scratching my head wondering if I should be reinforcing with metal, but I worry about the expansion causing heat loss and cracks.

I think I would like the arch to be taller, but dad is insistent that he read somewhere that for it to draw properly the arch height has to be 62% of the dome height. Don't really want to make the dome a lot taller than it is.

Would love to hear any thoughts on the idea.

Nope, can't get any of the options to work.
Link to it in Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hql...ew?usp=sharing

[Gulf]

Hi Jay,

Welcome to the forum. I see that you are having some trouble with the pics. The Share Photo icon works very well on a new post. However, it is not an option if you decide to go back and edit a post. When editing, use the Upload Attachments icon. Both will allow you to upload directly from your computer to this site. The Upload Attachments icon will give you an option of what size photo to insert. I usually select the large size. The full size may be too large for the page depending on the size of the pic.

I hope this helps.

[Jaychale]

Couldn't get anything to work, so I added a link to the drawing.

[wotavidone]

Hi -some comments in red below.

Hi there, my dad decided that he wanted to build a clay oven, and I've always wanted to design one.
Neither of us was thrilled with the idea of the fire being in the same chamber, or of not getting any of the smoke flavor coming in, so I've been playing with stealing bits from various designs.
With the fire in a remote chamber, you may not get the cooking chamber hot enough for fast pizzas.

A properly fired Pompeii type oven does impart very little smoke flavour to the food.
I've experienced food from ovens where the fire is in a separate chamber - you do get more smoke flavour in the food partly because of the lower temperatures resulting in more smoke.
However, your design shows a couple of pipes coming up through the floor at the back and quite a massive amount of clay between the fire chamber and the cooking floor bricks.
I think this will direct the gases up over the top and out the door meaning very little contact between smoke and food, and I also think you will struggle to get your floor to pizza temperature.
The remotely fired ovens where I've experienced the smoke flavour best tended to have loose fire brick letting smoke through the floor/

The bottom door is on the other side because we were thinking to have this come up to a deck, but I may change it so both doors are accessible from the deck. Not totally sure.
If you put the fire chamber down low you won't enjoy having to bend down to manage the fire. One of the benefits of the traditional style is you are doing all the work at a comfortable height.

Anyway, both chambers would be built out of sand, and then clay on top. I've been scratching my head wondering if I should be reinforcing with metal, but I worry about the expansion causing heat loss and cracks.
The bottom chamber won't bear a lot of weight if it's only sand and clay, it's unlikely to get hot enough to fully vitrify like a brick. As drawn in your design, it looks like you've got your floor bricks sitting directly on your clay liner of your fire chamber. I think that is risky.

I think I would like the arch to be taller, but dad is insistent that he read somewhere that for it to draw properly the arch height has to be 62% of the dome height. Don't really want to make the dome a lot taller than it is.
The 63% thing is what works for fire in the oven chamber. Even then it varies a bit. Even some of the excellent Forno Bravo ovens had up to 70% openings last time I looked. In a smaller oven it is sometimes impractical to use 63% - the opening ends too low to be usable.

Would love to hear any thoughts on the idea.

Nope, can't get any of the options to work.
Link to it in Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hql...ew?usp=sharing

A final comment: your drawing looks like you will be heating a lot of masonry. That will require a lot of wood.
Regards,
Mick

[deejayoh]

you're going to get a whole lot more smoke in the oven with that design than you will with the wood in the oven. Count me as skeptical that the oven chamber would get to "clearing" temperature with those two little vents. Might be a good smoker design.

[wotavidone]

I think he actually wants smoke, but I don't think he's going to get any. I reckon it'll run very cold, too.