28" homebrew cast oven in walled enclosure Belgium

[david s]

This is my solution. 95 x 95 x 295 x 0.90 mm

[Kris S]

Yep, that's the kind of design I have in mind.
Gonna take a bit of time to drill ~30 holes.

[david s]

Yep, that's the kind of design I have in mind.
Gonna take a bit of time to drill ~30 holes.

My first one had no holes as it was a prototype, but as I was getting them laser cut I decided to add the holes to allow some heat through and some air in. It’s the same principle as a kiln bag wall to protect wares from direct flame impingement.

[Kris S]

I also want to try my hand at making an andiron like this.

Can I Just bend a few pieces of rebar and weld them together? Would that hold up for a couple of years?

[JRPizza]

It should hold up OK. I made a fireplace grate out of rebar that has survived several seasons. I was going to build a log holder like you are showing, but the Pompeii designed ovens draw so well (at least mine does) that I can't justify the space it would take up when I was not firing the oven.

[Kris S]

It’s more a case of just wanting to try and see if it makes a big difference. I’m not having any draw issues either, (no smoke ever escapes through the oven mouth, except for 5 minutes when igniting the fire) but I think it may help prevent small logs rolling off the fire and into my pizza!

I might make a smaller version, as my internal diameter is only 28” – 70 cm.

Rebar should do, okay – Thanks!

[Kris S]

The heat deflector works like a charm no more fire rolling onto pizzas, and less quick burning of the crust as well !



I also wanted to get more insight in my fuel consumption, so I weighed all my firewood before and after use on 2 occasions: I use 10kg of oak for 12 pizzas, and 9kg for 10 pizzas.
This includes starting the fire and getting the oven up to temp obviously.

I have no idea if that's much or little. anyone else ever try to do this?

[david s]

I also use one of these, it is particularly useful for small ovens and maximises oven floor space and reduces burning the pizza edge that’s too close to the fire. For years I used a prototype made from 0.5mm stainless, but it did warp badly from the heat, so I had a bunch laser cut using 0.9mm stainless with holes in the front face to allow some heat through.

[Kris S]

Dear David, i used the pictures of your heat deflector at the top of this page as inspiration to make mine.
The SS is at least 1mm thick.

[david s]

I have a couple of finger sized sticks preheating on either side of the entry so when thrown in behind the flame deflector they burst into flame almost immediately. This makes it easy to keep the fire going continuously.

[AJH]

I also wanted to get more insight in my fuel consumption, so I weighed all my firewood before and after use on 2 occasions: I use 10kg of oak for 12 pizzas, and 9kg for 10 pizzas.
This includes starting the fire and getting the oven up to temp obviously.

I can see myself doing this after I get my oven built =) At least enough to get a sense of how much wood it takes to heat up and keep making pizza's for a few hours...