Let the fun begin!

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Wow, that lamb looks scrumptious!

[blacknoir]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Looks good! What bread recipe did you go with?

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Peter.
Food looks fantastic.

Out of interest, how much wood did you get through in the three hours it took to get to temperature? (what wood did you use?)

Are you putting a chimney on the front? wonder if the draw from that would encourage higher temperatures more quickly?

Regarding - head in oven shot..... You have my respect.

Regards
Jon
Cardiff

[pjchick]

Finally built the chimney!

Hello Folks,

Finally had a chance to build the front arch and chimney. Happy with the result.

I chopped the 9" long storage heater bricks into 1 1/2" strips and built the arch with them over a wooden form.
I added additional support blocks either side of the arch to give it abit more strength as I was worried that a single block in it's end might be too weak.

I wen't to my local stone yard and managed to pick up 8 white 2'x2' terazzo tiles in their bargin basement area for ?10. BARGIN!

I',m going to tile the top and I'm thinking I might have enough to make a prep table to go with it - but that's another project! I'll post some photo's of the tiles soon.

The next Job will be 4-6" of vermiculite concrete then render over the top. I've found 100L bags of vermiculite on ebay for about ?14 each, so I might go for them. I'm still toying with the idea of using rockwool cavity wall insulation, chicken wire and render. I need to make a decision soon as i'm fast running out of summer!

On the plus side, I'm off to Italy soon and hoping to pick up a set of pizza peels while i'm away. I'll post what I find.

Photo's as always.

Peter

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi Peter - try Minster insulation. They are selling V4 vermiculite for about ?8 or ?9 a 100L bags (mine were about ?7.50 a month ago, apparently prices have gone up. They do the V4 vermiculite, which is the roughest, and I'm told the best.

Nearest branch is Didcot?





Minster - Insulation and Dry Lining

Here's a table of rockwools temperatueres, Aparrebtly the glasswool which is the cheapest and lowest temprerature resistant, does start to smell! although its a long time ago that I read that and not really sure where.
Here's a tabe I've found off Rockwool's website

Material Temperature
Glass wool 230 - 250 ?C
Stone wool 700 - 850 ?C
Ceramic fibre wool 1200 ?C

Good luck!

Jon
Cardiff

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi Peter - try Minster insulation. They are selling V4 vermiculite for about ?8 or ?9 a 100L bags (mine were about ?7.50 a month ago, apparently prices have gone up. They do the V4 vermiculite, which is the roughest, and I'm told the best.

Nearest branch is Didcot?





Minster - Insulation and Dry Lining

Here's a table of rockwools temperatueres, Apparently the glasswool which is the cheapest and lowest temprerature resistant, does start to smell! although its a long time ago that I read that and not really sure where.
Here's a tabe I've found off Rockwool's website

Material Temperature
Glass wool 230 - 250 ?C
Stone wool 700 - 850 ?C
Ceramic fibre wool 1200 ?C

Good luck!

Jon
Cardiff

[jota112233]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi Peter - try Minster insulation. They are selling V4 vermiculite for about ?8 or ?9 a 100L bags (mine were about ?7.50 a month ago, apparently prices have gone up. They do the V4 vermiculite, which is the roughest, and I'm told the best.

Nearest branch is Didcot?





Minster - Insulation and Dry Lining

Here's a table of rockwools temperatures, Apparently the glasswool which is the cheapest and lowest temperature resistant, does start to smell! although its a long time ago that I read that and not really sure where.
Here's a tabe I've found off Rockwool's website

Material Temperature
Glass wool 230 - 250 ?C
Stone wool 700 - 850 ?C
Ceramic fibre wool 1200 ?C

Good luck!

Jon
Cardiff

[simsavage]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi There

Your oven looks great, I guess you have had quite a few pizzas since your last post...how are the storage heater bricks working out, I have a load now and I'm pretty much ready to start laying the floor. Have they splintered at all, kinda concerned about getting grey grit on the bottom of my pizza. It woud be great to hear from you.

Regards

Sim-Savage

[KraemerBAC]

Re: Let the fun begin!

I love what you did with the arches it all looks great and wow, so fast


Peter

[pjchick]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Just got back from my Hols to Italy, a 3600 mile round trip in the car. My wife's parents have a house about 25 minutes East of Naples (Real Pizza Terrotory). So while some people go to Italy to enjoy the sun and sea, my first stop was the Local DIY shop (called Progress). I struck gold! they had an whole isle full of Pizza tools! Well whats a man to do?

My wife told me that it was either her or the tools as their wouldn't be enough room in the car for both on the way home. It was a tough call - I was going to miss her! ;-)

In the end a comprimise was found, I had to hacksaw off about 12" of each pole to get the tools, the two kids and my wife back home safely.

Was very pleased with what I got and the prices! the large peel was only 12 Euro's about ?10, the 9" and 6" turners were 10 euros each. All the tools are steel, mounted on Aliminium poles with wooden handles.

In the end I purchased the following:-

Large metal pizza peel
9" and 6" turning peels.
Large wooden peel.
Oven brush.
and a curved fire rake.

I also picked up a rack with legs that will sit in the oven above the coals if I want to cook any steak etc. barbeque style. 7 euros. Bargin!

Overall a really happy bunny! I'll take some photo's of the tools and post them soon. For now here's a photo of a very happy man knocking a fairly decent sized hole in his Barclaycard!

Enjoy!

[simsavage]

Re: Let the fun begin!

wow they look great...how are the storage heater bricks working out, I have a load now and I'm pretty much ready to start laying the floor. Have they splintered at all, kinda concerned about getting grey grit on the bottom of my pizza. It woud be great to hear from you.

Regards

Sim-Savage

[pjchick]

Re: Let the fun begin!

The Bricks have worked out wonderfully for me. Not had any grit or bits at all flake off. The oven has been properly fired about a dozen times so far. The last few times I have got the top of the dome over 540C thats when my IR thermometer maxes out!

Last Sunday I fired the oven for about 2 hours. I let the fire die down to coals. At about 2pm The top of the dome was about 380C and the floor a good 240C. I cooked pizza's then bread, baked some apples for me pudding :-), then roasted some veg and tomatos. I finnished cooking by about 5pm, then left it open. By 8PM the oven was still at 130C, and the floor was still warm to the touch next morning.

One thing I did notice when I was cutting blocks it that some were more brittle than others. Some were really brittle and fell apart when cutting, I tried to discard these when possible.

The storage heater blocks I had varied in colour, the darker (more purple'ish tint) the colour the harder the block was. I kept the hardest ones I could find for the floor and the upper rows of the dome. The softer (more red'ish) ones I used on the lower rows. I figured that if a brick was going to flake it was going to be one of the softer ones, so by keeping these to the sides they would not spoil the food.

Having said that I have seen NO signs of any blocks failing or cracking so far.

Hope that helps, good luck with the build!

[mikesuttie]

Re: Let the fun begin!

pjchick how's it all going?

Am I right in thinking you used the purpley type storage heater bricks for your floor?? I used these and I'm struggling to get them up to temp!

[mikesuttie]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Also I have to say your build is bloody genius!

[jamieg]

Re: Let the fun begin!

Hi, been reading you thread because I've came across 60-70 storage bricks and fancied making my own pizza oven, been good to see it has already been trialed. How many bricks did you use in the end? And have you got any pics of it rendered and painted? What kind of insulation did you use in the end?