ThermoJax's 42 oven

[ThermoJax]

my homemade door

This shows my homemade door, made from a sheet of stainless steel. I have a Insblock 19 board left over that I will cut to fit into the inside of the door, then a buddy will weld stainless strips between the two halves of the door to encapsulate the insulation inside.

[ThermoJax]

homemade peel

This is my homemade peel. Made from stainless steel, it is 12 inches round, riveted to some pipe. The pipe is a little heavy, and I may switch it out for a lighter weight pipe. I have not used it yet. I did see a post where someone said that he never uses his bigger squarer peel, but only uses his 8 inch peel.

[ThermoJax]

100 year old cypress mantle

I went to a local sawmill that specializes in old cypress. This guy actually went into the swamp to retrieve this stuff. This is the cypress that the woodcutters at the turn of the century did not take out of our Florida swamps. Leftover stuff. I had to take the gray exterior off with quite a few runs thru a planer, then a belt sander, then an orbital sander. Finally, I brought out all of my stains and practiced different blends on the part that would be hidden against the wall,and came up with my own mix of gunstock and golden pecan. There was a natural red that was in the wood that showed itself almost as soon as I started running it thru the planer, so I chose to highlight that and the stain brought that out. It is 4 inches thich, 12 deep and roughly 6 wide. I had to take a sawszall to the face of my structure in order to inset the board 3 or 4 inches into the wall, then 4 L brackets above and I used some of the excess length of the board to fashion 2 corbels for below, although I believe the corbels are mostly for show. The groove in the wall and the L brackets above seem to hold almost all the weight. By the way, this is one heavy board. I will be applying a urethane with a nappy roller later to bring out a shine.

[ThermoJax]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

for the next couple of days I will be doing my stone exterior. I am doing a fieldstone. I will post pics as soon as I can. I love my oven. I love working on it, messing with it, and cooking in it. Here is my first pizza. Absolutely delicious. I tried cooking a pan of brownies after a pizza 2 nights ago, but I burnt those things quick. I also messed up a pizza and had to rake the coals over the mess. After a while there was no more evidence of the crime.

[Millstone Man]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

Beautiful wood working. Oven is looking fantastic.

[Tscarborough]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

Thumbs up all around. I love cypress more than any other wood, and that looks like a tasty pizza.

[ThermoJax]

Fieldstone applied

here you can see the fieldstone applied to the face of the box surrounding the oven and vent assembly. Metal lathe, nailed many places, then mud, then fieldstone piece by piece. I have a kind of keystone. So far I like the look. I got a "country carmel" color, that for the most part, matches the brick.

[DaveW]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

That looks great! I especially like the flared entry, it really gives the oven presence compared to the usual small opening..

Dave

[ThermoJax]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

Today, the oven is finished. I went back to the sawmill and got 1 inch thick, 10 inch wide cypress boards, and made, using dowels and glue, two doors,stained and polyied, to match the mantle. The fieldstone glows in the setting sun. I started the whole outdoor kitchen on 6/28/10. So, just under 4 months for the giant cement pad, roof and oven build total. I sure learned alot. It was so fun. I can see why many here jones for their oven build days. I have the clean up to do yet. I have enough stone to do my columns, so I guess that will start next Monday, after the holiday

[pizza_bob]

Re: Fieldstone applied

here you can see the fieldstone applied to the face of the box surrounding the oven and vent assembly. Metal lathe, nailed many places, then mud, then fieldstone piece by piece. I have a kind of keystone. So far I like the look. I got a "country carmel" color, that for the most part, matches the brick.

Hello ThermoJax,

Great looking build! I'm jealous and impressed you did the fieldstone yourself! I gave in and have a mason starting my fieldstone veneer this weekend or Monday.
I was curious why you chose to use tar paper behind the wire lath. I also purchased a rol of 30W tar paper that I plan on using as you did but I'm still hesitant as to whether this is the correct choice! I keep second-guessing myself that I should use Tyvek as the moisture barrier. The tar paper and Tyvek will both prevent moisture from entering the enclouse or getting behind the veneer. But, if moisture does get within the enclosure (to my vermiculite and 3"-4" of ceramic blanket), perhaps through some crack in the dome or small opening somewhere, the tar paper will not allow the enclosure to release moisture. The Tyvek does "breathe" in one direction and moisture can be released/removed from the enclosure. But then I worry about that released moisture getting behind the veneer causing damage! So that's why I decided to use the tar paper (I think) as opposed to the Tyvek. Perhaps I'm worrying way too much about moisture but living in CT I know that trapped moisture can cause problems...

Enjoy your oven - it looks great! I'll have pix of my veneer shortly.

~Bob

[ThermoJax]

Re: ThermoJax's 42 oven

Pizza Bob,

Absolutely loved your oven build. Yours is so precise. I just wish I could have gotten the solidworks files for each courses and printed them locally in order to use them as a guide for my build.

My construction buddies who stop by and drink beer with me all said, tar paper, so I never questioned them. They also said, "nail the heck out of the wire lathe, as the nails hold it all up" I am not surprised that you would know all the details of tyvek vs tar paper. After all, your motto here is a failure to plan is a plan to fail. Looking back, that motto would have served me well.