Christo's Cucina

[dmun]

Re: Christo's Cucina

I didn't use any buttressing on the side of my opening: I plan to pour in some vermiculite concrete, but I don't think that's too structural.

[RTflorida]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Yet another great idea I wish I had seen a month ago - cutting the bricks at a 45 degree to promote draw up the chimney. Although mine seems to draw fine, I do have a bit of smoke coming out the entry on start up.
As we keep saying, GREAT planning and execution.

RT

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Thanks RT!

I either stole that from Dave during his Rumford build or saw it on the rumford site he mentioned. I spent way too much time researching and reading about this than actually doing it!!!!!

The arch went pretty smootly - not as precise as I wanted - somehow reassembly made some differences. It looked great dry fitted.....

With all the smoke on the opening worries that I have - I wanted to do everything I could to have a smooth draw. I'll put a matching bevel on the other side as well.

Christo

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Haven't worked on the oven in a while. Had a business trip to Hong Kong that interrupted things....

While travelling - Hendo happened to be in the same area. He went out of his way (ditched his family and got out of some shopping....) and met me for a beer at my hotel. He is a smart and funny guy. More of that later.

I can tell I'm anxious to get this over. I'm cutting corners (litterally) and not taking the time I used to take to get things done. As a result, my chimney opening looks a bit toothy. I'm happy with the taper on the bricks but could have spent a bit more time truing up the opening. My wife says "who's going to see that?" - I know it will be there..... bygones

So on to the outer arch; terra cotta vent; and chimeny. All went very well. Really nice to be done with the firebrick part of this exercise. I had to lay a few scraps of firebrick on the arch to fill in some holes left by the trapezoid shape of the vent arch. It freaked me out to have to trim the mortared together halves of the vent with the grinder but they held together just fine.

Christo

[christo]

First fire with Chimney

Had to see if the chimney would draw.

The fire looks much bigger than it is - I think the darkness makes the flame look bigger....

Seems to draw pretty well - not much smoke out the front at all. I am putting a decorative brick arch on the face that will be about an inch lower than the vent arch - that should take care of most of the left over smoke. Or so I claim....

Of course, making the decorative arch an inch lower than the vent may give me a challenge with the oven door, but I guess I'll have some time to think that one out.

For now, I smell a little smoky and all is good.

Christo

P.S. If the oven looks tall, it is - I still have to rent a bobcat and level out the area for a paito and put down about 6 inches of gravel and sand.... That should bring it up to tennis racquet height...

[dmun]

Re: Christo's Cucina

It's looking good. One of the problems with the geodesic design is that there is no really good transition from the dome to the entry. You at least left enough room in front of the oven for a proper flue arch instead of building it partially on top of the dome like I did.

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

It's time to post again - been working a lot and making a small drying fires as time permits.

Took time today to clean up the worksite and start installing metal stud enclosure for the oven. Making the oven enclosure a pentagon shape did not help.... I was working in quicksand - everytime I trued up one wall adding hte next would take it all out of plumb.

I had some rebar wire left over and put x's of wire to stabilize and plumb each wall as I built it from there on out. Worked very nice. I plan to hold up the concrete backer board, trace the shape, cut it out, remove the wire and install. One surface at a time.

Of course - I could not find my lever action cutters - So I'm using some old huge tin snips from my tool collection - I'm sure I'll find my avaition snips when I'm done with the metal frame.

Planning on putting in some niches where the dome and front arch intersect. There looks like plenty of room there without impacting insulation thickness.

Gotta go buy 8 more studs for the roof!!

Christo

[james]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Chris and Hendo,

Welcome back. How did your trips go? You have to admit that a Yank and an Aussie meeting in Hong Kong after an introduction on a brick oven group is pretty interesting.

Chris, I can't tell from the photos, but is your roof angle OK to shed water?

Otherwise, if you slowly accelerate your fires, you will be roasting chicken and grilling bistecca Fiorentina within days -- and reaching pizza heat right behind that. You definitely can finish your oven and cure it at the same time.

Enjoy, and welcome back.
James

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Thanks - It's good to be back - I'll post pics and our meeting in the travel section later tonight.

Roof is nearly flat. 3 inches slope the lenght - approx 5 feet or 3 degrees. We're not in snow country (we had an inch 3 years ago...) so I think it will be fine.

Intend to use sheet copper or rubber or combination to cover.

I have seen a few small cracks between the hexes and pents during the drying fires. They are very small on the outer shell and I see no evidence on the inside. Last night was my biggest fire so far. Two logs and after they got going I separated them to make a nice long low burning fire. I've now had about 10 hours of something burning low in the oven. It is a nice and shiny black inside.....

[christo]

insulation anyone

I had a fire going while I was building the metal stud enclosure. Not one of my brightest moments - it was already warm that day!

A friend sent me some prototype insulation that is very good but did not meet the weight requirments of the application. I was able to wrap the entire oven around the base, and make some vertical cuts to allow overlap. I then put two layers over the top.

I had enough left over to piece together a second layer around the sides and a third layer on the top. There were a few places were the metal studs close to the metal studs (due to oven growing from 34 inches to 39 inches dia). I put a piece of scrap isoboard inbetween the ceramic insulation and the stud in those places.

Now time to put on the concrete backer board and start the stucco!!!

Christo

[christo]

Dinner!!!!!

Shame to let all that heat go to waste.

Actually was surpised how fast it got how with insulation on it. Maybe it was the wrong idea to fire it up without insulation. That creates a much larger temperature difference between the inside of the oven and the outside. That's probably a question for a different thread.

Any how. I ran out to the store and bought a chunk of meat and some red potatoes and peppers. Got home and started looking up recipies for that chunk of meat I bought. Turns out it was pork and I thought it was beef....

Threw some more sticks in the oven and found a couple of recipies and combined them. By the time I got everything prepped the fire was coals. I put it all in the oven and went about finding something to make a door with - I had not yet burned my cardboard template for my first arch - of course it was a perfect fit!!! The picture shows the door with the temperature probe unit outside the the door (it sends temp readings about 50 ft to a unit inside the house!)

The boston butt turned out really well! the red potoatoes, onion pepper and herbs de provence (and maybe a bit of garlic) got a bit singed around the edges but good too!. Bread went in last and toasted quickly.

We have been eating the butt and potatoes for 3 days..... The wine, however, is long gone....

It is worth the wait!!!

Christo

[christo]

Pizza nite!!!

Well, The last fire burned alot of the soot off the top of the oven.

We saw that as an oppurtunity to give it a shot.

Results were great. The swirl of EVO over the top of freshly shredded mozzarella, basil, mushrooms, peperoni, and what ever else we had in the fridge turned out great.

Can't believe I'm that rusty - I did not make a round pizza on my first try.

I worked at Dominos in college - you would have thinked I learned someting!

Anticipation is one thing - tasting it is another!

We had a blast -thanks to all!!!

christo

[RTflorida]

Re: Christo's Cucina

That first pic is cool, very cool. A fire, a cooking pizza, and THE dome.

NICE!!!

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Congratulations!!! Looks great!
Drake

[james]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Way to go Chris. Everything looks great. Sounds like the dome is holding up well through the heat cycling -- that makes me feel good.

If you turn the pizza around, it sort of looks like Australia.

I can't image where the wine went.

Congratulations again.
James