Christo's Cucina

[jwnorris]

Re: Christo's Cucina

[QUOTE=asudavew;18290<snip> Now you got me thinking........ bigger ... Great work![/QUOTE]

I thought that bigger was always better.

J W

[fullback66]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Christo, Do you have a finished picture of everthing?
I do have a question about footings.

Question:
How far down did you dig for footings? I know the ground freezes there. Are the footings below frost line?

It looks great!!!
fb66

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Hi everyone!!!!

Thanks for all the kind words - Fullback - my part of NC the frost line is only 4 inches below finished grade - so I'm on a floating slab. Dave/JW/GJ - this is a much bigger job than I realised when I set out to make my oven/patio. I'm still shoveling and compacting gravel. Will it ever end????

With Thanksgiving coming and a commitment to use the oven to roast it, I had to make a door.

I had a piece of SuperIso (from FB) left over that was just the right size for the door. I was worried about how to fasten and durability so I cut a piece of expanded metal to fit. I can fasten through the expanded metal and hopefully it will help with any corner hits or help hold it together if it evenutally cracks.

I was concerned about heat transfer to the handles so I screwed the superIso to the Plywood door and screwed the handles to the plywood from the other side. Result - nice cool handles. I have to be careful not to heat up the screws too much and burn them out of the plywood - maybe time to use through bolts and a metal door when that happens.

We made pizza Wed night, closed up the oven and went to bed. In the morning the oven was still over 600 degress. We had to take the remaining coals out and leave the door open to cool it down. I put a coffee can full of water in the back, took the turkey out of the brine and it cooked up wonderfully!!!! It even tasted good.... We ended up cooking stuffing and rolls in there as well. (We had an tragic stuffing accident in the inside oven and the stuffing caught fire and made the inside oven stinky - don't worry it's all cleaned up now)

BTW - I'm not sure what I did right but I'm still not getting the soot on my arch.....

Can't wait for Christmas dinner (Hmmm Turkey again?)

Best Regards,

Chris, Christo, or whoever I am today....

[gjbingham]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Christo,
Great looking bird. Congrats on meeting your Thanksgiving commitment to use your oven.
I like your door design. I'v never heard the term expanded metal before. Is that the metal mesh on the inside of the door?
George

[Ken524]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Christo,

Great door! That's really similar to what I have in mind. I like your t-shirt too.

Ken

[wlively]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Great door Christo. I wish I had some of my insulating board left.

I bet if you slightly countersunk the screw holes, then affix a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side up) on the hot face of your door you will decrease the screw temps alot.

[asudavew]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Great door Christo.

Yeah it is. I must copy!

I bet if you slightly countersunk the screw holes, then affix a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side up) on the hot face of your door you will decrease the screw temps alot.

Do you think the layers could be glued together with chimney/high temp caulk?

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Thanks for the replies.

Expanded metal is made by cutting slits across the metal and then pulling it from both ends. The sheet metal pulls apart at each slit resulting in the diamond shaped holes in the metal.

My original plan was to make a sheet metal door and pour it full of refractory insulation (similar to cement but light and fluffy). I used to use the stuff when I worked on commerical boilers (long long time ago).

Now that I'm not under pressure to have a door fast - I can incorporate some of the suggestions!!!

Btw - after the dinner was removed I filled up the oven with wood and put the door back on - some of it was black the next morning!!! That oven is really retaining heat well!

Christo

[gjbingham]

Re: Christo's Cucina

That's my plan with the wood too. Kiln dry the next load with leftover heat from the last.

Thanks for the explaination of the expanded metal. My building knowledge is pretty limited beyond basic concrete work. I was looking through a book on masonry last night, and there it was - expanded metal lathe.

I guess I should be working on my door too. Thanks for the great ideas and photos. Your version looks like it will work fine, and that's good enough for me, at least for now.
George

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

Well, I'm finally back at it.

I've been doing a bit of grading, hauling gravel and compacting, but not much work on the oven.

I ran the plumbing, cable tv, electricty, out to the oven, filled in the trench and leveled and compacted the area, too.

It's a real joy having electrical receptacles right at the oven vs string extension cords.

I added an additonal cut out in one of my wings for a stainless steel trash can.

I tackled the trim on the top of the oven and feel pretty good about finishing that.

Next on my list paving and concrete countertops (with LEDs or fiber optics in them!!!)

Christo

[Ken524]

Re: Christo's Cucina

I ran the plumbing, cable tv, electricty, out to the oven

Cable TV to your oven? Yep, I'm jealous!

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina

It even works!!! We tried it last night!

It will be great when football season starts back up.

Christo

[jv17]

Re: Christo's Cucina

that's a good idea if you're setting up on that one..

[adman2u]

Re: specifics

I am facinated by your marble light idea. I have been inseting rope lights in the bottom of my overhang counters for mood but your idea sounds cool. Where did you get LED's / how do you run wire / what if they burn out?/ do you grind them flat on top? ????????????

[christo]

Re: Christo's Cucina





It looks like I'm now seeing a lot of countertops with lights in them. I talked about it too long and did not do it.

here is a link to the fiber optic countertop - I have not done any business with them yet....

Concrete Countertops

I made a prototype and flattend the tops of the marbles and use thin double side tape to stick to the counter. After grinding and polishing it looked good. I epoxied the LED to the marble with the hopes that the clear epoxy would also act as a light guide to the marble. It seems to work.

I got the LED's on line at a Electrical surplus shop. There will be no changing them out - when they burn out - I'm outta luck - but they should last 20 to 30,000 hours....

Christo