Chip's 42 in Minnesota

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Thought I would add a detail of my door and ring i am using for my curing fires.

Ring is the outer connector ring for my stainless flue sections it is about 7 inches tall and 12 inches in diameter, I did not put the bolts is so I could use a blow tube to reignite the coals should the flame go out.

The ring allows me to control the location of the fire I can drag the fire anywhere in the oven and move it regularly about every 15 seconds while the fire is blazing. Trying to distribute the heat around the dome.

The door is a piece of 1/2 inch plywood with a piece of bent stainless attached. There is a fiberglass stove sealing rope attached to the wood and a small wood handle. As you can clearly see my cure fires are using pine, Building up quite a layer of soot.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Still curing oven but have started to experience some hairline cracks on the outside of the oven, I cannot see them on the inside. All are along joint lines so not sure if there is a serious problem here. I covered the oven in FB blanket to hold in some of the heat and only one location is displaying any smoke stain on the insulation. I will continue with the cure and see what happens I think I will need to do some minor grinding and filling at the leak areas.

Cooked up a beer can chicken, small red potatoes and some Cuban rolls for dinner all done in the oven. Chicken got real dark but was tasty and juicy inside. I had a smoldering Maple coal pile in the oven with the door on most of the time while the chicken was cooking and it got a real infusion of smoke. YUMM....

Raked out the coals and put in the rolls, still need more experience with bread as the bottoms were more done than the tops, but still turned out nice.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Checked oven this morning and after 42 degrees F overnight with significant wind the internal oven temp was still 220. Minimal insulation, just 1 inch of FB blanket loosely covering the dome.

Used the Cuban Rolls for French toast this morning.

VERY HAPPY with the heat retention.

Chip

[chidding]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Nice work chip! Is that with a door aswell?

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Nice work chip! Is that with a door aswell?

Temp door on. Just a piece of 1/2 inch plywood with a stainless back to keep it from burning. Can be seen in prior posts.

Chip

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Chip,
So how's the stainless entryway working out? I am planning on doing the same thing, and wondered what thickness you went with. Also, with insulation underneath the SS, does it not retain heat like the brick entryway? I was thinking of going with firebrick underneath, but that's a sure thing.

John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Chip,
So how's the stainless entryway working out? I am planning on doing the same thing, and wondered what thickness you went with. Also, with insulation underneath the SS, does it not retain heat like the brick entryway? I was thinking of going with firebrick underneath, but that's a sure thing.

John

John,

Seems to be working fine, gets a little warm, not hot at all, near the oven and I may reduce the contact at the oven a little by removing even more of the flange. But it cleans up like a dream as expected. Because it is not hot nothing seems to stick.

It gets a little ash dust on it from wind blowing into the oven when the door is off so it does not look like a mirror all the time.

Had a little water come down the flue - horizontal rain storm. The water drops hit the stainless with black gunk in them and it cleaned right up. No problem with water on stainless

Gauge is 22 or .030 inch thick 304 SS

I do have fire brick at the decorative arch end, one row - 2 whole and one half brick. I did leave about 1/8 inch on the side for expansion. I did not know how the metal would react to the heat.

I think I would go a little thicker if you have the option because I think over time this thickness might dent but the price was right for this piece I traded it for an hour of consulting on a computer network issue.
Chip

[Grozio]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Hi Chip, I've been looking for more brick oven owners in Minnesota. I live in Glenwood and just completed my first oven a month ago. Still working on the finishing touches, but I have been using it.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

I did leave about 1/8 inch on the side for expansion. I did not know how the metal would react to the heat

Thanks for the tips. I'm clueless regarding metal expansion rates and will probably err on the side of caution. My thoughts right now are to leave the firebrick underneath the stainless for two reasons: 1) the stored heat will provide a better warming/staging area for food 2) the stored heat should aid the oven in staying hotter longer. My entryway bricks (like yours) will have to have at least minimal contact and since conductive heat transfer rate is based partly on the variance of the two sides swapping heat, a hotter entryway should wick less heat from the oven than a colder entryway would. At least that's the way I think it works.

MCSE?

John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Hi Chip, I've been looking for more brick oven owners in Minnesota. I live in Glenwood and just completed my first oven a month ago. Still working on the finishing touches, but I have been using it.

You are quite a ways out, I am in Crystal.

Made a dome clearing fire tonight. The one crack that I have on the outside (zig zags from chain 4 to chain 9) I now can see from the inside. I will let the oven cool down and go in and fix it in a couple of days.

Outside crack fixes seem to be holding, I used caulk tube refractory mortar.

Ground out the cracks with my 4 inch angle grinder and filled with mortar. seems to be working.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

I have been working on curing my oven for the last two weeks.

The curing is going well I've had to repair some cracks and have used and oscillating multi tool to grind out the mortar with a diamond curved blade. This worked much better than the 4 inch angle grinder because I could grind in at a right angle easily with the flat edge.

The thing I am most happy is the heat retention I had a fire on Friday night where we cooked up some salmon filets. And the next morning the oven was still 580?. It is now Tuesday morning and the oven is 200? since then. I cooked a turkey bread and rolls and two other dinners since then. And I have not added any fire.

The insulation was 2 inches of ceramic blanket on the sides an three on top with some perlite on the sides, so not ideally insulated but good.

Last night I added another 20 cu ft of perlite and put on the roof sheathing.

With the exception of an insulated door I am now fully insulated.

I am still experiencing heat through the floor slab and am seeing the wood box ceiling reaching 120 degrees. I guess the vermicrete is still a little wet.

I have 2.5 inches of vermicrete 7:1 and 2 inches of FB board in the floor.

Chip

[SCChris]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Amazing devices these WFOs. The insulation is one of the keys and taking the time to saturate the oven really streches the cookable window.

Congrats to you!

Chris

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Thought I would post a few more photos. Permanent roof is nearly complete. Standing seam panels are on.

Still need to complete ridge, flue flashing, sofit and facia.

Oven is fully insulated with exception of insulated door.

Of course the brick still needs acid washed and the prep and entry counters are awaiting their slabs. The patio in front of the oven still needs it's brickwork and on and on.... There seems to be no end to this project.

The vertical 4X4 with the holes is just holding up the temporary roof and is not part of the final design.

Chip

[ggoose]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Chip,

That is a beautiful outdoor kitchen! You are nearly dried in...a bit of flashing and you should be ready for winter. Nicely done!

gene

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Chip,

What a great-looking custom pizza kitchen! Along with your intriguing dome history and the excellent brickwork, you're gonna make a lot of people happy handing them pies straight from the oven. Nice job.
John