Chip's 42 in Minnesota

[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

[chidding]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Nice work chip! Is that with a door aswell?

[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

[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

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

Worked on cure fires today and Stainless entry floor and sealing door.

Stainless lays over vermicrete with 2 and a half bricks at the outside edge just in case it gets wet out there sometime. Stainless folds down 1/2 inch at the oven opening for minimal contact and I may reduce that to 1/4 inch, The sides fold down an inch and the outside edge folds down 2 inches.

This stainless entry floor is a trial balloon and if it works out great if not I will change it to traditional brick or soapstone.

Still going slow temp in dome reached 420 today. The dome is coming up in temp very quickly now and I decided to build a sealed door. No insulation but a glass rope seal and a stainless inside with a small handle. Not fancy but it puts the fire out real quick.

Final door will be insulated and much better built.

*** Help needed ***

Getting a few wiffs of smoke out the front when the wind blows but as you can see from the smoke pattern not much comes out the front. I have a 10 inch I.D. - 12 O.D. double wall Stainless Flue. and my thermal break between the inner arch and the flue arch smokes a little into the oven cavity. I think I will need to do some sort of sealing there.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can put there the gap was intended to be direct contact but at some points is less than 1/16 of an inch wide and a little irregular as there are spots where the mortar filled in the gap. It does not smoke when the flue is exhausting just when the door is closed forcing smoke directly into the gap area.

The temporary door is not build well and is leaking some air -- thus smoke.

BTW I love the 8 inch round tool for playing with the fire.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Little more work done on the prep table wing. I am building a brick pillar to support the end of one wing of the roof; A single piece of re-bar down the center of the pillar. It started to rain so work is halted for the day.

Still doing curing fires. No cracks yet but there is still time.

Chip

[Aegis]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

I am not real worried about the floor as I have gone through a cure cycle of the floor already (second build of dome) and I believe it is quite dry. Did a couple of small fires today and the temp came up faster - it must be starting to dry out. moved the fire around in the stainless ring and kept checking temps, when the temp dome temp would get over 200 I would rake out the coals across the floor and let it sit. Outside of dome is getting to about 115 near the top so things are coming along.

Thanks for the complement, I just re-read your post and might consider putting more mass in my dome. You are getting great heat retention results.

Not sure if I want to stop curing and adding more water though. and restart the cure cycle. Winter is near even though it is 82 today.

Chip

I understand the winter thing coming sooner than we'd like. I am trying to close up the roof before snow flies! lol The extra mass is only worth it for baking bread and extending the cooking time a bit. Insulation, insulation, insulation cannot be stressed enough! Every penny I spent on insulation and or had been graciously given to me was well worth every cent!
Extra mass on top of the dome would not make you re-cure, but to cure longer. The bigger time set back is waiting for the mortar to harden. I waited 10 days before re-firing. I did it that soon, because the mortar/mass is not structual at all. So strength of mortar was not a big factor.
I am sure you were glad for the 80 degree day in Oct.
Good Luck!
John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

The hearth could probably stand a lot higher temps than the dome. No mortar in the hearth and nothing to crack in the hearth. The dome on the other hand still has lots of moisture unless you were working at my snails pace. lol I still got a monster crack, but I know it was from leaving, forgetting, and having pieces of firebrick in my expansion joint around the edges. You are wise to go slow and easy, it takes a lot less time to do a long cure once than to patch cracks and re-cure!
btw- great looking build!

I am not real worried about the floor as I have gone through a cure cycle of the floor already (second build of dome) and I believe it is quite dry. Did a couple of small fires today and the temp came up faster - it must be starting to dry out. moved the fire around in the stainless ring and kept checking temps, when the temp dome temp would get over 200 I would rake out the coals across the floor and let it sit. Outside of dome is getting to about 115 near the top so things are coming along.

Thanks for the complement, I just re-read your post and might consider putting more mass in my dome. You are getting great heat retention results.

Not sure if I want to stop curing and adding more water though. and restart the cure cycle. Winter is near even though it is 82 today.

Chip

[Aegis]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Took the leap of faith today and made a small fire. Put it in a Stainless ring so I could move it around the oven and avoid hot spots. Still saw temps in the 200 - 210 degree range with the IR gun. All of the low in the oven readings were below 165.

At one point the fire started to blaze and I moved it out of the ring and spread out the fire. not sure how high the spot temps got but after spreading out the fire could only detect one spot at 225. and that was just above where the fire ring was.

Outside never went over 115.

Crossing fingers and toes.

Chip

The hearth could probably stand a lot higher temps than the dome. No mortar in the hearth and nothing to crack in the hearth. The dome on the other hand still has lots of moisture unless you were working at my snails pace. lol I still got a monster crack, but I know it was from leaving, forgetting, and having pieces of firebrick in my expansion joint around the edges. You are wise to go slow and easy, it takes a lot less time to do a long cure once than to patch cracks and re-cure!
btw- great looking build!

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Well, Chip... think of it this way: You can be the first ever to take more time to officially cure your oven than it took to build it!
John

Took the leap of faith today and made a small fire. Put it in a Stainless ring so I could move it around the oven and avoid hot spots. Still saw temps in the 200 - 210 degree range with the IR gun. All of the low in the oven readings were below 165.

At one point the fire started to blaze and I moved it out of the ring and spread out the fire. not sure how high the spot temps got but after spreading out the fire could only detect one spot at 225. and that was just above where the fire ring was.

Outside never went over 115.

Crossing fingers and toes.

Chip

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Very gun shy on putting any wood in the oven due to my first dome cracking experience.

Well, Chip... think of it this way: You can be the first ever to take more time to officially cure your oven than it took to build it!
John

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

My outer arch is separated from the flue gallery by an 8 mm vermicrete layer and you can hold your hand on it when cooking pizzas, although if the oven has been firing for several hours it gets bait hotter. Apart from reducing heat conductivity, it also reduces any thermal expansion stresses on the outer arch which I believe to be the main culprit of outer decorative arch cracking.

I hope not to need a rebuild on the decorative arch. I have already re-built a dome and that was enough for a while.

I am using a space heater with a small fan to move the air around in the dome to keep it warm at this moment.

95 inside and 75 outside with a 65 degree outside temp.

I hope it is drying a little. Very gun shy on putting any wood in the oven due to my first dome cracking experience.

Chip

[mrchipster]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

John,

When I talked to them about the next marathon Dave said "Next Marathon!!!!"

I think it will take a while till he warms up to the preparation for the next big thing. That does not mean I will not provide them with pizza in the mean time.

I know I will not be joining the thundering herd...

Chip

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Chip's 42 in Minnesota

Looking good, Chip. I really like the way your stand arch and keystone came out. Give a high five to your daughter and boyfriend. That is a totally crazy way to spend 4+ hhours of your free time. Maybe you can help them with Pizza Margherita carbo-loading for the next marathon.
John