Randy's dreams do come true oven build

[Saluki]

Wow. Looks about what I was aiming for. You have any pics of the structure itself?

[Saluki]

Also. What is the height of the front and rear roof lines. How much chimney pipe?

[RandyJ]

Hey Thomas that turned out great. You have been busy to be this far already. It looks great. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Randy

[RandyJ]

Saluki I don't know if you ment Thomas or me but my roof line is about 6' in the back and around 8.5' to 9 ' in the front. I just kinda eyeballed it when I built it. If you want the exact measurement let me know and I can get it for you.

Randy

[thomasmn]

Also. What is the height of the front and rear roof lines. How much chimney pipe?

I assume you mean these types of structural pictures? Height to right under the roof in the front is 7'2" to be 1' taller than me. I don't have a measure on the total height as it wasn't as important to me. Rear is about 5'10" to the roof. Chimney is made up of 1 section of 1' pie and one section of 3' pipe. Yesterday I found out that I may have gotten a 6" storm collar so I had to ghetto rig up some plastic and duct tape as Menards had just closed!

[UtahBeehiver]

Shaping up nicely. FYI, some builders pour in dry perlite or verm. after the enclosure is up for additional insulation. Relatively cheap.

[thomasmn]

I thought about that as well, but I want to have an access panel for electrical and the thermocouples as I haven't finalized how I want to display the temperatures. There are 4 channel data loggers available on eBay, but they've gone from $130 to $250+ in a month. I will likely post-pone that decision to August!

[Saluki]

Shaping up nicely. FYI, some builders pour in dry perlite or verm. after the enclosure is up for additional insulation. Relatively cheap.

Beehiver - I've read on other builds that some just recommend to add an additional 1" of blanket to accomplishsh this. What are your thoughts? I have 2" ready to go and am building an enclosure just like Thomas and Randy. Recommendations?

[RandyJ]

I poored in 36 cf of vermiculite over the top of the dome and filled the enclosure. It is not expensive but 12 bags start to add up

[thomasmn]

I poored in 36 cf of vermiculite over the top of the dome and filled the enclosure. It is not expensive but 12 bags start to add up

I agree, things starts adding up. I ran up another $500 bill at HD/Menards yesterday getting all the stuff to build the roof.. I've got 3" of fiber blanket over the dome and 4" board below. I'm fine with having perhaps slightly lower performance over the flexibility I lose by filling it up with vermiculite. I may get started on stucco tomorrow!

[RandyJ]

I hear you there. I think I ended up spending roughly twice what I had bugeted. I was right on till I started the exterior and then everything cost at least twice what I thought. I also had not thought of everything and had a few problems to solve that cost money too. But it is all worth it in the end.

Randy

[UtahBeehiver]

Just have the weigh the cost of adding ceramic blanket or dry perlite/vermeculite. Just presenting options of what other builders have done when they have an enclosed oven. There is a point of diminishing returns.2" is probably the minimum amount of ceramic insulation on the dome.

[RandyJ]

Russell is right I would say 2" is the bare minimum for ceramic blanket. I would also guess it to be cheaper to add one more layer of blanket than to fill with vermiculite. I used 12 bags at 15$ each to fill the cavity inside the enclosure. So that was 180$I think that is more than I spent on 3 layers of ceramic blanket. So you need to decide how much you want to spend and follow the route that leads you to. Your cheapest bet is one more layer of blanket and that would be where I would start.

Randy

[thomasmn]

The oven is definitely working. I cooked 3 slabs of ribs in it tonight with a nice crusty bark and moist interior. Start to finish less than 2 1/2 hours including firing time. I put in a few extra logs and managed to get part of the dome cleared!

[RandyJ]

Thomas thoes look delightful. I have not done any open fire cooking other than pizza. I need to try it, but my wife doesn't like roasts of any kind or ribs. So that makes it a little harder.

Randy