Dave's Pics of Progress

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,
Has your wood consumption gone down now that the oven's insulated?
George

On Saturday night I think that I used about 25% less wood than before the insulation.
This is just a guess. But probably pretty close.
And I never got the oven so hot.

In fact it was too hot for pizza. Burnt edges, undone middles. Lost hair.. etc.

So I'm guessing my wood consumption should be about half of what it was before the vermiculite/perlite layer.

I really need to get a point-and-shoot thermometer in order to really get a good idea what is going on.


How are you progressing?

[Kemo]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave, this is just awesome. thanks for the 411 on the insulation. i have 50ft of the 1" kaowool comming and I plan on hitting it with a nice layer of Vermiculite too.

so in the acronymous internet world, what does WFO stand for? Im assuming Wood Fired Oven?

cant wait for your Thanksgiving pics...i bet the turkey was really good.

[gjbingham]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,
Great to see that the oven's working out well for you, and you're sure getting a ton of use out of it.
Has your wood consumption gone down now that the oven's insulated?
George

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.

I had lots of guests. And made tons of food.

I managed to get my oven insulated on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
I built a wire enclosure, covered it with screen, and poured in four bags of perlite and vermiculite. The vermiculite is much easier to work with. Much less abrasive.

Anyways.... with the half inch Kaowool blanket and the 5 or 6 inches of perlite/verm. the oven sure seems to perform better. And heat retention... out of this world.

I heated the wfo up for pizza on Wed. night. On Thanksgiving day it was still at 500 f.
I cooked 2 turkeys and a ham. At the SAME time! Incredible. I also threw in 4 dozen of my home made rolls.

Everyone thought the turkey was the best they ever had. I must say it was good.

I fired it up last night. Raging hot, a bit too hot for pizza at first. And this morning.. I cooked some loaves of bread and put a brisket in. I have been throwing wood chips on the leftover coals. It is smelling quite tasty. I will post some pics and let everyone know how the brisket turns out.

Now I need to do some catch up posting.

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

If you are at this point and have doubts, keep firing!

The oven heats faster and cooks better after a few big fires! i.e. plasma


Cheers,

Dave

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave, well done! Looks like your threads will be in the food area now. I bet you will be busy there. You still have to insulate.

I did throw a Kaowool blanket on my dome before firing.
I had it in a box in the shed.... I bought it several years ago to build a Raku kiln.

Never got to the Raku, but the blanket was handy for my oven.
It seemed to heat faster, but the blanket was only 1/2 inch.

I still need to repair cracks. And apply perlite coating.

[Acoma]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave, well done! Looks like your threads will be in the food area now. I bet you will be busy there. You still have to insulate.

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

I made plenty of pizzas last night for my son's 17th birthday.

I think all together it was 12 or so.

They turned out pretty well. I didn't take pics of any of them.
But I did make 2 appetizers that turned out really well.

Here's some snapshots of those.

One was crabbed stuffed mushrooms. The other was simply homemade tomato sauce with mozzarella/muenster on top.

The kids didn't like the crab, although my wife and I thought the mushrooms were awesome.

The kids did love the sauce/cheese bake. I made pitas out of the extra pizza dough that were used for dipping.

I ll post my recipe for the mushrooms in the appetizer section. I know lots of time's it is a challenge to figure out what appetizers to make for a pizza get-together. I think these two are a great choice. Something for adult pallets and something for the children.

[Acoma]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave, sorry but I kind of agree with Sara. Maybe the wife should try the peel?

[Kemo]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,

dont forget to post pics of the Pizza!

[sarah h]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Hey Dave,

That's some great peel - you're a lucky guy to have the family you do!
Too bad you weren't quite so lucky using it .

Keep us posted on the extra chimney section. Hope it does the trick.

Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Thanks Dave,

A big help indeed. I went to Lowes and looked at their supplies. That thing looked pretty flimsy to me. I bought the 6 inch version, but I'm building a form to go around it. I'm going to cast this piece from castable cement and firebrick sand I gathered out of the saw pan, and pour around the metal, then attach that to the arch (someday).

George

[Ken524]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Dave,

Your oven finished out beautifully! Nice work. I really like the vent. Congrats! Can't wait to see how you finish it.

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

A few more. ( there are four more in my previous post)

[asudavew]

Re: Dave's Pics of Progress

Here ya go George.

I hope this helps you some.


There are four more in my next post.