Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

[gjbingham]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

...or a can of beer and chicken?

I kind of agree with your theory about curing with the blanket on, then repairing as necessary. I don't think all the moisture really comes out till you get the oven blazing hot and hold the heat in there for awhile. The insulation blanket early on makes more sense for that reason alone.
George

[asudavew]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Looking really good!!!

I vote for the beer can chicken!!!

Christo

I second that!

Or maybe some nice steaks......

[christo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Looking really good!!!

I vote for the beer can chicken!!!

Christo

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

i just might! if i do ill take a snapshot

thinking about chicken wire right now...

[asudavew]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

. Man, just laying the blanket on the dome made a huge difference in the heat. I didnt get to white hot and I still dont have a thermometer, but... It got pretty damn hot pretty damn fast.

Nice fire!

Just wait until you add 4 or 5 inches of verm/perlite.....

Are you gonna do some cooking this weekend?


Dave

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

alrighty! i got my Kaowool Ceramic Blanket - 1" thick 2'x25' roll in the mail yesterday. I wrapped the dome and lined the arch where the chimney transition plate is and made a nice fire. Man, just laying the blanket on the dome made a huge difference in the heat. I didnt get to white hot and I still dont have a thermometer, but... It got pretty damn hot pretty damn fast. I split for about 45min after starting the fire to get a Christmas tree. by the time i got back the fire had gone out to coals but was still really hot. AND - i finally noticed some moisture on the dome under the blanket. So...i have a new theory. Cure the oven under the blanket only, if you get any major cracks fixit, then move on to the vermiculite concrete. this is a nice compromise to my question of wheather to cure before or after insulating. Pics below...

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Dave,

thanks for the info...

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Kemo,

I just ordered mine from Forno Bravo. I did a little bit of shopping around before I ordered it. FB seems to have a reasonable price for the type and temp range of thermometer.

I may have to go with the sinjing of the arm hair technique until next pay-day. I hear the hair starts curling about 850 at 3" inside the door

Disclaimer: Dont stick your hands in the oven!

[Ken524]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

looking for a lazer thermometer as we speak

Kemo,

I just ordered mine from Forno Bravo. I did a little bit of shopping around before I ordered it. FB seems to have a reasonable price for the type and temp range of thermometer.

[Acoma]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Dave, I had talked about the insulation thicknesses and types of material planned, this being one of them. This was learned from conversations with Jim. I will be going with 3", 5" at apex. This will be applied over the insulation blanket 2", which will be over the 1" of mortar. Filling void to frame will be loose vermiculite.

[asudavew]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Here is a copy of Jim's post on Matrilite. And a link to the thread.

"The most interesting part of the meeting came when he introduced me to Matrilite 18, a product I'd never heard about. It's "a lighweight insulating castable designed for general purpose duty at moderate operating temperatures. Common applications include air heaters, combustion chambers of indirectly fired dryers and door linings. Matrilite 18 can also be used as backup for dense refractory furnace roofs, marine and stationary boilers." Well, moderate, for those guys; see below.

The maximum exposed use temperature is 815 C, while the maximum backup use temperature is 982 C (note this is in centigrade). According to him, this product would be a far more efficient insulator than the perlite/vermiculite Portland mix we've all used because Portland reduces the insulating properties of the dry material, and the dry material itself is not that good an insulator by comparison. After heating to 815 C, Matrilite has a thermal conductivity of 1.53 Btu-in/hr-ft 2-F. The cold crush strength after after the same heating is 1080 psi.

The major components are 39 percent CaO and 35 percent Si02. There are much smaller percentages of other materials, none of which means anything to me.

Right now, it looks like a 25 lb bag will cost about $25 CDN, but I'm not sure just yet. This stuff is light, so the bag is large. Seems to me that this would be the perfect material for coating Insulfrax batts or directly on brick. The rep told me that 2 inches of Matrilite would be far better than 4 inches of vermic/Portland.

The US distributor is Allied Mineral Products, 3025 Mineral Loop, Brownsville, Texas, 1-614-878-0244. No doubt there's a website; this is a multinational company.

In Ontario, the dealer is Alphatherm Inc., 8201 Keele Street, Unit 4, Concord, Ontario L4K 1Z4, 1-905-738-0126, Welcome to Alphatherm Inc. - About Us.

I was given a complimentary bag of Matrilite, and I'll be mixing up a small batch in the next few days and report on performance. Of course, I'm in no way connected to any of these companies, and I can only speculate on performance until I've tried it. If it works, it's just in time because I have three and possibly four FB oven installations to do in the coming weeks. I was told that with two inches of batt insulation and two inches of Matrilite, the need for loose material to fill the enclosure would be eliminated. We'll see."


http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f28/...ight=Matrilite

I hope this helps Steve.

Looks like good stuff.

I might try and get my hands on some!


Dave

[Frances]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

That sounds good: Be kind to your cracks and they will be kind to you.

Just as long as they don't invite all of their friends to stay...

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Small cracks sound like they are going to happen regardless of what you do.

I have reached an agreement with the cracks. as long as they dont bring down the dome, they can stay

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Unfortunately, for me, my oven cracks increased in size with each larger/hotter fire. Hopefully yours will not do the same.

I was thinking the other day at work about the cracks and whats really going on. After covering with blanket and then vermiculite, is it really going to be an issue? I mean, whats going to happen? I would think the smoke would find its way out the front rather than the crack-insulation-vermiculite. After all, smoke isnt rust - thank goodness

[Kemo]

Re: Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven

Kemo, what has been the temps during the burns?

looking for a lazer thermometer as we speak