Sarah's Progress Photos

[asudavew]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Outstanding!

Take your time, and have fun!

Congrats Sarah

[gjbingham]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Sarah,
Congrats.! Great looking fire. The oven looks clean and awesome. I think you'll be really proud of the finished product. Can't wait to see that first pizza or bread. I feel like mine is a long way off.

GB, your not using that quote of yours as the answer to the condensation concerns? Kidding.

Acoma, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Actually, I'm experiencing the exact same phenomenon. The lower mortar in the oven is wetter than the upper, for obvious reasons. I started partially blocking the oven off during the curing fires to try to bring the heat down to the floor of the oven.

It appears that the fire gets it's O2 from the floor. If I block the bottom, the flames diminish quickly.
G.

[dusty]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Sarah, I am excited to see the oven fires. Very cool! I like that one that you put next to your name. Looks kinda scary in there. Oooo! Midevil, sort of. Dungeonesque. Maybe I'm still in the halloween frame, but I like it!
Congrads and have fun with the pizzas. Hope to be sharing receipes soon.

dusty

[Frances]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

I cured my oven without a thermometer, just building continually bigger fires for a week. The lower courses didn't really seem to heat up much at all (on the outside) and they seemed to get wetter if anything, until the last fire, when the whole dome got heated up and dried out all the way through. It didn't glow like dave's did, but it did heat really well without cracking.

I think curing must be a bit of both, drying and heat attained. As long as you continue slowly and surely it doesn't matter much which is taking place at any given moment. Does it?

It'll all work out in the end... Cool isn't it?

[sarah h]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Thanks all, and Dusty, glad you like the avatar!

Had the 3rd fire tonight - I don't know if it has something to do with the outside temp but it seems to take more wood than recommended to get the inside heat up. In the end, the temperature in the middle of the chamber was almost 300F, the top of the dome itself was likely hotter, I was able to put my hand on the floor (where there weren't coals!) at all times and the only heat on the outside of dome came after the fire was out. I don't know if I'm doing this right but there don't seem to be any cracks yet ... from what I can tell in the dark - I'll check again tomorrow in the light of day.

Working in the dark is a pain - I narrowly avoided a face-plant tripping over a stray cinderblock but still managed to wrench my back, bruise a knee and take a chunk out of my shin - if I'm not more careful I'll be catching up to Dave in no time!

Here are a few more pics.

Sarah

[Acoma]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Sarah, only a few more fires to go. It's great to see you so close to complete. Have you already aquired your wood for the oven?

[Acoma]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Hey, I just noticed that I am now a Journeyman.....James.

[gjbingham]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Hey Sarah,
As you get farther into your curing fires, I'm curious if you could check to see how long it takes the exterior of the dome to warm up (to the touch).

I felt it wasn't really noticeable at all on the first couple of fires, then by the 3rd or 4th, the dome would be warm about an hour after lighting the fire, after the fire was nothing but smoldering coals.
After my 600 degree burn, I'm still seeing the same pattern, though more now the entire dome gets warm on the outside, not just the top. Still about an hour or so.
Thanks
George

[sarah h]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Curing fire number 6 was done this afternoon - see the second pic below (first is from fire 5) - Acoma, you can see the wood we already had on hand but I get the feeling I'll go through it pretty quick as it only fills about half the storage area!

George, I got to 600F today (top of the dome likely a bit hotter, no way to know) and the heat pattern is almost identical to yours - the dome warms as the coals die and, yes, at least an hour before I can feel it on the outside. I'm operating these days in temps that are just above freezing. More of it gets warm now, more of the way down the dome, but only very faintly at the bottom (barely detectable) and - I find this a bit worrisome - I can still put my hand on the floor, even when the temp higher up is at 600F! My door is often in place due to wing and cold, but raised up about 2 inches at the bottom for air flow, so maybe the draw of the cold air along the floor has something to do with it. It's starting to make me wonder if winter cooking might have its own special challenges (like no pizza till spring ).

I was silently gloating to myself about not having sustained any cracks, when what to my wondering eyes should appear (yes, hard to avoid noticing that season is coming, what with the non-stop ads) but a crack , fairly long, in behind the chimney - not wide, maybe 1/16th of an inch at its widest, but there's no smoke or light emanating from it so hopefully it's OK.

Super-big fire planned for tomorrow ...

Sarah

[oventhusiast]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Hey Sarah,
Congrats on the curing fires! The dome looks great and don't worry if it starts to crack. It HAS to expand! My dome cracked like throwing a cold egg into boiling water! But I'm not really worried about it. It's still very solid and strong. I tried to clad it with a bag of Heat Stop 50, personally I think I should have left it alone. All I did was added a bit more (unneeded) mass to the dome and it still cracked after that AND it cost me another $50. or so. Big waste of time and money Anyway, Enjoy!
Rick

[gjbingham]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Sarah,
Thanks for the reassurance. I started to worry that the place where I bought my firebrick sold me high duty vs. low.
I did my final curing fire yesterday. My cladding cracked like an eggshell as well, and also have cracks around the angle iron oven opening. I kind of expected this due to the differences in expansion of the three materials involved.
I had noted some steam from a couple of the cladding cracks a couple of days ago, then it disappeared. I cannot see any sign of cracking on the inside of the oven, but on my 600 degree fire, I closed off the opening with bricks, trying to retain the heat inside. It turned the fire into a very smokey (sp?) affair, and then suddenly reality set in. I had smoke, very small whisps eminating from a small area in one of the cladding cracks at the back upper third of the dome.
I didn't even sweat it. I kind of expected it, and I'm sure not going to try to repair it. It must be a really small defect to only emit a teeny bit of smoke.

Sounds like you might make it through your curing without suffering a similar experience. I hope that is the case. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
G.

[sarah h]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Lots of wood - big flames - a widening crack - a partially white dome - finally, a hot floor ... and then came pizza! SOOOO COOOOL!!!

My pizza-making skills definitely need work but it tasted fantastic, even the burnt bit. We used olive oil, San Marzanos, a mozzarella-provolone mix and fresh basil - absolutely delicious!

A 180-turn half way through would have been a good idea as it cooked way quicker on one side. By pizzas number two and three, the floor had already cooled too much (even for the first it likely wasn't as hot as it should have been, ideally) but they were still good. I'll keep more of a fire going next time during cooking as this one was just coals by the time we got going.

There is still moisture - steam started to rise from the dome. Cracks developed in several place, mostly very thin and running horizontally, but some quite long. The one that showed up yesterday grew wider and started to leak smoke (but it seems to be the only one to do this) so there's some patchwork to do, but I'm thinking that unless there's a really good reason not to wait, I'll fix it in the spring ... or can you patch cracks while the oven is warm and allow the mortar to dry faster?

Anyway, the photos are of Pizza #1 - how 'bout that circle of coals in the first pic?

It cooked fast, fast, fast
In a burnin' ring of fire ...

- a funny triangle shape; two and three were better formed though still not exactly round. And I discovered why I should have a wet mop handy - they were a bit ash-enhanced in spots (though not too bad really) - I'll have to find one with a wooden handle - all the ones I've seen so far have been plastic!

[Versachi]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Hey Sarah, most of us need work on our pizza skills including me. Still your worst pizza crust will probably be better that anything you buy at a store or get delivered imo. Don't worry too much about the shapes of pizza's and bread. I find that I have to fight myself to not try and shape my pizza and bread so that it will conform with the rest of the world. We shouldn't look at your pizza as being "a funny triangle shape" it should just be "The pizza that I made that tasted great" !

I give you high marks for the burning ring of fire ( the pic not the singing ). I think that as oven owners we all have to have that ring of fire picture in the photo album for ourselves and to send to others to brag about what we have and they don't!!

I would try and fix the cracks now so you can sleep easy this winter. I wouldn't patch the oven when its hot but with the cooler air you should be able to have a a fire that would just warm the bricks so that you could mortar them and allow it to cure overnight.

Cheers, John

[Frances]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

WOW!! Congratulations! It looks absolutely delicious! I'm really pleased for you! And all before the winter set in, too...

I agree with Versachi, who cares about the shape? It's the taste that matters. Maybe the hallmark of a truly hommede pizza is the fact that it isn't perfectly round.

The cracks sound dealable with, and the dome will continue to heat up better and better till the moisture has left it.

So when's the next pizza planned?

[oventhusiast]

Re: Sarah's Progress Photos

Hi Sarah,
Like most of us, I think you'll find as we use our ovens more and more, we'll just keep getting better at every aspect of oven management and food prep,etc.. It's just too much fun to experiment with it! By the way, your first pizza looked 'kinda' like ours as far as doneness and I'll bet it tasted just as good! Aren't they awesome? Do you think you could post some pictures of the dome cracking that you mentioned? I would like to compare it with my dome cracks to see if we are talking about the same type and sizes etc.. I don't think it's something we should worry about but it seems I'm the only one who posted photos of dome cracks (unless I just can't locate any other pics in the galleries) and I'd like to compare them just to see what to these domes do after expansion.
Thanks Much,
Rick