It's time to go Vertical

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Well time for an update, the kids came down late Fri so I decided to try a couple of pizzas for us before they were here. Did Margeritas using tito 00 for the dough, crushed San Marzano tomatoes and a blend of four cheeses. The first one turned out just great, I didn't dust the peel as well for the second one so it didn't slide off as well .

On Friday I did a double batch for the dough and divided it up into 6 balls, used two of them and refrigerated the others for Sat.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Sat, I made a batch of dough using bread flour, it appeared dryer and not as flexible. I made 7 pies and the tito balls where easier for me to form, but that is still a work in progress. By the last one I thought I was doing Dave's trick with the two hands a lot better. So there is hope.
My son tried doing one and had problems with holes, etc so he decided to make it a calzone turned out poor.
Two other mishaps occurred. On the second pie, I noticed it's a little hard to get the pizza back on the peel to turn it, at that time I was using my wooden peel and it was starting to char on the end. On my third pie trying to turn it I pushed it back into the ashes and fires so that ended up as a burnt offering to the WFO gods.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

The other mishap occured when we decided to do a dessert pie with chocolate, strawberries, graham crackers and mashmellows. Prepared that an placed it into the oven, it didn't take any time before the marshmellows were on fire. crust had barley started cooking. Wasted Pie.
We tried again but decided to cook the pie 75% and then add the ingredients. Turned out great.
So 5 out of 8 turned out on our kickoff night so I was pleased. All of us had a great time doing this and it got easier. I switched to get the pies out the oven to an aluminum peel and this helped a lot. I'll get a turning peel , with its smaller size I imagine it is easier to turn.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

I had a real good fire going and flames were traveling up the dome, the dome temp max out my gun and the floor was 900F. I was charring the edges of the pie but the bottoms were turning out great. I probably could have let the fires die down more.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Good to hear. How is heaven anyway. I'd be nice to know what I'm going to miss.

The little one of yours will convert you. Wrapped around the little finger Yet?

[dusty]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Very cool! Congrads, RC. Isn't it rewarding to finally start using it? It's funny, but I never doubted that the oven would cook good and I suspected that it would be fun, but I was most suprised by how very fun it was for everyone to use it. From stetching out the dough to pulling out the finished pie, everyone has had a great time. And quality family time too!

dusty

[Frances]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Congratulations Lake! Looks as if you had a great time! Cool!!

Thank you for posting all those pics. I burnt my wooden peel, the first time, too

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Agree. Congratulations on a successful build, cure, and oven festivity.

[Inishta]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC............awesome! We have all been following the build and I'm sure we all feel the buzz with you. OK so it wasn't 100% but 95% is good..........

Enjoy

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Great pics RC. You gotta be happy with those results! How's the oven holding up after the blazing fire?

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC, with curing over, it is time to lift that blanket to see the results. I have 2" of blanket minimum to approx. 4" at overlapping areas towards the top. Somewhere you stated that you would add more. How much is the minimum you wish to cover with? Aren't you planning on other insulating factors on top (Matrilite or Vermiculite)? How much would then be applied?

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Great pics RC. You gotta be happy with those results! How's the oven holding up after the blazing fire?

It seems to be doing just fine, from the inside everything I can see looks the same. Any hints on getting the soot off the arch entry way? From the outside I do have mortar crack zigzagging up 4 bricks starting at the top left of the arch and where the dome connects, nothing bad thoug. But not excited on going in until I clean the entry way up.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC, with curing over, it is time to lift that blanket to see the results. I have 2" of blanket minimum to approx. 4" at overlapping areas towards the top. Somewhere you stated that you would add more. How much is the minimum you wish to cover with? Aren't you planning on other insulating factors on top (Matrilite or Vermiculite)? How much would then be applied?

I bought 50 sf of 2" blanket and also of 1" blanket. So far I only have the 2" covering the dome, I still have 6' of the 25' in the box plus all the 1". I haven't seen the outside of the blanket above 90F so far. I'll add the rest so I'll have 4" or 5" everywhere, other than the arch way (only 2" there, it hasn't got that hot there). I'll have the 5" segment on the top of the dome.

Nothing else, I think I'll put stucco over that to weatherproof it until I get to the stonework.
Good luck tomorrow

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Also wanted to thanks James for the pizza cutter, it got here days before our first pizza. It put my old one to shame, twice the size. Looking forward to cutting a lot of pie with it.

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC, that pizza cutter is pretty sweet! I use it every time we have imitation pizza (WFO is the only real one). Glad to hear your cures are done, and the foods are fun.