Elizabeth's oven

[egalecki]

Ok. I think I have planned this out enough now- I had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times when I got into more of my husband's yard than he was happy with

If it ever stops raining, (not that I'm really complaining, since we've been too dry) I'm digging up the space next to the garden in the first picture. The "oven complex" is going to be L shaped, with counter to the left, the oven in the corner, on an angle, and an area for the gas grill to the right. (I am hoping the grill will not be used much after the oven is built- I have my eye on a tuscan grill!) I second picture is my poor man's CAD version of what it should look like. I'm planning on leaving the oven an igloo, with sort of straight sides and a crown on top, so I can put some mosaic tile banding on it. I want to play with concrete for the counter part, but that will come later. I am building in installments, beginning with the slab and the oven. Easier on the budget that way.

I have most of my bricks, as you can see, and I got a saw to cut them with- I have an expensive bridge saw, which I can't use on this project due to the depth of cut needed, so I went with a circular-style wet/dry saw, which won't cut quite through, but I can break them the rest of the way or flip them and cut from both sides. It makes more sense for me to add this tool, since I do a fair amount of tile anyway.

So now all I have to do is dig. I can start tomorrow, weather permitting!

In the meantime, I baked something today- a new recipe. I can't wait to bake in my wfo!

[Les]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Elizabeth,

Looks good. Just a heads up, if you are going to finish the island with brick - make sure that the runs are an even mutiple. I ended up cutting a little bit off of a hundred bricks for one of my runs

Les...

[dbhansen]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

I baked something today- a new recipe.

Looks delicious! Is it sourdough?

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Elizabeth,

Looks good. Just a heads up, if you are going to finish the island with brick - make sure that the runs are an even mutiple. I ended up cutting a little bit off of a hundred bricks for one of my runs

Les...

Oh wow. What a pain. I was planning on using the cultured stone to finish- I may just do stucco in the meantime. But thanks for the warning.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Looks delicious! Is it sourdough?

No, it's supposed to be Pane Pugliese. I am not sure that it's all that authentic, since it didn't use a starter or biga, but it tastes good and the crumb is nice and holey, like my kids like it.

[mfiore]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Elizabeth,

It was refreshing to see your "poor man's CAD" sketch. That's as sophisticated as I can get with design. Looks like you've got a great start. Nice looking bread, too.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Has anyone done anything about a "screen door" to prevent sparking while firing the oven? I expect I'll have something on top of the chimney at the end, but I was wondering about sparks out the front. Do you even get many?

I've checked with the building inspector and he's fine with my location, but I'd hate to miss an opportunity to be careful.

If I were to build one, would fiberglass screening work? If I were to make it to fit the external arch, would it be too hot for the screening there?

[cvdukes]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Elizabeth,
If by fiberglass screening, you mean the stuff used for window screens, it'll definitely melt before your oven even gets up to temp. Aluminum screening will last just a little longer, but nothing to waste your time on.

Depending on the dryness of the wood and what you are burning, sparks out the front could be problem. Many of us have solid metal plates doors that fit on the outside.... make it so it allows combustion air to enter at the bottom by either cutting in a vent or just having little legs to elevate it off the hearth. You can even prop it up on some extra bricks. You only need an inch or so to allow enough air in. I only stick mine on when I leave the oven unattended... and even then only when the oven is first firing up. After the oven is up to temp and you just got a small fire going to keep the temp up, sparking is not a problem.

[gjbingham]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Cool! Another oven to be built. More opportunities to second guess.

I've yet to see a spark come out the front of my oven.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

ok, now I have to find a place for all this dirt I'm digging up. Dirt, loosely. It's mostly lovely Virginia red clay. Darn backfill from when we built the house.

but I can see in my mind's eye the completed oven, and it's going to be wonderful!

I'm going to start putting pictures up on the website we have so I won't hog bandwidth. Is it ok to use the ours, which is on msn instead of picasa?

[dmun]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

You can host the pictures anywhere. All you need is the URL of where the picture is, and you can paste it in your posts by hitting the postcard icon above the message box.

You are welcome to post any oven related pictures on FB.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

ok, I think I have the signature fixed to link to my picture page. testing.

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

It works!

If you want to look at the other pictures, like from Italy, you can click on the links on the left of the page. There aren't too many pictures of people no one knows but me, and there are a lot of lovely pictures of the wonderful Italian country and people.

My blisters have blisters and I'm only 4 inches down.

[Mahootna]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Shall be watching your progress with great interest. I'm still in the plannning stage but have been considering the same 'L' shaped design - bench to one side, bbq to the other, WFO in the corner. Have even been using the same AUTO-PAD system (pencil aided design). You must be using v2.0, coz mine is still only black and white. Must look out for the upgrade.

As I say, I shall be watching your progress with interest coz I've been struggling with deciding what overall size and shape to aim for, for each section of the 'L', and then tying in the surface of each so they are all the same height. Just can't visualise the transition from the hearth, with insulating layer on top, then the cooking surface, and having all that at the same level as a bench on one side and a BBQ surface on the other.


Paul

[egalecki]

Re: Elizabeth's oven

Have even been using the same AUTO-PAD system (pencil aided design). You must be using v2.0, coz mine is still only black and white. Must look out for the upgrade.

Paul

AUTO-PAD 2.0 has tape for easy manuvering of the shape as well. I got tired of drawing it over and over so I cut it out and moved it around through all the many layouts I have looked at.

I am not worried about the height of the BBQ part- when I am ready to surround it I'm just going to take it up to the height of the side tables on the BBQ. I don't care if it is not the same as the hearth. If there's hearth showing on that side, then I'll stucco it or cover it with the cultured stone.

I'm going to make the counter later, and I'll have to see how it will look best- I don't know if I'll make it all the way to the dome, or butt it to the hearth slab.

I got my insulating board today and I'm using corrugated steel panels as the base for my hearth slab. If they hold up the concrete front porch, they'll hold up the oven.

Still digging, though. It keeps raining.