The Dragonfly Den in Retrospect, June 2009-May 2012

[SableSprings]

This summer (2017), some friends gave us a solar light set of dragonflies. I mounted them along the front top outside edge of the den. I also had gotten tired of getting dripped on when I stopped to open the door into the den and decided since I was mounting a set of solar lights that I could also extend my front roof line. I bought some sheets of TufStuf polycarbonate clear roof panels and set them in place to give us a little over 2 feet of overhang on the entry side of the den. I now have a nice, drip free zone as we enter the den and the dragonfly lights shine off the under surface of the overhang and add to the color show.

[SableSprings]

Back in post #32, I admitted to being shocked at how dark it was in the oven while baking late in the evening and that the flexible neck, battery powered, BBQ light was the answer. Well, it also became quickly apparent that when a party went past sunset, having a fire in the oven just didn't provide enough light to tell the tomato sauce from the Gochujang (Korean hot red pepper paste).

We didn't want to light up the county but clearly needed a higher lumen count than we had. The solution was to add some white rope lights and some multi-color rope lights (widely and cheaply available during Christmas). The combo gives a nice ambiance to the den and enough light that nobody stumbles or chooses the wrong pizza topping during an evening get together. I also added a remotely controlled electrical plugin. I run an extension cord from the garage to the plug and then with the remote I can turn the power on or off for my lights and/or fans in the den if it gets too hot outside.

Later, my brother in law and his wife got us the beer sign so I wrapped it with a solar rope light, hung it outside the door and voila! If I only could find something to make the beer letters reflect/shine the lights enough to show at night...well, maybe that's what the beer is for...

[SableSprings]

It didn't take long to figure out that I wanted to keep the rain water a little farther away than the current drip line. I thought the easiest thing to do was to buy and install a plastic gutter system for the roof line. After all, it was less than 20' of straight gutter. Not only was I amazed at how difficult it was for me to try and put a slight downward angle on the gutter by myself but how much water can drip back under the roof line if you haven't installed flashing on a low angle roof. After retroactively installing flashing, I reinstalled the gutter. Things went well through the winter but again I was amazed--this time at how much the plastic gutter sections expanded during hot weather.

I only have a single joint that connected two gutter sections, but the friction/ridge snap system couldn’t keep the sections together in the summer heat. Unfortunately, the two sections met over the back door of the den and would just pour water down here during any showers we would have after hot weather. I ended up using some small stainless steel screws to keep everything together during our frequent temperature fluxes. The plastic "heat expansion" would also pop the end cap off the end (that leads to the down spout piece). The down spout (once secured ) simply feeds out along the fence line and into the vacant lot next door. At least now the gutter system does not work itself apart with a warm stretch of weather and the drip line in the back of the den has been pretty much eliminated.

[SableSprings]

At the front of the den enclosure trusses, I had installed screening to allow any smoke to escape out along the roof line instead of pooling in the den. Truss line venting works pretty well although using a burning pine cone (held with a pair of tongs) to pre-heat the flue works even better to start the draw up the chimney and keep initial smoke from "escaping" into the den.

Being able to entertain in the den without having the flies, mosquitoes, or yellow jackets "bug" us has been great. The screened openings in the den walls allow plenty of air flow, although the space does heat up more in the afternoon, summer sun than I would have expected. We added Coolaroo shades on several of the windows and although they do cut down the late afternoon sun coming into the den, they also reduce the air flow and temps start rising again. One suggestion has been to put some poles in at an angle to hold the Coolaroos out from the building. The shades being out at an angle would probably block the sun even better and reduce the air flow even less...food for thought and future experiments

[SableSprings]

Once I started to bake 15-20 loaves of bread on Friday "bake day", I realized I would need to have more cooling racks than I could fit on my cart. I bought a NSF stainless steel shelving unit to put in the den. The unit is pretty solid, with six shelves and wheels so you can move it fairly easily. We love the extra space it's given us in addition to the extra cooling areas for bread fresh out of the oven. Pretty nice to have beer & wine glasses as well as silverware and lap blankets right by the table.

[SableSprings]

I was a little disappointed by the heat retention of my oven. I know that I am bleeding heat through the hearth because I only used a little less than 4" of 5:1 perlcrete for my hearth insulation. Even with my heat loss, I am able to cook with and use the oven for a couple of days on one firing. After my oven was cured and had been used for several months I decided to graph its heat retention. I took IR gun surface readings from the hearth and dome from the initial burn through my bake and into the evening so I had a temperature profile on the heat character of my oven. I did this several times and found the results were quite consistent. Below is attached one of those graphs I created (in Excel) of my oven'’s temp profile. I highly recommend creating a temp profile like this for your oven if you intend to use it for things other than pizza

Reading about the temperature retention in newer builds here on the forum that have used ceramic board or glass fiber insulation under the hearth, it's obvious to me how true the FB forum's mantra of "You can't have too much insulation" is to an oven build.

The one thing I would do differently for my next build would be to use 2" of glass fiber board (FoamGlas) under 2" of ceramic board for my hearth insulation instead of perlcrete. The lower level of FoamGlas board would act as the moisture barrier between the concrete slab and the ceramic board (which has a tendency to wick and hold moisture). The additional benefit of a much shorter drying period for this type of hearth insulation layer (vs the perlcrete or vermicrete version) would be significant to the build's timetable.

[SableSprings]

I wasn't real happy with the initial draw of the chimney and decided to extend it up another section. When I built the faux chimney and double flue pipe system, my intentions were to;

1) make the inside chimney look impressively bricked,

2) provide a moisture escape mechanism by connecting the insulation layer of the dome/barrel facade to the open passage between the inner and the outer flue pipe and

3) keep the inner flue pipe somewhat isolated from outside weather conditions so it would stay dry and warm up more quickly to achieve maximum draft and draw.

I must’ve been brain dead when I purchased the initial clay flue pipe...I knew I needed an 8" diameter (actually rectangle) for my 39" diameter oven (actually short beavertail shaped), so I bought 8" and 12" for the nesting flue. I never measured the actual opening size...just assumed 8" meant the inside opening...WRONG! When adding the sections of flue to extend the chimney, I finally measured it and found that it’s just a little over 6" x 6" inside – it needs to get pretty hot before it really draws adequately. Certainly explains why I'’ve got smoke longer than others during firing.

The added length did help a bit and keeping the chimney clean of creosote is fairly effective to keep smoke escape to a minimum. Fortunately I had installed screened soffits along the high side of the den, so the little smoke I do get flows up along the joists and out through the screen.

The pictures show how I embedded flashing in my chimney brick joints the first year with the temporary enclosure/cover. I used the same basic techniques with the final roof to keep the rain out of the den. The third picture shows the 8" flue pipe nested inside the 12" flue pipe. The 12" flue is not used by the exiting hot gases & smoke, only the 8" flue. The gap between these two clay chimney inserts acts as my moisture venting from the dome & the insulation between it and the barrel facade. The last two pictures show the before and after of the chimney extension.

[SableSprings]

I tried to make a series of pictures that would better illustrate my ash bin and the hanging rack.

Hopefully these pics with the previous post diatribe will make better sense. Let me know if I can make this more clear.

[SableSprings]

My friend the tile-setter also liked to dabble in metal work so we talked about some basic design concepts for an ash bin mounted underneath my oven's ash slot. He took some measurements and my proposed galvanized ash bin and returned a week later with those mounting ideas turned into a working system. My concept is the schematic below. The red lines represent the mounted support rails and the black represent the ash bin and side flanges that would slide onto the support rails.

First he riveted strips of 90 degree metal angle trim stock along the sides of the bin to create a top support flange. Next he had welded some tabs on angle iron and drilled holes in the tabs. A piece of the tabbed angle iron was attached to the stand underneath and to each side of the ash slot. The angle iron pieces were set just wide enough so the bin flanges would slide onto the (when mounted) horizontal ledges of the angle iron. He also had added a handle on each side of the bin for easy removal and insertion onto the rack/rails.

As a cover for the bin, a section of sheet metal was cut, narrow pieces of angle trim attached on three sides. The left and right angle trim pieces were notched so when the cover was slid into place, it dropped down over the bin side flanges and created a fairly tight lid for the bin. The third piece of narrow angle trim was attached on the den side of the cover which simply kept the cover from being pushed too far in -- past the bin opening.

The bin holds the ash from several bread bakes and is coated with high-temp black BBQ paint. When the bin gets full, I grab it by the side handles and slide it out of the rack. Since the cover's pretty tight, I carry the bin down to my compost at my leisure without ash blowing all over. I really like not having to deal with hot coals and ashes when company is here and I feel much safer that when I dump the collected ash several days after a bake, it is absolutely dead cold.

[SableSprings]

Now that the tiles have been grouted in, it’s time to return the carts from garage. I measured the height of the cart tops a little too close and forgot that my foundation slab is sloped for drainage. No problem...the carts still rolled in OK, just no room to leave more than a towel on top when pushed into place. The powder coating on the carts looks great and should hold up pretty well.

Originally, I had envisioned the carts rolling into the bays via a track to keep them in line (and not scrape the walls). Unfortunately, again I had measured a bit too close and it was almost impossible to avoid the bay’s side walls as I pushed or pulled the carts. The only solution I could come up with was to glue some thin pieces of wood molding along the inside of the bays to act as a bumper/barrier between the cart metal and the bay cement block.

At least both carts are now working exactly as I hoped. Storage for cooking utensils, serving pieces, glasses, entertaining items, etc. on the left side cart lower shelf. On the right side, wood storage for about three firings of the oven. Expanded steel on the lower (fire wood) shelf makes sure there is good air circulation and keeps the bark/wood crap from building up under the stored wood. Obviously that bark/wood crap falls on the floor beneath the wood, but I push the cart into the bay and simply use the shop vac to clean it up.

Note on the sides of the oven facade I inserted L-screws into a lateral mortar seam. I use these L-screws on the left side to rest my working peel, while on the right side my copper blowpipe and bubble popper lay across the screws. The third picture in the post above shows the peel resting on the L-screws even more clearly. Also you can see that I attached a battery powered light with a long flexible metal neck on the upper right side. I clearly remember the first time I was working the oven for a batch of bread at dusk and looked inside to see nothing but blackness...never thought about how dark it could be in the oven without a fire

[SableSprings]

I have a neighbor who's a fabulous tile setter in town. He dropped by one evening to see how the oven had turned out and immediately decided that it needed some tile over the block stand and a better facing/surface on the top slab. Better yet, he had enough surplus materials, some spare time, and interest to do the job for us...never underestimate the power of giving bread away to your neighbors.

He came over on his next available day and started to work. He suggested that we use square terra cotta tiles on the stand base and some travertine pieces on the top slab. He thought it would look pretty sharp and give the oven sort of a “floating on top of the darker tiles” look. It sounded terrific to me and since those materials were basically surplus “scraps” in his garage–how could I say no?

He got the tiles laid out and set in place in a couple of hours. I have to say that watching a professional tile layer work is truly humbling. I rebuilt our bathroom a couple years later and was pretty surprised how much I had learned by watching him...and reminded how far I was from someone who could make a living at tile work.

The tiles set for a couple days and then he came back and did the grout for us. I was amazed at how great the oven looks now with the stand and top slab finished.

[SableSprings]

Since the carts are done, I decided it was time to finish the area behind the oven. Bought some plywood sheets and started to screw them into the posts around the backside. OOPS! I was able to get behind the oven before, but by adding the sheets of plywood--getting behind the oven was no longer an option for me. I’m not that big, but essentially I was unable to even get a power screwdriver in position to attach the plywood below the stand level. A few, less often used phrases and words were used ...but that didn't help either ...so I attached on the upper portion of the plywood sheets as best as I could and then took some pieces of 2x4s, cut them to just fit in the gap, and then pushed them down to the base of the stand along the back wall to actually wedge the lower margins of the plywood tight against the structure posts...sorry, no pictures here ‘cause I was (still am) too embarrassed .

My next goal was to build a woodshed. Laid down some landscape fabric and had 11 yards of 3/4" minus gravel delivered and dropped on the fabric. Spread fabric and gravel around the side of the den where we expected people to park. I then ran fabric/gravel down a path to where I wanted to build the woodshed. Staked out the woodshed dimensions I wanted and put in posts, secured with quickset concrete in the holes. Again fabric and gravel down before building the simple structure. Wind is generally from the southwest, so I put the open side to the northeast. Pallets will go down on the gravel and wood on top. I hope to fit about three cords of split wood and some yard tools in the shed.

Good to have the wood under cover but I’d forgotten how much work shoveling and moving 11 yards of gravel would be ...definitely time for a long shower and a cold beer after each of the days I was shoveling and spreading it.

[SableSprings]

Bay carts are completed. My friend, the welding instructor at Umpqua Community College, took the dragonfly picture silhouette mentioned in the last post and made two large cutouts with the plasma cutter. The welding student (these carts were his term project) mounted one of these cutouts on each end of the carts...very cool. I had him make and attach his initials on the cart ends as well.

Took the carts out to a local company that does power coating and they did the basic carts in black with the dragonfly silhouettes in off white. (And now you know why we call this The Dragonfly Den.) I was ecstatic when I saw the finished carts. I secured some “railings” inside the bays so the carts wouldn’t scrape when I moved them in & out. The left hand cart works great for a prep table and cooking item storage, while the right cart base is used for wood storage. The right side’s top is where I deliver pizzas to cutting boards for serving or where I cool hot loaves of bread. Both carts can be pushed in flush with the bays and really makes closing up the den pretty easy.

We had added a lower guide rail system to the original plan to keep the carts centered while moving them in & out of the bays. Unfortunately, I had measured the heights to achieve maximum use of the bay and adding the rails raised the right side cart too high to fit into the opening...hence the use of the side rails in both bays.

The large dragonfly on the chimney was an art piece we bought in Idaho on a trip back east. The curved metal container under the ash slot in front is an old tire bath. They used them to find leaks in tires in "the old days". It fit perfectly beneath my ash slot, so I just used a concrete block to lift it up into place fairly tightly. Now I just pull the ash and coals directly into the slot, everything drops into the container, and I'm ready to bake.

[SableSprings]

Some pictures of my cooking door since it has turned out to be extremely useful for me. I can easily lift and move it with one hand and the handle stays cool enough to work with even when I'm running a pretty hot oven. As I mentioned previously, the black and white is simply high temperature BBQ paint. The dragonfly cutout was made from a photo of a dragonfly I took at the river in front of our house. My UCC welding instructor friend, took the picture, made it into a silhouette, then cut it out with the plasma cutter in the welding shop. I still am humbled that my friend made this as a gift for us and the oven.

[SableSprings]

The mortar grabbed the lath nicely and I only did a few courses on each side at a time to let the mortar set. (Otherwise, the lath tended to “pucker” with the weight of the bricks pushing down on the more extreme dome curves.) Note the piece of angle iron protruding along the back sides of the false brick chimney. This was used to set the back bricks of the chimney level across the back of the curved dome. I cut the excess angle iron ends off as I approached putting in the final top courses.

I extended a couple bricks along the front buttress posts to give myself 2 small shelves on each side of the oven opening. After I finished the half-barrel top facade, I folded the lath down in the back. I cut and put in another piece of cement board, then mortared it and the folded lath into position to protect the backside perlcrete. Sorry, never took a picture back there...no one except me has ever seen it...

I was pleased with the look I got with the facade and am still happy I didn't actually build the half-barrel style oven. I love the look of a brick half-barrel oven, but prefer the variation on the Pompeii dome for the types of baking I do.

The welding instructor that was supervising the bay cart final construction, remembered I wanted a lighter weight cooking door. He made me the cooking door shown on the left side of the "finished" oven (in front of the flowers). It has a small metal dragonfly cutout (matches the ones that will be on the bay carts) mounted over an old style welding tool handle. I simply painted the dragonfly cutout with white high temp paint and the rest of the cooking door with black high temp paint. You can partially see my stainless steel firing door in position at the oven opening.