West jordan Ut new build.

[Roland Deschain]

Well, last night I hosted / had a party with 60 people or 30 couples. I made 36, 8.5 oz balls with costco bread flour, 24 hours in advance. I also made four, 9 oz balls made with caputo pizza flour.

I had everyone make there own pizzas. One per couple. (We had a lot of side dishes too.) Margherita was how i instructed them. I got all sort of sizes, shapes, disasters, blow outs, etc. So, overall a success. I did find out simply, that the balls made with the caputo flour streached easily, cooked magnificently, tasted superb, and overall kicked butt over the costco bread flour, hands down! But for what I was doing, the bread flour was a succes, and no one but me, knew any differently. Everone said the pizzas were the best! We had six balls left over.

One thing I need is a brass brush to ease clean up between messes. Lesson learned.

My oven kept floor temp above 650 for two hours while we used it. It stayed consistant between 650 and 750. I pre fired the oven at noon and then fired it again one hour before the first pizza. At 7 ish.

I used Peter Reinhart's recipes for the dough and the sauce that are on the site.

[agrasyuk]

Russell, let me know if still available plz.

[Roland Deschain]

I ordered one before seeing your post. Dang!

[UtahBeehiver]

Hey Ron,

I have a brand new in the package GL Metal peel from Italy. PM me if you are interested, I can let it go for less than half of what it sells for on Amazon.

[Roland Deschain]

Its taken longer to get pizza peels than it took me to build my oven. I ordered from a site claiming to have the bestpizzasupplies with a .com after it. Then they never delivered. Call bank, claim the fraud, and move on.

Then i come down with pneumonia and still cant get out there to make a pizza, ugggg!!!!!

[Roland Deschain]

Started back up some fire after letting it sit for three days. I went slowly up to 500 over a couple hours and then maintained that heat for four more hours. Today a couple days after that, i went up to 500 again slowly and then added my insulated door to maintain the heat.


Grinding and painting door

[Roland Deschain]

I got some help welding it together. Took us three hours. It is 5.5 inches thick and used hot rolled steel, 14 gauge from metal supermarket. Roxul insulated. And yes I know it has metal handles. Thats what oven gloves are for.

[Roland Deschain]

While I wait for my oven to cool off and let the moisture migrate to the dry bricks for a few days, Im going to work on my oven door.

[Roland Deschain]

I guess the only way for me to know if the oven is dry is when the carbon burns off. Since my oven is under a walled structure with a roof on it. I have no way to see it on the outside.

[david s]

If you've had plenty of extended fire in it and all the carbon has burnt off the entire dome on the inside then you're done. If you are concerned that there is still moisture in the perlite, try throwing some sheet plastic oven the oven during firing to see if moisture condenses on the underside. You can also get a cheap garden moisture meter and use it to tell you if the insulation layer is dry.

[Roland Deschain]

When / how do you know when the oven is dry completely? When is it then safe to fire it for pizza?
I cant see steam coming off of it because it is enclosed in a walled structure filled with loose perlite.

[Roland Deschain]

Ive got at least two days that i will let it sit with no fires in it. Thanks for the advise.

I just looked at the inside and i have a black rink going up starting at the top of the second course. The first two courses are still clean looking.

[david s]

This is precisely the point at which you need to go more slowly. The temp rising rapidly is because you have driven the water from the dome in the top half. If you have an IR thermometer you will find a huge difference in temp between the top and bottom of the dome. This is because the bottom half is still damp. With such a large difference in temp also comes a huge difference in thermal expansion and the stresses here can cause cracking. Allowing the whole structure to cool back down again helps and probably if left for a few days some of the moisture will migrate back up into the drier areas. All this takes more time of course. If you see any visible steam then you are going at it too hard, back off. You may see a persistent black ring around the base of the dome which indicates it's colder and more moist, so just keep the fire going gently.
the water in the underfloor insulation is the last to be eliminated. Holding your hand to both the underside of the supporting slab and the top and sides of the dome will tell you lots. If it's hot there's moisture present, cosy warm even after hours of fire indicates dry insulation.

[Roland Deschain]

Im was doing my 450 f cure today and it totally wanted to go higher on its own. With barely any wood it would rise above 500 with no effort. I had to spread out the wood to keep it below. The first course of bricks and the floor are at 300f and going up the wall course by course until 450.

One more "day" min to go. 500 f.

My schedule went like this.

Day one 4 hours at 200f charcoal and small twigs
day two 11 hours at 300 charcoal and 1 inch pine from scraps of 2 by 4
day three 6 hours at 350 charcoal and same as above
day four 10 hours at 400 2 eco bricks and 1 inch pine like above
day five 6 hours at 450 plus at times same wood as above.
All basically the same amount of wood each day to maintain temps.

i drilled some holes up from below to get to my perlcrete layer. Its still wet after one month. Hope the holes help drain any water in it. Fingers crossed.

[Gulf]

You are probably beyond this point by now. But, using charcoal or lump charcoal for the lower temp fires will help maintain more stable temps with no flame impingement on the dome.