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Finally getting to building WFO in Calgary, Canada

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  • barbara9
    replied
    Hi David - we are in the last planning stages of building a pizza oven in Calgary. We have been able to source all the materials but struggle finding the FB board. Did you find any and if so, would you mind sharing the supplier? Thanks for your help. Your oven looks great!

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Wow, shocking that it had been a year and a half since I posted. I thought I would post an update how things have gone
    Our oven is going very strong. It makes wonderful pizza, roast, turkeys, bread, and smoked/slow cooked meats. I am extremely happy we undertook this project, we use and enjoy with a firing usually at least twice a month (& enjoying cooking breads, roasts etc. using the retained heat).

    The dome was sealed with flexcrete over the CF blanket and regular stucco. The flexcrete has held up very well, I have not noticed any issues with it in the last 1.5 years. I did put a bread of outdoor silicone around the bottom edge with the counter.

    I sdo notice when first firing the oven that I get a little smoke coming out the front of the oven, rather than it all going up the chimney. Once it is burning hot there isn't an issue. I may try following the guidance of Mike above and see if I can remove that band around the chimney cap to see if it improves the chimney draw.
    (But, I've also lived with it for 1.5 years, so maybe if it works, why chance breaking it)

    Anyways, thank you so again for the help and guidance to complete our oven. We are really enjoying it and appreciate the all the help you provided.

    Cheers,
    David
    Last edited by shanxk8; 05-27-2020, 09:19 PM.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Here is the oven this weekend after applying 2 layers of water proofing (flex crete). It seems to be a cement/mortar/stucco with polymer instead of water, and seems to have made a nice hard layer on the outside of the dome My technique improved and was able to make the final layer fairly even and smooth.
    It was quite a lot of effort to scrape the remnants (mostly polymer i think) off the countertop, so I'm hopeful that it will stand up well as waterproofing, at least for this winter.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Here's some pictures of the 3rd layer of stucco that was finished last week.
    Bonus picture of the delicious sourdough bread we backed as well.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Sable, regarding silicon, i only used a very little bit on the vertical joint. The horizontal joints were kinda double folded back on each other. (I hoped that will be sufficient but timewill tell)

    (I forgot to take pictures of that part)

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    There is a metal double wall insulated chimney inside the brick facade. It is mounted to a chimney mounting plate sandwiched between bricks. My only concern is that the flashing is a little to flat & I need to put something inside to provide a little slope so melting snow (or rain) don't puddle & flow to the middle and go into cavity between insulted metal chimney pipe and the brick facade.

    Future problem to solve, it should keep the majority of the snow out for now.

    Can't seem to get the forum to bring-up already posted photos well, but here is the post that show's what chimney looks like inside the brick.
    https://community.fornobravo.com/for...685#post405685
    Last edited by shanxk8; 10-18-2018, 12:16 PM. Reason: link

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  • SableSprings
    replied
    Nice flashing construction David! Did you just seal the overlay seam/fold with silicon? Also, in looking at your cap, I'm a little concerned that the middle band inside might constrict the upward air flow. I don't think I've seen one of those chimney caps with that much screen area blocked off. Just something to watch over time when you are firing...as long as there is no constriction it's great, but...

    I had used a 1/4" (5-6 mm) hardware cloth on the inside of a chimney cap in a BC Canada Casa 2G90 and found that the mesh would actually plug up with black ash to the point that it would not draw properly. We changed it out to 3/8" (~10 mm) hardware cloth and never had the problem again. (In all fairness, the soot buildup could have been because we are burning fairly pitchy pine wood there since hardwood is not available.)

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Whole is waiting for good weather, I also made myself a metal flashing top to go around the edges of the brick chimney up to the metal chimney and cap.

    Made a form from a scrap of 2x6 to pull the flat roll of flashing thru into a bend length that I then had to make angle cuts to get a square topper. (The pictures below will hopefully explain better)
    Last edited by shanxk8; 10-17-2018, 07:48 AM. Reason: spelling

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Have been in a holding pattern until the last few days, and I've finally gotten started with stucco over our dome. We had an unusually cold and rainy September and early snow in October.
    with overnight temps getting above freezing again I've gotten 2 coats of stucco on.

    The first coat I had #20/30 silica sand which was much too coarse. Second purchase was #70, and made for much nicer to work with stucco.
    Finished the second coat in the disk this evening, so I only have lifted off the first , coarse coat.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Our son (3 1/2) also got in on the bread shaping and baking. He was very happy to join in and pleased with his end result.
    (a happy dad here)
    Last edited by shanxk8; 09-10-2018, 08:37 AM.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    I also spent my morning with friends whom are much more experienced bread bakers getting a lesson and all learning a but more about baking bread in a WFO. We made what we thought would be an oven full of bread , but ended up having to cook it in to batches.

    We started off a little later than we should do the oven was colder than needed, around 405 to 410°F on the floor (wanted 450).
    I also did not realize how much the oven would cool off upon putting in the loaves. It was already down to 380 almost right after putting in the first 5 loaves. We ended up putting fire back into the oven to try and get the second batch to brown as desired.

    Either way, the end result (of those we've tasted so far) was excellent. First 5 were pain ordinaire and next 4 were sourdough.

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    In the last little while, I've been working to finish assembling the granite countertop. I've now finished with that part and pan to next tackle stucco over the ddome One picture with the "finished" granite. It still needs some polishing at the joints and all the edges.

    I've also completed a basic insulated door. It still requires some finishing with rustic hardware, but it is more functional than a straight wood door to retain heat. It is 22G plain steel, bent, and attached with machine screws.
    Last edited by shanxk8; 09-09-2018, 07:52 PM.

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  • JRPizza
    replied
    Now that's one heck of a heat break

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    However, the vacation was kinda interesting from the WFO front as we were in Italy, and we got to visit Pompeii. (Not only is it the namesake for the oven plans I followed, it's also the ancient City that was buried by erruption of Mount Vesuvius)
    It was really cool to see how most everything was so well preserved from nearly 2000 years ago. That included an ancient bakery with a wood fired oven!

    Here are a few pictures of the outside and inside of the oven. the last photo was described by our guide as the mill used to grind grains into flour. A wooden bar was inserted and the apparatus pushed around to do the grinding.
    Last edited by shanxk8; 08-24-2018, 07:43 AM. Reason: spelling

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  • shanxk8
    replied
    Hello all, was away for a while on vacation, so haven't had much progress of late. I've only had time to slowly work at cutting granite into pieces to hack into a countertop. Here's a couple pictures on the layout of the granite in progress but not attached yet.

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