39" Pompei build in NH

[Gulf]

You are right David. It looks like the floor is continuous from the oven through the entry.A simple heat break between the two floors would help a bunch against that happening..

[ML38]

Took the day off yesterday and worked on the base. Keeping with the reclaimed theme of a lot of my material, the wood is from a barn built in 1790 here in NH.

Not much left to do before it snows and it's been warm to work outside so I can't complain about the weather.

[shanxk8]

That spiral chimney is very impressive. I really like it!

[ML38]

That spiral chimney is very impressive. I really like it!

Thanks David. I saw a picture somewhere of one quite a while ago and wanted to try and do it. It was one of those things that you start without knowing if it will come out like you expect or not. Especially since I never laid a brick in my life before this build.

[ML38]

Update and door question

I added my vent (copper pipe capped with drilled holes and a copper decorative post cover covering that) and used my door for the first time.

Temp was 550ish with just some hot coals left. The door was on for around on hour and I went to check on it and the exterior wood was 115 degrees. It never was higher and seemed fine otherwise.

Is this normal for a door with 1-1 1/2 in of ceramic blanket insulating between sheer metal and wood? The sheet metal is probably a bit heavier than my 16 gauge aluminum that I have.

I did cook a 7 lb chicken the day after cooking pizza at 350 degrees in a cast iron dutch oven. So heat was 550 then 350 next day and today 250. Should I have retained more heat than this? I'm fine with it because I don't see a lot of day 3 cooking in my future

here is a pic of my door again and the chicken which was very good

[Gulf]

That sounds like some very good heat retention for a new oven to me. Those results will probably get better as more of the moisture is been driven out. For me it is kind of difficult to correctly measure an ovens temp with a few live coals inside and where the door has not been in place. Once the flame and coals burn down somewhat, I find that the oven is loosing heat pretty fast. It is either from the lower dome brick not being fully saturated and/or the the cool draft air entering the oven is cooling the oven down. When aiming my infrared gun at the dome a few brick up from the floor, the live coals give off a false heat signature. It take some practice to figure out what is really going on. But, you will learn from each firing and every cook.

Try the pics again. I really love to see the WFO food rewards of folks very hard work. .

[ML38]

Every time I upload pics and try to insert a thumbnail, something different happens

Here are the pics again I hope

[Gulf]

Nice vent cap. That ought to keep the rain out just fine. That is also a mighty fine looking bird. What flavor can is that? .

[SableSprings]

Nice vent cap. That ought to keep the rain out just fine. That is also a mighty fine looking bird. What flavor can is that? .

It's a can of flavor, i.e., Octoberfest from Samuel Adams (In our Oregon Costco it sells in a case of 28!)

[ML38]

Good eye Mike. I have only seen 12 packs though. 28 would be nice.

Gulf, I hope you are right as we are in the middle of a potential 3 inches of rain as I type. This will be a good test for how well I prevented water from getting in. If it takes forever to get up to temp next time, I'll know I have work still to do

[Gulf]

It's a can of flavor, i.e., Octoberfest from Samuel Adams (In our Oregon Costco it sells in a case of 28!)

I was wondering. The orange colored can threw me a curve. I've heard of folks substituting sprite for the beer . I wasn't so sure that Orange Crush wasn't the latest trend .

[ML38]

Question on what moisture will do to fire brick. I have one floor brick just inside the entrance and partly under the dome. It has become dark colored. I measured the temp and it is only a few degrees less than the surrounding brick so doesn't seem wet. Seems too dark compared to 'wet' bricks I had as I was building. We did have multiple inches of rain twice in the last couple weeks.

Anyone seen something like this with their ovens? It's not affecting cooking. Just curious why one brick would change color.

I did finish my door and cook some fall off the bone ribs on day two heat. I found some old angled steel that may have been an old cart or something that I found at my father in law's family farm (200 yr old farm )

[Gulf]

That is a very nice door. You may want to think about building a matching storm door to help keep that rain water out. A tight fitting door sweep type gasket attached to the bottom of the door may also help. I'm sure that brick looks a lot different in person, but to me from the pics, it just looks like it is getting dirtier a little quicker than the others. Also, I hope that ribs are on sale very soon! That platter looks mighty fine .

[ML38]

actually the brick I'm talking about is behind the door. Here is a pic. not a great pic but you get the idea. The other discoloration in the entrance way is just dirt etc from all the rain and some ash in the oven

[Gulf]

That is interesting. I would burn the oven clean one time. After the dome starts to clear, pull some hot coals just a little out past the lip of the inner arch. An old garden rake will help separate the ash from the coals. Form about a 2" a levee there all the way across the entry. You can also do this with left over brick (they don't have to be fire brick) from the build. The idea here is to raise the draft air a little further off of the floor.

When the dome is clear and the wood has burned down to just glowing embers spread those embers out over the floor. Remove the brick levee or push the coals back inside the oven. Place your door about 1/2" away from the lip of the inner arch. The next morning you should have nothing but gray ash left in the oven. Rake that out and slap an aluminum peel against the floor to send the rest of the ash up the flue.You should now have a sparkling clean floor.

I think that it may be a damp brick. One that is not drying as fast as the others. Also, it seems that draft air wants to break a little to the right in my oven. I"m not sure if that is a Northern hemisphere thing or not. But, the dome clears from the top and to left of my dome before the brick on the lower right.