East London pizza oven and grill

[Neil.B]

Hi Baz, the whole vent and chimney is a bit unique as far as I'm aware, this was poor planning of the hearth size. I'm very happy as it actually works excellently.
The chicken came out very moist but the skin wasn't crispy, I probably didn't have the temperature high enough and the fire went out twice. Still learning how to manage the fire, so hopefully my cooking skills will improve.

[Baza]

Neil.B - welcome BACK!
Thanks for putting up the pics and videos - very helpful!!
Looks like the locals are taking a look and liking what they see - cool rotisserie! Pretty unique!!

Glad to see you are back and sharing!
Looking good and looking forward to it all coming together (glad to be back at it myself)!

keep going! Good for the soul!
Barry

[Neil.B]

[Neil.B]

Fox keeping warm in my insulation

https://youtu.be/UeB1sLbzumc

[Neil.B]

Chimney working well
https://youtube.com/shorts/7faW6nrIg9I?feature=share

Dessert

[Neil.B]

Rotisserie/spit working well
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZCzFFw5JJ1c?f

[Neil.B]

[Neil.B]

Wow, I can't believe my last post was so many months ago. There has been some progress with the build but due to depression not very much.
I wasn't happy with the chimney design and the risk of fire, so i took it down, I'm much happier now.
The chimney/flue design works really well, even at a cold start-up.
I haven't completely finished the insulation and containing insulated blocks, but getting there. The insulation on top of the ceramics blanket was made of 3:1 vermiculite and cement and will be topped off with thermolite blocks.
The thermolite blocks for under the brick floor works very well. 24h after the flames went out I couldn't put my hand on the floor more than a few seconds. Considering I don't have a door and just leant a bit of fire proof board, I was very happy.

Once I finish the brickwork it will be rendered

[Neil.B]

Great mental day today. After weeks of not doing anything I finally completed the top of the chimney and joined to the flue. Looks a bit messy shape but the joist was in the way so I had to compromise.
The transition of the flue through the roof is working well, we have had loads of rain recently and everything is dry.
I lent on the outer arch and cracked it, so took it down, I'll worry about it another day.
Because of the shape of the chimney I can fit a rotisserie between inner and outer arch, just need to work out the correct height.

[Neil.B]

After a couple of weeks not doing anything on the oven I decided to make a start on the roof today.
I final figured out something that should work. I basically used a fireproof board with timber running along the top to line up with the groves of the fiberglass pergola roof. Then covered in roofing felt to help protect it from water and mounted it under the roof.
I then cut a section of the roof big enough for the double walled flue connector to fit through and allow water flow. The end of the fibre board flows in to the gutter.

[Baza]

Neil.B - you SHOULD be happy - looks great.
And thanks for asking about the smoke (and putting a video up! Again - I think more of that on this forum for Newbies like me would be terrific!) - as a result, I learned a great deal from the Gentry of the Forum here on how air moves relative to the chimney. I had no idea about starting a fire under the chimney first to "get it going" then carry on with the rest of the firing.

Keep the great questions going Neil!
Looking terrific
Barry

[Neil.B]

Thanks Mark.
I wasn't to happy when building and thought the uneven bricks were a mess. But the more I look at it the happier I am.

[MarkJerling]

Great writeup Neil! And a very, very tidy dome interior!

[Neil.B]

Thanks both

[Gulf]

Visible smoke won't disappear until both the oven and the wood inside are hot. An oven where the dome has cleared will still create smoke when a large cold log or excess wood has been placed inside. Even sesoned wood has a certain amount of water moisture in it. That moisture turning to steam cools the oven somewhat for few seconds to minutes. For smoke to "disappear" all the moisture in the wood needs to be released. Then the other gasses in the wood that cause smoke be burned off. For that to happen they have to get up to certain temperature. That temp is created inside the area between the top of the inner arch and the apex of the dome. That is the area where a "reburn" effect is created.

When you get the flue installed you will see some improvement of the draw helping to pull the smoke out, up and away. But still, the visible smoke will striate at a certain level on startup inside a cold oven.