42” Pompeii oven and Argentine bbq on California Central Coast

[Michele Enrico]

Thanks guys. I have ordered 3" of blanket insulation from Forno Bravo and will secure that with wire and build a hut around that to waterproof the dome.
Michele

[Sixto]

First fire. After curing what is the optimal temp for baking pizza?

What I've found using my IR gun is that the floor needs to be 650f or hotter in order to cook the dough well... I tried doing it when the dome was cleared, but the floor was under 600F and learned a big lesson with the center portion of the pizza not cooking thoroughly. My top of dome temps get to be over 1000f in the process. Don't rush it, though... the bricks have to soak in the heat evenly for good cooking performance. It takes me one hour to get to temp, and I have to be watching and feeding the fire pretty much constantly, can't just set it and forget it, or it cools down.

BTW, your oven looks beautiful inside and out, but I completely agree with David about insulating before building temp further inside that beautiful dome!

[david s]

Insulate your oven before any more fires, or you risk cracks from thermal shock. Particularly once the ambient temperatures are dropping. The internal temperature for pizza should be obtained around 20 mins of firing once all the black inside the dome has burnt away.

You have more weight on the un-butressed large radius arch than is comfortable IMHO, especially as thermal expansion/contraction cycling challenge structural integrity, but we do what we can get away with.

[Michele Enrico]

First fire. After curing what is the optimal temp for baking pizza?

[UtahBeehiver]

I would like to suggest that you insulate the dome "before" you start the cure. This minimized thermal differential between the inside and outside of the dome which will reduce cracking potential. The first few fire you can use charcoal briquettes which gets you about 200F with minimal flame and you can cook a dutch oven while you're at it. Great job PS I really like the Parilla, a main stay in outdoor kitchens in BA.

[Michele Enrico]

Well friends there you have it. 42” Pompeii oven and Argentine BBQ. I can’t wait to fire it up. I will eventually add some architectural finishes, But first some thanks are in order. First to the people at Forno Bravo who so graciously host this forum. Enabling our communications has been essential to the process. Second to all the senior builders whose patience to repeat the answers to the same questions over and over again to each new builder. And to do so with so much sincere support saved me from more than one mistake. And third to the Forno Bravo fraternity for sharing there struggles, successes and creativity. This continues to be a labor of love that has been a pleasure to experience with you. In my family we have a salute to friends “Cent’anni” a hundred years to you and your ovens. Michele

P.S. I am not going anywhere I just wanted to express my gratitude.

[Sixto]

Looks great Michele!, the gusset may even help keep any smoke from going out the front arch!

[Michele Enrico]

Follow up on the outer arch connection I was asking about. I ended up up making the gallery a brick and a half deep. The inner brick is spaced from the inner arch so I added a gusset arch to stabilize. Then I overlapped the inner arch for the chimney bricks so I could center the 8” flue. Almost done. What a challenging project
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[MarkJerling]

Looking very pretty Michele!

[Michele Enrico]

Ready to work on the outer arch and flue.

[Pizzarotic]

Scraper and wire brush. Much easier to clean as you go with a damp sponge before it's fully cured.

[Michele Enrico]

Dome complete. Finally!
What do you all recommend to clean up the concrete scum on the bricks? I would have normally used diluted muratic acid. But I have heard that with refractory bricks that is a mistake.

[Michele Enrico]

UtahBeehiver and Mr. Slowhand Thanks you have given me some fresh ideas on how I will approach the gallery arch and vent.

[UtahBeehiver]

No they are about 2.25-50" thick. I attached a pic, not the best but all I have.

[Mr. Slowhand]

Michele, your WFO is coming great. As you say - silently coming along.
I will put in my 2cents on the flue gallery, for what it is worth. Just completed my WFO structure and for the flue gallery I have two arches and a heat gap.. I was planning to make the flue and "seat" for the chimney anchor also with bricks.
After some discussions, I just used the sand mould, and casted the flue. Ended up looking good, and was an easy exercise. I could have made the outer part much smoother and nicer, but did not spend any time on it, as I am making an enclosure, so will not be visible.
Most of all, even with high smoke levels, nothing was coming out through the front of the oven. As I understand, that has to do with the natural smooth slopes of a casted flue, compared to one you could make while doing it with bricks. It is made with the homebrew, while adding PP fibres and some AR fibres (I used basalt).
Another thing that helps is that you need to do only the vertical bricks of the flue gallery. As soon as the "arch" begins, the casted part of the flue takes over.
There are some consideration if you are casting the entire WFO, should you do it in sections, to allow for differences in heat expansion. This is absolutely not the case for the flue gallery, as it does not heat up significantly.

Anyhow, however it goes, I hope you will finish it soon!!! Good work!!