4 years in the making - 42" dome

[John French]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Congratulations. You have product. I wish i could be confident that smoke will not be an issue. I am in an urban environment and it will not go down well with the neighbours.

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Last's nights party was a success. Used pine to start the fire and hickory and mesquite to build the coal bed. Learned a lot from the firing. 1. I need to insulate it 2. allow for about 2.5 hours to saturate the bricks with heat 3. more coals 4. Not to trust brother in law to mess with the crusts - his stuck to the cardboard 'cuz he flipped it over without rice flour, which worked like a champ! 5. need proper tools - the large pizza peel caused problems rotating pizzas in the oven and my modded brass grill brush did a good job, just slow due to the size. 6. Use more wood at the beginning to build coals 7. Dont tell the neighbors about pizza oven as either some wanted a pizza, while others thought the black smoke meant the cardinals were meeting to elect a new Pope

[Lburou]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

First off - Merry Christmas to all!

....snip.....If folks are on a budget, get a hold of your local building department and find out about demolition permits which have been pulled/filed. Then call the demo company. Most demo companies will gladly give you any fire brick from projects because it saves them $$ in disposal. I am doing the same with red brick from a friends house getting demo'd in a month. Nice thing is that the mortar chips off pretty easily.

Merry Christmas to you too

The demo idea is a good one. Cleaning brick takes a knack to do without breaking the bricks, but you'll get better as you practice. A local brick kiln was demolished here in Texas, USA, I was able to get a lot of bricks....Not cheap, but saved a little money. Don't know yet whether they are easy or hard to cut. Then, my brick mason was here yesterday and said he had a stack of new firebricks he'd sell for half what I paid for the used bricks....That is the way life is, timing is EVERYTHING!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

First off - Merry Christmas to all!

I thought catching that on film was cool + I do not remember other pictures with the flames a roaring. This fore was made using bagged firewood - typically really dry pine, so getting the flames that high was not too hard. Stoking the fire caused me to lose a few knuckle hairs. Tonight I am using hickory for the pizza's. Bloody expensive around here, but it is well seasoned and in large chunk for for easy stoking. I am also planning on my revenge of a nasty mesquite tree I used to have - last segment from cutting down will also be in the fire tonight.

As for low cost methods on building the oven, yes, I used my slave labor (14 yr old who grumbled several occasions when running the power machinery- "Daaad, I was playing Xbox" in a pubescent boy voice.

As previously mentioned, I was really fortunate as I was able to get my brick for free. The stuff is about 100 years old and from one of 3 boilers. Mix of the bricks went from medium to high (and boy can you tell the difference when cutting!)

If folks are on a budget, get a hold of your local building department and find out about demolition permits which have been pulled/filed. Then call the demo company. Most demo companies will gladly give you any fire brick from projects because it saves them $$ in disposal. I am doing the same with red brick from a friends house getting demo'd in a month. Nice thing is that the mortar chips off pretty easily.

[John French]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Costs here are about X5. ie each firebrick is NZ$ 5 or US $ 7, so consider yourself fortunate.
At least the labour involved was the same pricce!

[Neil2]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

"you can see flames lapping out my chimney"

That's what you want. If anything your fire is too small.

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

I am under $500 at this point, even with extra pearlite. I have not even thought about the cost of the enclosure

[mn8tr]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Just finished my build last weekend, I still have all of the receipts in the closet. We have not quite decided if we really want to know... $ $ $

Once you complete you build you may not want to know either. ; )

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Need to get an answer on Crack repair:

When should I perform?

Should I grind out both inside and outside and tuck point the mortar?

Thanks in advance

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Oh the first full wood fire - how pretty. One day closer to the pizza homage!

I am just surprised at the physics of the fire! In the last picture, you can see flames lapping out my chimney - uh, I guess a little too much wood. And yes, I know I need to start cleaning up!

[dmun]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

I've burned a lot of two by four fragments in my oven. There's really nothing objectionable about burning conifers in WFOs, unlike in wood stoves where the smoldering fires promote creosote buildup. You'll want some hardwood to keep the fire burning while cooking, as pine spits and throws cinders, but for heating up your oven pine works fine.

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Here is a picture of my weed burner in action. You may ask why the brick is in there? Well, I did not have it in there and due to flame impingement on the soldier course, I had a crack develop.

This fire has been going for a while and you can see the impingement brick glowing when I cranked the burner on high - yowee!

The bricks up front are to protect the interior as we are looking at rain yet again. Out in the farmlands I live in, the winds swirl and kick up really easy. The added effect is that I have a bunch of heat held in. I cover the hole after firing.

Due to that place I go to during the day, a wood run has been impractical. So, I may just send my teenager to get the carbonaceous material. "Hey dad, they had a special on pine today and I saved you some money!" Fortunately, he follows direction pretty well

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

Yesterday I burned some olive branches that had not been disposed of as of yet. I did get some video. They burned down nicely to some nice embers. Fire itself lasted about 1 hour (had a view while watching the Green Bay game.)

This AM, I am using a propane fueled weed burner on a med-low flame for a few hours to get the temp up. Treating this as my 350F fire. I may let it go longer as my afternoon meeting was canceled - gotta love attorneys.

Tomorrow, I plan to use some mesquite and really get the temp up. At this rate, we will be having Christmas Pizza. Will be heading down to the wood yard in a couple days.

This anticipation thing is driving me crazy!

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiGy2ZA9xas

My first evening fire - the daytime fire did not turn out

[C5dad]

Re: 4 years in the making - 42" dome

I am so pumped to be at this stage!

This oven was the reward for a goal that I achieved almost 5 years ago. I could not start back then due to a shoulder injury and surgery on it. Then thing after thing got in the way. My last job and travel took its toll.

I am having fun realizing all that I have been through to get here - This is a Christmas present to myself and the fam (in that order!)

I am planning on using some of my olive tree trimmings for another fire. I also have my weed burner which will provide really good adjustable heat as well.

Good luck on your hearth as well - as the old saying goes - A journey starts with but one step. Step one - Hearth!

CW