Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

[geisen]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

dino
you have spent so much care and time building the WFO i suggest delayed gratification on lighting the first fire. the slower it cures the stronger the bond.
greg

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Greg, I don't know what that means: "delayed gratification". I don't like the sound of it one bit. Just kidding.

I mortared in my plug keystone 2 weeks +1 day ago and I mortared in around the anchor plate, vent transition a week and half ago. Is that enough to wait for 1st fire?

Regarding 1st fire: in the 100 degree 1st day, 100 deg added every day for 7 days, do I get to temperature then close it up (with stacked brick, don't have a door yet) or leave it open as it comes down in temp?

If I go with the 300 deg for 6-8 hours the 1st day, is that with a fire going or the retained heat and the door closed to keep it at that temp? Thanks, Dino

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

First fire! I stayed at 100 deg the 1st day. 2nd day, went to about 200 to 280 and kept it there for an hour and then closed it up with bricks. The smoke went up the opening nicely so we decided to put the 3' duravent on. Here's a pic of me and another of Mike with the vent (and the Portuguese Water Dog visiting us, no cat pictures while she's around). We don't want the FB crowd to think it was built by just me and the cat. -Dino

[Ken524]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Outstanding Dino! It looks super. I wish my arch had come out as nicely as yours.

Full temp fires in a few days. As soon as you throw insulation on there, you can do retained heat cooking. Pizza on Friday, pot roast for Sunday dinner!!

Sniffle, sniff... excuse me... I get all choked up when I look at "first fire" pics.

[mfiore]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Congratulations, Dino! It's been a great build to follow.

[bbell]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Well done Dino. Great milestone and build!

[geisen]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Congrats Dino,
Lotta time, care, sweat and concentration all wrapped up in a little fire....
Good enough to be the foundation of civilization, good enough for us.
gg

[Frances]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Cool, congratulations! The first fire is special. That flared archway looks really great.

One small tip for curing your oven: make sure to have the makings of something to cook ready over the next couple of days... the temptation to bake something in the oven before you reach full pizza temps is very strong, and there are enough of us who ended up heating a frozen pizza in there because nothing else was available. I went for cinnamon rolls on day four....

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Thanks everyone, it's weird to suddenly start thinking of this thing not as a construction project but a cooking/eating project! I can barely manage a twig fire properly but Kens remark about retained heat cooking has got me salivating.
Francis: great advice about having something ready to cook with the upper temps.
I had to do SOMETHING for an oven door. I had cement board left over so I cut it in the form of my inner arch and a second piece, 1" wider and taller for the arch lip. Then I squished a 2" piece of FB blanket in it, put some pieces of cement board around the sides, bought a tube of fireplace caulk from Home Depot and screwed it together. The last pic is of me filling the gaps with my home-mix mortar. It should be dry by tonight so I'll post a finished pic.

[jrparks]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Good luck with cement board door. I had a temp made out of the Hardi Backer cement board...it lasted 2 fires before splitting and crumbling.
Perhaps if all you use it for is to retain heat after fires it will last longer.
I have 14ga. stainless doors being cut now and also looking forward to cooking with retained heat.
Cheers,
John

[Ken524]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

As meticulous as Dino's build has been, I'm quite sure that is meant to be a temporary door.

[jrparks]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

I only assumed it is temporary. That is what mine was, just a little less temporary then I had hoped.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Yes, you guys are right, it is just a temporary door. I got tired stacking my brick bits after the 2nd fire. I think I'm going to take a template down to the iron shops in my area and see how much it is to have them weld something. I think I would make it metal, have it stuffed with FB Blanket material and seal it up. Do you think rope seal is required or can a steel door just go against the brick?

BTW: Here is my start of steel stud construction. Regular expanding lag bolts at the corners and 2.75" tapcons in between. Tapcons are way cool.

[Calabrese]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Dino, everything looks great. If you have a mitersaw and you reverse the blade on it you can cut all your metal studs easier, faster and pricise. It also makes everything fit better, just make sure you wear safty goggles, gloves and long sleeved shirt , be careful the sparks will fly at you.

Regards Joe

[CajunKnight]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Everything looks great Dino. Keep up the good work!