Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

[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.

[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

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

[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.

[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....

[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

[bbell]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Well done Dino. Great milestone and build!

[mfiore]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

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

[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.

[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

[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

[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

Thanks Bill, hope to see some new pics from you on the oven, in use.

I just realized I INVERTED my length and width dimensions of my oven base in the above post. I've fixed it:
My oven base is 5 (16" CMU) deep and 4.5 (16" CMU) wide. Here is a pic of it.

[Bandrasco]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Nice work Dino. I've been on and off the forum the past few months and I've enjoyed your build.

This last weekend I did some cosmetic work on the exerior of mine and for the first time in a long time cooked in it. I made a large batch of smoked ribs...I get way too much credit for the food that comes out of this thing. It's just that easy to cook in. We've been under a total burn ban for some time now but 15" of rain later we're good.

Keep up the good work and documentation.

Bill

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

Hi Matt,
Sorry I didn't get back you. I took the holiday weekend off to hike some Yosemite, see the falls (huge!) and check out the Dogwood blossoms. I thought I would let my oven sit a few days with a tarp on it while the mortar "cured" a bit around my vent anchor plate. I really did not want any cracks around there so I kept it moist and forced myself to leave before I start the curing fires.
My slab dimensions turned out 3" shorter in one directions and 3" longer in the other direction because I got stupid framing out the slab with the 2x8's. I wanted it 2" wider than the oven base but goofed it up a bit. But it doesn't matter, it all fits a 5 block deep (78") by 4 1/2 block wide (70.25") concrete oven base. Those are my oven bases final dimension is: 78 deep by 70.25 wide. You should make the slab bigger than this for the stone veneer or whatever you do for a finish and mine is about 2" too wide on each 'side' and I wish it where another 1" wider in front but I'll live with what I got.
These dimensions give me 9.25" on each side from the domes side quadrants and 8.25" on the rear quadrant. 2x4 steel studs are 3.5" wide. I bought 3 FB blankets so I hope to have 3" of insulation. There will be 1/2" cement board mounted against the steel studs and be flush with the concrete block base below. That equals 7" so I'm fine with my oven base dimensions (I'm not talking the concrete FOOTING base, but the oven block base) of 78"X70.25".
As far as the FB plans go, I'll have to check on my other computer but does it really say 2" for framing? I'm not using vermiculite insulation (just the 3" of FB blanket) but if you are not doing an exposed igloo, you would need at least: 1/2" for the cement board enclosure, 3.5" for framing studs (2x4's) 5" of vermic-conc insulation outside of your oven base and soldier course. That's 9" on the sides and back in your case, if you go with the 5" of vermic-conc insulation. My oven height is exactly 43". That's using 4 1/2 blocks (8" cmu of course), 4" concrete top-pour, 2" FB Board Rigid Insulation and the 2 1/2" oven floor bricks. Hope this is helpful, not just long-winded.

I've mortared in my front row of partial bricks on the oven landing today. This means I am officially OUT of my oven. I've got nothing left to mortar. Should I start my curing fires? My anchor plate area still has damp mortar, should I wait until it air dries naturally?
I'm looking forward to 1st fire!, Dino