Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Dome. After finishing the inner arch, I went on with the dome using Ken's string method. I started using pieces of brick as wedges to hold the brick up but then concluded that the mortar was stiff enough that I didn't need the wedges. I did trim the edge of the bricks to get rid of the skinny triangles. Nothing precise, just nipped off what it looked like it would need. Of course that didn't result in the really clean brick work that others have demonstrated. I tried to clean the bricks after each course. I didn't take as many pictures as I wish I had.

Generally, I tried to use a little mortar on the inside as possible, so that from the inside you can't really tell that there is a 3/8 inch or so gap at the back of the bricks filled with mortar.

The transition to the arch was a bear. I don't think well in three dimensions, so I had to make multiple efforts at getting it to tie in. I don't think I'll share those pictures. And you can see, the dome wasn't particularly round after the transition.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Keystone. This part was fun. I decided to use the brick on the flat side to make the keystone. I held the brick up on the inside while my wife traced the opening of the oven onto the brick. We did the same at the top with her holding the brick and me tracing it from the inside. And since we were using the flat side of the brick, I need a two part keystone mortared together. I thought about leaving it sticking out on top, but that bugged me so I trimmed the last piece to fit flush on the outside.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

I went back through all of my pictures looking for a picture of the inside of the oven. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the inside. Darn.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

I added the outer arch, leaving six inches of opening between the two arches. Because the outer arch was a half inch taller than the inner arch, I needed to add some height to the inner arch and make a flat surface for clay flue tile on both arches. I added one brick on each side in the six inches between the arches and then covered the rest of the opening with firebrick splits, filling the rest of the gaps with mortar.

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

More chimney and first fire. I added two more feet of chimney. After that cured for a few days, I started the first curing fire. I'd like to think the curve in the chimney is an optical illusion, but alas you can see I'm not a great mason. As I've said many times in this forum, nothing on this oven is perfectly round, square, plumb or level. But it cooks pizza.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

First pizza. I added the FB blanket and finished curing the oven. No cracks at that point. We cooked a pizza on the day of the final curing fire. I had some trouble getting it off the peel, and most of the toppings moved to the back of the pizza. You can't tell from the picture, but the crust stuck to the peel as I put it in the oven and stretched. The pizza was very oblong, almost as long as it was wide. I learned that my less than perfectly round oven cooks less than perfectly round pizza. But it still tasted pretty good.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Cracks. After we cured the oven, we wanted to practice cooking in preparation for a party a week later, so we took it up to temperature. I got it too hot (the thermometer didn't register above 900 or so) and we had a lot of trouble cooking pizza. The next day I noticed a crack at the back of the oven, and then looked more closely and had matching cracks at all four corners of the compass. The one at the back doesn't change when the oven is hot and you can't see the others without sticking your head in the oven so I have no idea what they are doing when the oven is hot. One of the cracks extends through the arch on the left of the chimney. I've decided to ignore them.

Interestingly, I tried really hard to not let any of the joints line up. That didn't stop my cracks. They went right through the brick. My wife consoled me by calling them expansion joints. So now my less than perfectly round, level, plumb, square oven has expansion joints.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

We had about three dozen neighbors over for a get together the friday evening after labor day. We cooked 16 pizzas and everyone was impressed with the oven. We deliberately tried to keep it cooler than the weekend before, cooking at about 650. That worked better than the really hot oven. A couple of my neighbors had so much fun they took over putting the pizza into the oven.

We're still learning heat management, but this is lots of fun.

Joe

[RTflorida]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Nice pie, pizza for a large groupe is much different than the 2 or3 pizzas my wife and I usually alone. We had eight guests plus 4 children last weekend. I guess we ran through 11 or 12 pizzas. at around 100 degrees lower than I normally would. all were cooked at around 725 to 750 which is 50 to 100 degrees less than what I normally. Didn't seem to matter much, still only 2-3 minutes longer that a hotter uvrm
'

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Framing the Enclosure. I used metal studs to frame the gabled roof enclosure. I used the studs a little differently than some others have done. When I built an outdoor kitchen in Arizona, I got to know the metal studs a bit. There are two kinds -- the track and the studs. The cross section of the track looks like a U, and the studs look more like a three sided 2x4. The track is typically used for the top and bottom of a wall, and the studs are the vertical members that make a wall rigid. I built a 3' 4" wall around the edge of the oven, leaving 1/4 inch for 1/4 inch hardibacker. In retrospect, I plan to use 1/2 inch hardibacker on the next oven I build; the price difference is negligible. The 1/4 inch works and seems rigid enough, however.

For the roof, I made trusses out of three pieces of the track in a triangle with five pieces of stud vertically inside the triangle to give it rigidity. On two of the trusses I made a platform for the brick facing on the chimney. I couldn't figure out how to have the decorative brick attach directly to the arch, and didn't have enough brick that would never be visible anyway. The pictures should show what I did.

To make the cantilever over the front, I took two pieces of track and laid them on top of the bottom track on the roof trusses (using short pieces of track placed upside down to give the track something to rest on) from the back of the oven to the front, extending out where I wanted the cantilever. The I added two more pieces of track upside down (with the U facing down), essentially turning the two into a four sided metal 2/4. That made it rigid enough to hold the trusses for the cantilever. For the two roof trusses that made the cantilever, I moved the bottom of the truss up on the triangle to rest on the two pieces of track that extended out the front of the oven. Then I added the bottom track back on to give me something to attach the hardibacker to. The pictures should help this explanation.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Decorative arch. I used the same brick as on the chimney to form a decorative arch at the opening of the oven. I hope I have enough of the brick left over to make an arch around the opening of the wood storage area on the front of the oven. The decorative arch was particularly frustrating. I used Type N mortar, and ended up making it at least 3 times. My first mistake was to try to make the sides and the arch all at the same time. Trying to tap the arch pieces into place made the sides move out and crack. Finally I just laid the sides and let them cure and then made the arch. I'm not sure why I thought I could do the whole thing at the same time. Unfortunately, I wasted most of a very frustrating day building, taking it apart, cleaning the brick, and doing it over and over again. Next time, I'll build the sides first, let them cure, and then lay the curved part of the arch.

Joe

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Covering the enclosure. I used 1/4 inch hardibacker to cover the steel framing. As I mentioned in another post, the hardibacker is 3' x 5', so studs on 16 inch centers don't work well. I ended up adding additional studs so that the hardibacker seams met on a stud. The pictures show where I am right now. I still need to seal the joints and get some flashing on the roof before we get snow. Although you can't tell from the pictures, I also need to put hardibacker underneath where the roof trusses extend beyond the sides of the walls.

I'm pondering adding another foot to the chimney. The five foot chimney (I don't believe I mentioned that I added two more sections of flue when I framed the gabled hose) draws fine, so a taller chimney would just be aesthetic at this point. Thoughts?

We plan to use cultured stone to face most of the enclosure, with stucco on the back where nobody sees it anyway. We also plan to put can lights pointing down on the landing. The landing will either be granite or tile -- we haven't decided yet. Most of this I just made up along the way, with invaluable help from all of you.

Cyndee (my understanding wife and bread maker) thinks the oven looks like a dog house for a dog that can jump. It would be a hairless dog if it tried that trick at 750 degrees.

Joe

[mfiore]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Great work, Joe!
I like what you did with your chimney. Did you build a decorative chimney surround around the flue tile? What's supporting it (the framing)? I wish I did that. Looks great, and keeps some weight off of your vent.

[jmhepworth]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Mike, it's a little hard to see from the picture, so I'll try to explain it. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I generally wore myself out so much that when I finished for the day I was too tired to take pictures (or it was too dark).

I made the trusses to support the chimney with the same angles as the trusses that went to a point, except that I took a pice of the track that was as long as the brick facing needed to be and screwed that in as a base for the brick, parallel to the bottom of the truss. It looked a bit like an A with the top missing and a base at the bottom. I then used three studs the same length between the bottom of the truss and the base to support the brick. After wrapping the flue tile with FB blanket I put the two modified trusses on either side of the flue tile. I then took two more pieces of track and screwed them onto the two modified trusses to complete the base for the brick. The brick is only decorative and not at all structural, but with the hardibacker on, no one can tell that it doesn't extend all the way down to the oven. And as you pointed out, it didn't add more weight to the vent. Another benefit is that it really holds the chimney up. I noticed that with some of the cracking, my flue tile became loose from the vent. The framing around the tile four feet up will keep it from tipping over, and the weight keeps it in place notwithstanding the crack in the mortar holding it to the vent.

By the way, it's kind of gratifying to hear one of the people I've looked to for guidance say something like "I wish I did that." I learned so much from what you did. Thanks.

Joe

[wronguy]

Re: Joe's Kaysville Utah Oven

Very nice oven, It seemed to go up very quickly. I will be using some of your pictures to help me with my build. Is this a 42"?