Dave's Northern Virginia Build

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Nice to see you back Dave! Your arch looks great, but where are the finished pictures of the pond? Looking at all that sod makes my back hurt.
I will tell ya, pizza from our ovens is the best and so much fun.

Cheers,
Tom

Thanks Tom, The pond is not exactly finished. But, at least it doesn't look like this anymore...

Greg, If we wait for all the projects to get done our ovens will only be a dream.

Dave

[trockyh]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Nice to see you back Dave! Your arch looks great, but where are the finished pictures of the pond? Looking at all that sod makes my back hurt.
I will tell ya, pizza from our ovens is the best and so much fun.

Cheers,
Tom

[glindhout]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Dave -- why is that all of these other projects take priority over finishing the dome? Mine sits unfinished while I'm repairing the yard, patching and repainting the pool, installing pool heating solar panels on the roof, etc., etc.!

Greg

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Hi all,
I am finally back to working on the oven. Before I got started I had to dig a Fish Pond and resurrect the lawn. The decorative arch is now in. My wife's Limoncello is ready (powerful stuff) and I am looking forward to some good pizza this summer.
Dave

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Don't worry about those cracks Dave, That front arch is just a hairline and probably happens to most of ours eventually. The one in the dome appears smaller than the crack I got. I only had the insulation laid on it so after a really smokey fire for hours, I had the tiniest light, wispy line of a smoke stain on the white insulation. Your dome crack is even smaller than mine so you wont loose any heat, smoke or anything else.

Let me know how your limoncello turns out. I believe that should be the standard course of action to most dome cracks and should be made part of the official PDF Pompeii oven plan download .

Ciao back, Dino

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Must have been an excellent fire!

Drake

Thanks Drake,
It was one hot fire! Yesterday we cooked a few more pizzas and this time the crack didn't open up so other than aesthetics it doesn't appear to be a problem. To help me forget about it my wife is making up a batch of limoncello!
Ciao,
Dave

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Hey Dave,
Is your dome enclosure done yet? If not I would look at the outside of that crack in the back of the dome and consider patching that up, just to keep smoke and flame from creeping out there. If it is enclosed already, I would just leave it alone. It is not going to fall down or anything! You don't often see a brick crack like that though. Must have been an excellent fire!

Drake

[DaveW]

Oh snap!

It Happened! My dome cracked and how! Up one side and down the other. After 6 fires and one pizza night all was well. Sunday I fired up the oven with hickory wood at noon and kept it roaring till around 6:00pm. It was so hot the first pizza cooked(burned) in less than a minute. So we let it burn down a little and made the perfect Roman Pizza. Crispy, flavorful and aromatic. Pizzas cooked in about 90 seconds. But then I saw it! The right arch buttress opened up as well as the inner dome crack. It certainly didn't help any that my bricks were off bond. I am not inclined to repair the cracks. Is there any reason not to leave them be?

Please disregard my previous posts about a crack free oven.
Dave

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Thanks Dave,
I'm hoping to have it ready to cook by Feb. 13 for my mom's 89th birthday.
Tom

Now that is a worthwhile goal!

Happy building,
Dave

[trockyh]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Thanks Dave,
I'm hoping to have it ready to cook by Feb. 13 for my mom's 89th birthday.
It's raining today, so no work on it yet. Maybe this afternoon when it stops.

Tom

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Looks great Dave, congradulations.
How long did it take you to build your oven?

Tom

Thanks Tom,
I broke ground this summer, but from the time I laid my first floor brick to my first fire was slightly over a month.

I'll start on the enclosure in the spring.

Dave

[trockyh]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Looks great Dave, congradulations.
How long did it take you to build your oven?

Tom

[DaveW]

We did it!!!

The goal was to make pizza For Christmas and we did it! My Family arrived on the 23rd and we had pizza that night. Here are some pics. . . The first pizza was actually a focaccia and that is my sister with her custom designed pizza. This was the fifth burn in the oven and although I don't think it is fully cured yet there are no obvious internal cracks so far. After the pizza was finished and the fire burned down I raked out the coals, plugged it and the temp went to 530F internally. The next morning it was 300F. It drafts fairly well but I do get some smoke out of the front until it gets really hot. Thanks to everyone on this forum and to FornoBravo for making it possible.

Happy New Year!

Dave

[trockyh]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

Looks good Dave, I like your pvc tent. I need to figure out a tent of some sort so I can work on the oven, but it has to take a lot of wind. Picking up the fire brick today.

Merry Christmas,
Tom

[DaveW]

Re: Dave's Northern Virginia Build

I hate to quote myself, but from another thread Neil2 commented on my drawing of S.P.Q.R. (the Senate and People of Rome) on my temporary counter support:
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Originally Posted by Neil2
SPQR ?

Well, thats being historically accurate !
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SPQR. With my wife being from Rome, I am hoping to attract the spirits and gods for inspiration/protection.
Dave
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It may have worked (click the photo and tell me what you see)......

Ciao,

Dave