If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

[Tscarborough]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Length-wise cuts are not a problem, small pieces are, and this is for under walls, so round really doesn't matter.

[Amac]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

In that case OK - but some of those I had already cut lengthwise with the anglegrinder I wasn't happy with and re-cut them crosswise. Ended up I couldn't reuse any of the lengthwise cuts but I was happier with the new cuts.

[Tscarborough]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Lengthwise cuts are no fun with a grinder, I agree.

[banhxeo76]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

If I had a chance to rebuild my WFO................ I would build it without being married. No wife to complain about me spending to much too time with my true love.

[Amac]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Didn't realise she'd driven you to those extremes tu - but that won't work in any case - you need a gas oven

[stonecutter]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

If I had a chance to rebuild my WFO................ I would build it without being married. No wife to complain about me spending to much too time with my true love.

Ha....the first one I built at our home, the good woman called herself a WFO widow. She doesn't mind this time around, because of how much she enjoyed the first one. Or she just doesn't miss my company...either way, I'm happy to be building another.

[midtown]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

I would make it bigger, (mine is about 1m in diameter), and my doorway is a little narrow, and a bit deep, otherwise, this is probably the best home built thing ever!

[vtsteve]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

I've been baking in my 42" Pompeii (4.5" floor, no cladding, 17" dome height) every week or two for a year now. I work nights, and I usually do pizza for lunch & leftovers (2 or 3 18-20" NY style, or a dozen Neapolitan when the weather is warm). The next day I've got 400+ degrees, so I burn a moderate fire for a couple of hours and bake 20-30 loaves of bread. If I were to build again, I'd go bigger (46-48") and lower (14" or so). And maybe mobile (or at least towable)...

[Spunkoid]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

I put in a soldier course on the bottom row, not necessary, with a 1 meter diameter, the dome would have had sufficient height.

[lwood]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Agreed Spunkoid, especially if you want a low dome oven. The issue gets worst as you increase the dia. I have a 60" oven and I would definitely remove the soldier course and start the dome right at the floor.

[Spunkoid]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

On a similar thread, one thing that I did that I really like and get rave reviews for is I found and old wall mount bottle opener and I screwed it onto the forno. Everyone comments on it and it gets regular use during any of our get togethers.....

[texman]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Just want to post here to bring this thread back to the top for awhile. Really good points in here to consider for the class of 2013 and beyond and it was hard to find this thread.

For me, I would use homebrew and save $$ and probably build a smaller oven. 36" takes awhile to get to pizza temp. The size is great, but i think a smaller would heat faster and get used more. Not sure, just wish i had time to use it more.

Texman

[david s]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

A smaller oven doesn't mean faster heat up because a smaller oven has a smaller fire. It is the thickness of the walls and their conductivity that govern how fast it will heat. My oven is only 21" and has 2" walls, it still takes an hour to clear and an hour and a half to get to proper pizza temp. If I'm cooking for a big crowd I'll give it two hours of fire.

[texman]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

david s

That is about exactly what my oven prep times are. Takes 1.5 to two hours to clear. Not sure what a complete saturation is just yet and not sure how to tell. So it just takes a while to get them to temp for pizza whether small or larger. More mass=more time but more retention. For some reason i had it in my head the smaller ovens were quicker to heat. Thanks for the clarity.

Texman

[Filthymutt]

Re: If you had the chance to rebuild your oven, what would you change?

Time. I would change time. As in give myself more of it. I definitely did this oven with one eye always on the clock. I rushed it and it came out sloppy. Not what I intended at all.

Ok this was my first and in no way a permanent oven for me but a favor to my landlord. When its time to leave in 3.5 years she gets a brick oven with some years still left on it.

This was a practice oven to show me what I would do wrong. And the biggest mistake was time and lack of patience.
Next oven I will shape and form every chain of bricks, Build a jigsaw from scratch. Make it pretty. And do it somewhere outside of China where I can buy bricks of uniform size and quality, not the hodgepodge I got to work with.
But that is it, what I would change first, TIME.

BC