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

[david s]

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

It's not the size, but how you use it that matters. This applies to both ovens and your innuendo.
But I think a 6" oven is a bit small, it would probably be too small to cook one cup cake in.

[cobblerdave]

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

Gudday
Sorry guys...evil Dave sometimes comes out.
Why? 30 in (750mm) well with a high dome you'll still have a entrance height of 9.5in(236mm) I recon thats a usable height for a larger baking dish and roast.
David s, I know you ovens a 21 in right? whats you opinion on that sized oven?

Regards Dave

[david s]

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

Dave,
I think oven design is like boat design. It is all compromise and you have to set your priorities. The big winner with a small oven is the fuel economy. Given that fuel consumption is relative to volume. A small increase in diameter eg 20% gives you 99% increase in volume = fuel consumption. Ok if you have lots of wood, but you still have to cut and probably split it and that is more time and effort.
I can just fit in a 5kg turkey in my oven, but anything bigger won't fit because of the door height.

[mrchipster]

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

Two things I think I should have added prior to enclosing the roof.
audio speaker cables and connector boxes for them, and an electrical outlet inside my storage area below the prep table.

I am finding that people want to mill around the oven and a little music is nice for them and the chef.

I think I may add this feature at some time in the future but just using a portable for now.

The electrical under the prep table would be used to keep rechargeable tools powered up and or hidden/protected items like a radio/iPod powered up.

Chip

[wotavidone]

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

30 in (750mm) well with a high dome you'll still have a entrance height of 9.5in(236mm) I recon thats a usable height for a larger baking dish and roast.

That's what I thought too. So I have a semicircular arch that is 240mm/9.45 inches tall and 400mm/15.7 inches wide.
Obviously, the centrepoint for the semicircle is 40mm off the floor, otherwise the 200mm radius would not give me the height, eh?
I was always going to "optimise for pizza", but trying to get a low dome seemed difficult, so in the end I went for the classic hemisphere. My dome appears to be on target for 375mm/14.75 height.
In the scheme of things, technically this makes it a "high" dome at 50% of the diameter, I guess. However, the 14.75 inches is well within the range of heights in the Forno Bravo plans for a low dome oven (14.5 for a 36 inch oven, 15.5 for a 42), so I'm reasonably confident it'll cook a pizza!

[wotavidone]

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

I enjoy the oven size discussion. Davids' 21 inch oven sounds small at 530mm, but then FB sell 600mm/24inch, and 700mm 28 inch ovens. That's pretty much how I decided on the size of my oven. I didn't want a collossus cluttering up my outdoor area, but it had to be big enough to be practical. So Ifigured if Davids could get by with a 21 inch oven, FB sold a 24 inch, and a "big" 28 inch, then 750mm/30 inches would be cool. Bunnings sell one that is only 600mm, and a bigger one that is 660. And firewood played a part. Up here the redgums fall over with monotonous regularity. The last few years we've been getting sudden gales, which when combined with drought weakened trees, means a lot fall over. The sort of thin branches that would be of a good size for a small oven are easy to cut, and are generally passed over in favour of thicker logs by the other firewood scavengers.

[cobblerdave]

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

Gudday Mick
High dome V low dome don't worry if the top of you pizza cooking a little slower than the base.....onto the peel with that pizza lift up towards the roof the heat up there is real hot and will crisp and brown that pizza in secounds....regardless of high or low dome.

Regards Dave

[Bacterium]

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

Ahhh hey worst case with pizza..... If you find yourself in the middle of a cook up getting distracted with a beer/glass of red ......and your not keeping the fire on track"..

if the top is cooking quicker than the bottom, stick the peel over the top to shroud it to get the bottom over the line
Or
If the bottom is getting close and the top is looking a bit under done, stick the pizza on a tray or 2..... O well gets them over the line....

[brung99]

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

I have a 42' oven and its great but since building it my boys have move on and If were to build again would even consider going down to 30" why? a number of reasons
A 30 inch should still cook 2 pizza at a time trust me a 42' can handle 3 to 4 x 12" in pizza at a time but I can't ...its too quik you sure to burn one. The time is in the pizza making not the cooking.
Unless I cooking a small pig/lamb the 42' ovens overkill sometime 30" should give you a high enough wide enough entrance to handle a really big baking dish anyway.
Anyway I'd never pull my oven down to build smaller however. the fornos the best design remember what ever you do..... insulate well as you can

Regards Dave

Thanks for your input Dave. I love hearing others opinions on this issue as im still trying to figure out what would best suit me & my family.

Regards,
Bruno

[Puckncrazy1]

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

Well... not hire my mason buddy with no oven building experience to build an oven.

[brickie in oz]

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

Well... not hire my mason buddy with no oven building experience to build an oven.

Just because they are bricklayers doesnt mean they know how to build an oven..

[jimkramer]

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

Seems like using FB board instead of vermicrete was a common wish for #2 oven. If you went with vermicrete only...is the problem that it's hard to reach cooking temp, or that you can't cook on the second day without refiring? I don't imagine I'll be doing too much cooking two days in a row, and if I do, I have lots of wood. Still trying to swallow all that cash for FB board shipped to NY, but it hurts.

[Les]

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

I don't imagine I'll be doing too much cooking two days in a row, and if I do, I have lots of wood

Jim,

Insulate well! I cooked pizza last night and from the remaining heat (380 deg) I cooked a chicken tonight. I would still be able to slow cook something tomorrow night but will probably opt for BBQ. The money spent on insulation will pay for itself over the years. (unless you are in tornado alley or the hurricane belt, where wood falls from the sky)

[mrchipster]

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

I have mentioned this on another post but this is the proper place for it.

I built my oven floor inside the dome and am happy with the configuration but I put down sailor bricks as my first chains, and there is a tendency for the peel to catch slightly in the mortar joint at floor level. If I were to build another oven, I would put down a split for the first brick chain and then the floor would meet the middle of a brick and have no where to catch.

Chip

[jimkramer]

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

Wow, never thought about that mrchipster. Another reason why this thread is so great. What's the difference between a soldier and sailor brick? Is it full vs half brick?

I have bitten the bullet and ordered my HF 10" saw as a result of this forum (and Les' inspiration). Still not sure if I'll go all in and get the FB board, too. I think it will definitely take my mind some time to come round to the $400 bucks for 4 sheets + shipping to NY. Would have been much easier and cheaper to build a wood fired toaster oven.