new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Hi, just picked up this thread. you can also get bricks, ceramic insulating board and blanket from a company in Springwood called Total Refractory Management. They have a website and are great dealing through email. They don't have fireclay in stock though but you can get this through Claypave at Dinmore. i have alrfeady buiilt the base and all my oven stuff arrives today for a build in between Christmas and New Year.

Good luck with everything

Banksie

Banksie welcome onboard why dont you start a thread so we can watch your progress?

Regards Dave

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Dear jas
Nice work ...like the shape...if you don't go through with the cover it quite a handsome structure.
Food looks great ..what a menu for your first firing.. you can take the chef out of the kitchen but you can never take the cook out of the chef.
Got the message will not be at work from the 14 jan for 10 days... sorry Hols
Just posted a reply to Worb he has certainly got things together and got his oven up and running quik time. had a yak on Xmas with worb you might want to read it. Worbs lurking in the Photos section of the general forum and his thread is called QLD pizza oven.
Lazy myself with photos as well will have to post one soon keep telling myself wait untill this is finished and thats painted etc...

Regards Dave

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Well WFO peoples it''s been flooding here in brisbane in certain parts, i'm surviving those other poor people having trouble though.We did mange a small cook off on xmas day but the rain beat me .the smoke looked great coming out of the chimney and so did the coals gloowing away , all this from the house though, too wet out there.
while indoors and not much else to do i thought a light trip to bunnings was the play of the day and made my self a peel not too hard , had the time, anyway family playing game consoles.Made this on pine with a jigsaw and sander attachment and some pics from forum.Iwill make a steel or alluminium one as well ...
Worbs done a great job on his wfo , what a feed for xmas and i think the combo of hebel and steel for a door might be the way to go for me to keep the heat in and closed when not in use.Got to come up with a rake thingy to get coals / ash out when i done .
well got to go empty the rain gauge, barrow again!! sheds full/messy and wont fit...mmmm some thing else to do.

[Worb]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Jas, I made a peel outta a gum tree branch (only thing I had to hand at the time, looks agricultural, but works) and some stainless sheet. Works okay, but gets bloody hot after a while. I want to make a wooden peel but not too sure how the pine will stand up to the heat. IF the rain ever stops, let me know how your pine peel goes.

And be assured it's not just the Brissy guys copping a doing with the rain. Drove from gympie to the Kingaroy area today, had to cut the holiday short as if we get another pasting I'd need a boat to get back to work, the roads have been cut over the last couple of weeks.

But on the upside, that gives me another week to play with the oven before heading back to the salt mines. Yeehaa. Now, to find the Pizza oven in all the grass. I've been away a coupla weeks, and with the rain and hot weather I'll need a chainsaw to cut the lawn.

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

hi worb the suns out for a bit and i even managed to make another peel with a small sheet of strong alluminium and a round length of curtain rod for a handle , used an angle grinder to cut it to shape and on took 30 mins looks fine too, pics to follow.
the pine one is doing ok but i have to sand it down to make it thinner on the front part of peel , i seem to be poking the pizza not picking it up and the heat has given it a bit of bend in the peel so may have to oil it or sumthin.
hpoe your chainsaw job works i used do the mowing with round up , took a while longer but did the job , weeds any way and a bit of the grass stuff inbetween.
happy days!!!!!!!!!!!

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Dear jas



Went to a mates place tue he inherited a wfo, barrel type, when he brought his house. It was raining all day....wet oven .....wet wood...and in 6 hours and we had to get this oven pumping out pizzas. a bit uncoventionable but what the heck it worked.

Regards Dave

[Worb]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

FINALLY finished the bin for the ash pit. Stainless Steel, b@stard should last forever. And as a bonus I started finishing (oxymoron?) the landing and shelf today. Mixed up a barrow load of concrete by hand, never again, laid some pavers and ended up throwing the lot on the driveway in disgust. It's not often I reject my own work, but a 'She'll be right' just won't do for the front of THE MISTRESS. Will have another crack at it tomorrow. I'll post a picky when I'm happy with the end result.

I got an itty bitty chainsaw from the inlaws for christmas (best inlaws in the world), and as luck would have it I have a mate with 50 acres of land who is happy for me to go firewood collecting. I got a trailer load of gum and black wattle the other day and I can hear the oven calling me at night (FEED ME!!), so Ima gonna light the fire tomorrow. I wonder how beer can chicken will go in a WFO???

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Hi Jas
Just a quik reply to tell you I'm still alive... back at work, understaffed... ovens under a tarp keeping dry. About a M 2 of old hardwood 2x3 to cut up and still a better peel to construct. Looks like a few more builds going on in Aust which is great! we get to be the "eddies the experts" and put or "two bits in" now. Seems everybody is suffering "wet oven itis" at the moment though well the rain will finish up sometime...soon...hopefully

Regards Dave

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

dear dave , hello mate i in a simular boat ,staff away and i gotta go fill in the spaces .i have only managed to have a quick look on the forum here and there over the last week , i havent done much else my wfo is covered up as well . have you seen warrens build ? thats a nice one .. i may go in that direction and render the outer once its all bricked in , still might keep the same tile roof idea i had .
i started the oven over new year weekend with a big propane torch now that was neat and started fast also saw that blower in the oven too now i going to give that a go too.
now about the inherited wfo, would'nt that be easy and all you have to do is fire it up and join the forum ,ha!
is he going to do anything else to it or is the wfo complete?
well sunday isn''t looking any better so i will have to find some thing to do in the shed like tidy it,mmm lets hope for some sun then it;s wfo time yeah!!!

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

dear jas
Where abouts is warrens build< I,ll have to check it out.
Gordon my mate got the oven with the house, its a barrel oven rather than a dome built with firebrick and as far as I can tell has insulation on the roof only. Strange thing is that the chimney is located in the oven itself losses great amount of heat up that. I talked him in to putting a tile on the chimney from flash up and his wood consumption and time to cook has gone down. The problem now is that he needs a chimney external to the oven as you always end up with a face full of smoke, the problem with thsat is if you place something else in the front it is a long way to the back of the oven being a long barrel not a dome. I feel so lucky I built a forno dome oven ...I tell you... ya follow the instruction you cant go wrong the things are tried and tested
what dimentions is you peel?
Regards dave

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Hello Dave ,have a look in the photo section , i think it was called "Park oven build" BY WARREN..yep after all the searching on the web and reading about Russell Jeavon's book , like everyone has done i too am glad i built a Forno bravo oven and not a barrel oven which is what i was going to do.
the peel size is 300mm wide and 600 mm long but i did add a curtain rod for extra length and just copied the pine one to make the metal peel.
i was watching the sbs video of the two Italian ladies and they had an old very skinny peel now i think i might get the orbital sander out and start making mine thinner cos instead of picking pizzas up i was poking them around the oven.
With the extra curtain rod i put a tent peg in the end to use as a poker , tray mover for inside the oven.

[cobblerdave]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Dear Jas
Well old matey we in for it tonight they say Brisbane is to get the big rains... how big ... bloody hell we got 70 mm thats 3 inch today alone how much more? They say the dam will save us from major flooding ...No 1974 flood this time. Dont worry I'm right up the ridge at manly if we flood the rest of brissy would be gone.
Got onto the peels today larger one 300 X 350 and a smaller round one 200mm round for pushing things around the oven when the big one two big to do it like spinning pizza around etc. There made of 2mm aluminium so like yours wll need a thin the edges. Plan to polish the after first with Gumpton ( the abrasive cleaner) then with Brasso adding kerro when it dries under the buff I should get a shinney surface again so those pizza's ill slide off.
Love the Idea for the poker using a tent peg that ill work well you can hook things as well.
Stay well
Stay Dry
Dave

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Hello dave, looks like you got the right idea with living up in the highlands on Manly , bin a while since i was over there . We doing ok in deception bay , a few creeks around but nothing as serious as others . i was thinking bout Worb he's up there in Nanango so will have to check to see if that was him on his roof on the news .
i am planning on trying out my door this week end and if i get a break in the weather i will start to enclose the whole oven in with more besser bricks .
great thing our forum it has plenty of inspiration for oven designs , i've changed my plans heaps .

[Worb]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Still alive boys. I haven't been able to get to work for 2 days though, if this keeps up I may have an extended holiday. Though I'm starting to worry my Oven will just start sinking into the mud. My heart goes out to all those affected, particularly Toowoomba. How does that happen down the main street of the 2nd biggest city in Qld??

On peels - I saw a Jamie Oliver video on utube where he had a peel made of wood about 400mm x 800mm with a small wooden handle. Made his pizza on top, slid it in the oven, he used a different peel to slide the pizza out and served it on the original wooden peel. Looked like an easy way to go. And a smaller round peel is a must, my big (300mm ish) peel is good for loading, but too big for manoeuvring anything around in the oven. Oh well, that'll give me something to do in the shed while I can't get to work.

[jas.]

Re: new guy wants to build a pompeii oven in brisbane

Thats good to here Worb!, i am a courier and spent most of my day driving round brisbane city or should i say not moving . From about 12 all the gov/office peoples packed up and joined me in the traffic jam.
I do like what Jamie Oliver does and when he did that series with the garden and his WFO , THATS what inspired me to build my WFO. only diff is he had someone build that for him..buisy lad he is.i'd be keen to see that peel design with short handle and long peel end..mmm.anyway Pucker tucker!!!back soon,,,,jas.