Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey All,
Insulation nearly complete I have put in 6 x 100 litre bags of vermiculite grade 3 and will need 4 more that will be 1000 litres (why did I build such a large oven) lucky I used some old iron to close off the corners or I would have needed another 4 bags as well.
On Sunday I laid the very last brick of the enclosure an put up a temporary roof.
Last night I returned the brick saw that I have had on loan all this time (I could not have built this oven without it) my Neighbour was very kind to lend it to me.
I will be firing up the oven this Weekend for Pizza Saturday Night and then Roast Pork or Duckling Sunday Afternoon and maybe Lamb Shanks Monday or Tuesday pending temperature, I will only have the fire going Saturday night for the pizza and then put the door on.
I plan on taking regular temperature readings (from start up through to cool down) from the 6 thermo couplings I put in the oven and from a laser thermometer, I will post results next week.

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Half a wheel barrow of wood.
Started a small fire about 4.00pm I like to heat up the oven at a slow rate taking time to get to pizza temp, I could probably get to temp in 1.5hrs but that would take an intence fire I don't think that is the way to go (slow heat up slow cool down).
Saturday Night 7.30pm 5 Pizzas
Sunday Morning 10am 8 loaves of bread (2 Turkish, 2 Ciabatta and 2 Pizza Buns)
Sunday Afternoon 3.30pm Roast Chicken and Vegetables
Monday Morning 7.30am @ 135c
Tuesday Morning 7.30am @ 65c
These ovens sure are economical and lots of fun to work with.
My oven is large but heats up and holds heat very well.
I didn't take any pics of the pizzas, I did try out a desert pizza, fresh raspberries and white melting chocolate it was really good. My daughter is having a 16th birthday party soon, I will be doing pizza and the raspberry and chocolate pizza is already on the menu.

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey Oscar,
I forgot to tell you I bought a great 300mm round stainless peel from our local catoring shop

Cheers Doug

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey Oscar,
You sure are right the pizza was great the Pide even better and the Braised meat Tonight was pretty bloody good too.
I can't help you with the metal peel as I said in an earlier post it came with a pizza stone that I bought I just made a few mods.
Your oven is looking great, I hope you enjoy that first pizza as I and everyone seems to when they finally crank up their ovens.

Cheers Doug

[OscarA]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Cooking pizza's already I see well done.
I've enjoyed watching this thread and have gained a lot from it. Thanks for sharing and look forward to your posts regarding how efficient the oven retains heat.
I bet that was the best tasting pizza you've had in a long time.

PS- Love that metal peel with the slots, I'm after something like that or perforated myself.

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

David,
I am only using dry vermiculite I have alredy covered the dome with ceramic fibre blanket.

Gi,
The metal peel came with a pizza stone that I bought it had a folding handle I just cut it off and modified it to take the wooden handle, length is 1600mm.
The wooden peel I made out of 8mm marine ply and added a handle. It is to long so I am going to shorten the length to 900mm, although my oven is 1200mm in diameter it only has a narrow landing. I can place pizza of a 300mm peel but I would like to place some pizzas a bit further back so I will use both length peels.
The thermocouples were placed in six locations during the build they are little expensive but I have a good friend in the game so it was not so painful to my back pocket. I took a lot of readings during my curing and when I lit the first fire they were most helpful for eg. I was able to maintain about 200c for nearly 2 days that's across all thermocouples. I will post some references later after the oven has been fired more often and settles down.

Cheers Doug

[gummz]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hi,

Just wanted to ask three questions
[1] Where did you buy your paddles from and how long is the handle?
[2] Will you use loose vermiculite or vermecrete??
[3] Was is difficult to rigg up a thermocouple and do you have and references or guides?

You have such a great build, be proud

Cheers,

Gi

[david s]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

You will find your oven continues to improve in performance (faster heat up, better heat retention) for around 10 more firings. Be careful if you are using cement,water and vermiculite for your insulation layer, as it takes about 1/3 as much water as vermiculite in volume and that's a lot of added water which you need to remove, but it looks more like you have an enclosure in which case you can pour the vermiculite in dry.

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Sunday at about 4.30pm I cleaned out the remaining heat beads and started my first real fire I got it up to 420c in about 1.5hrs so we cooked three pizza and a Turkish pide filled with spinach onion and three cheeses it was GREAT. I cant wait to do some more cooking. Today when I came home from work the oven was still at about 175c with the oven door on (and I have not yet put the extra layer of vermiculite insulation on). Tomorrow I am going to do a slow cooked braised meat pot roast of pork, lamb and beef with onion and gravy I will leave it in the oven while I go to work for about 9hrs the temp will be about 100c.

Cheers Doug

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Curing started 6.30am Sat and continued untill 4pm Sun, kept temps at about 200c for the duration. I put the door on at 9.30pm Sat night and the new oven door worked a treat when I took off the door Sun at 6.30am temps had held. I went through 8 bags of Heat Beads putting in half a bag at a time as needed and kept them away from the walls. My coal chimney worked really well but it was quicker to heat the beads on the gas rather than firing each lot with paper. There was a little moisture come out on Sat morning but was completly dry late Sun.

Cheers Doug

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey Lee,
Sorry but I didn't take any pics of the door build. To get it just right I made a dummy out of ply and checked it for size, I then dismantled the dummy and used the inside as a template to cut the ceramic Fibre Board to fit between the outer and inner. The outer and inner were cut as per the dummy with the inner having an extra 35mm at the bottom to be folded over at a right angle. A 35mm strip was cut and curved to form the edge it was welded in place to the outer and the Insulation fitted the inner was then welded to the outer to sandwich it all. The handles were welded in place a quick grind and all finished.

Cheers Doug

[Lburou]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Door finished just needs painting but for now it will be used as part of the curing, and perhaps on Sunday some Bread Baking, pending temps achieved. Door is fabricated out of 3mm mild steel filled with 35mm ceramic fibre board from a disused kiln.

Cheers Doug

I'll start soaking some wood right away

That door looks perfect! Do you have any intermediate photos showing the process to get the door looking so perfect?

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Door finished just needs painting but for now it will be used as part of the curing, and perhaps on Sunday some Bread Baking, pending temps achieved. Door is fabricated out of 3mm mild steel filled with 35mm ceramic fibre board from a disused kiln.

Cheers Doug

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey lee,
Soak the wood in water over night it seems to make the wood more pliable. Just kidding!!
The wood I used is prunnings from a Paper Bark Tree (Melaleuca Leucadendra) I have been drying for 12 months or more that I use in making rustic furniture, the handle of the coal chimney is the same but not dressed. Bending the 8MM rod cold was a little trying but with a good vise and a bit of persuation using a narrow piece of pipe and hammer I got there. Drilling the hole in the center was a bit harder as the drill wanted to follow the grain so I drilled a pilot hole in from each end.
Lee my take on cool downs is why? when all you want to do is drive out any moisture. To me the more sustained heat over a longer period is the way to go, letting the oven cool down is not going to help with drying out any moisture. Lee this is just my opinion.
I will post my results after the weekend. My friend will be wiring up the Multi Channel Display Unit tonight so that should give lots of readings as well as the temp between the support slab and the bottom of the insulation bricks where there is probably some if any moisture. My build has been completely under cover as well, but having said that I did wet down the fire bricks before laying as they are so darned dry and pull the moisture of the mortar.
Also my dome has been completed for a while now, so it has had a chance to dry out I would assume? Sorry for the long winded explanation.

Cheers Doug

[Lburou]

Door handles

I want to know how to get the wood to slide around the corners of those door handles

Great handiwork as usual Doug

I'm considering a similar curing process to the one you describe.
What do you think the down side is of skipping intermediate cool downs during curing?
I haven't used any Portland in the mortar, so, it may be reasonable to do fewer cool down cycles during curing.
Most of the moisture in my oven is in the insulation under the oven floor.