Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

[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

[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

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

[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.

[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

[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

[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

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

[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

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 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.

[Lburou]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey All,
....snip.....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.

Cheers Doug

Doug, you are continuing an oven worthy of our study

I would be interested in the data from each of your sensors during this Sunday firing, then on subsequent firings, on out until the oven is fully cured. Such a chronological record would be interesting and give future builders a data point on what to expect in a perfect situation.

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey Lee,
It is interesting to observe oven temperatures, most members measure oven temps with a laser thermometer that only gives you the surface temp as we know. I noted that my oven took a long time to get the temp up 10mm inside the wall bricks let alone the outer of the bricks these ovens do need time to saturate. The carbon burns of at about 350c but 10mm inside the wall brick is still about 230c these temps are pretty rough though that's why I plan on doing this study, I will have more detailed data nest week.

[Bert]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

You?re a clever man Doug! I enjoyed very much your step by step guide of your experience. I will certainly have you on speed dial once I get momentum with my project. I also found the refractory place in Wetherill Park. One question: any reason you used the smaller tiles for the floor? During my initial research I sourced 300 x 300 x 50 from the same place, which would give a smaller chance of your paddle sticking to any edges. Your process of bedding them down with a notching trowel probably stopped this from occurring anyway.

Slightly off topic?I also note you are looking at starting up a B&B. My in-laws are running one out of Taree and I assisted them in creating a web site. Would be happy to provide you with info on that when you are ready.

Kind Regards Bert

[Karangi Dude]

Re: Karangi Dude's 48inch Oven

Hey Bert,
Thanks, I don't think I am that clever I just like to do things right I guess I am a bit anal.
Bert the reason I went with fire brick for the hearth instead of the tiles is I wanted a bit more thermal mass, the bricks are 75mm while the tiles are only 50mm the tiles are probably all you need, but I do a lot of baking, roasting, curing (drying) so I went with the extra mass.
At some stage My wife and I might look at a B&B but I would really like to start a small Eatery like Russel Jeavons in SA but that is a couple of years away, our daughter is in year10 so when she goes off to Uni we will get a bit more serious, we also have 2 businesses that need to be sold before then.
Bert thankyou for your offer re: a web site but my wife is a graghic artist so we have that one covered.