Bacterium's 2nd build

[BOOMERS WFO]

Re: Bacterium's 2nd build

Hi Damon,
Littlehampton Brick sell fire clay in two size bags. The largest is 20kg for $110

Cheers
Craig

[Bacterium]

Re: Bacterium's 2nd build

Hi mick,
I think they also see the fun we have and they you can entertain at a relatively low cost compared to the high quality of flavor your guests get........ But then again it all changes and we start to "fathom" again.....!!!! Lol

Yeah my first oven had some fairly basic approaches and it's biggest downfall was lack of under insulation.

A bricky told me about having the fired face out - in the 4yrs I had that oven it never spalled. By chance I did manage to get good solid reds as often you find batches that are quite soft and chalky. The way it was explained to me is the cut face will be slightly less softer as it hasn't had the highest baking temp compared to the outer skin, although it's still been fired to a min temp and should be stable.

I'm embarrassed on the mortar mix........ Basically it was GP Portland cement and brickie sand. The sand was from Maslins (south of Adelaide quarry) and had clay in it as you can imagine, pretty basic and standard ratio. This time around I'll try and shoot for the mix in here.......yet to find out where to get supplies of fireclay local, any ideas?

The layer directly over the bricks (before blanket), from memory it was barely anything, maybe and left over mortar mix smeared on - will have to find my old photos to check. From there I pretty much pulled the chicken wire on, then blanket, a small layer of perlite, more chicken wire and then 2 coats of render.......bit rough by FB standards today. Before I put any of the layers on I fired up the oven a few times and made pizza, went through a stack of wood as boy it lost a lot of head.......but it helped cured it I guess.
By now the word "rustic" comes to mind .
the only cracking was basically 1 hairline crack running all the way up one side, over the top and all the way down the other side. It used to open a bit when fired but didn't really release heat or anything. What I did to waterproof the mortar was I put on 2 coats of that membrane material they used between slab and tiles in the wet area of showers. I put paint over it but I wouldn't use it again as I had to touch up a few bubbles over time. Funny enough the oven was pretty neat and minimal cracking for materials used.

Overall the oven worked but there are so many better techniques now. On average it took 2.5 to 3 hours to heat up. you could cook pizza and bread in it same day. If you put the door on it overnight it would generally be 100degC the next day so no real retained heat due to the loss under the floor..".....ahhhh hey no regrets..... It meant you had to do everything same day. I became a bit envious of my mates better insulated oven which was pizza one day, roast or bread the next day and sweets (cakes or biscuits) the next.

I've been reading karangis build and I really like how he has built his entrance first and angle cut it".........still reading other builds and yours. Once I find more photos happy to pass on or maybe even post in my original thread.

Hoping to get and and measure up my slab to get an idea of my build.....stay tuned

[wotavidone]

Re: Bacterium's 2nd build

Hi Damon.
Its amazing how the wives get on board, isn't it? I'm still trying to fathom whether mine is really that interested in pizza, or just happy about someone else doing the cooking for a change.
Gee I wish I'd read your original thread before I started my oven.
Some very interesting observations there, for example the one about haveing only the fired face of the brick in contact with the flames, rather than cut (presumably softer) faces. Fortunately I have that, on my half finished dome, with the exception of the inner face of the arch. I'll just have to see how that goes I guess.
Can I ask what mix you used for mortar? Also, I am considering a chicken wire reinforced mortar layer over the bricks. What mix did you use for that, how thick did you make it and how did it fare? Any major cracking/spalling?
Regards,
Mick

[Bacterium]

Bacterium is back
not been on here for quite a while, so hi to those I remember and all those new. Gee it's great to see how much new information is now on here. Bear with me whilst I get my head around it.

I have a "problem" I moved house and couldnt take my oven with
me
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f21/...oven-1877.html

O well shall just have to build a new one
Wife wants new pizza oven before paving goes down......gotta be happy with that!!!!!!!
So thought I might as well start a building thread as it's always good to have others chip in their observations.

I've poured a 1.8m x 2m slab with an plan of aiming for an oven ID somewhere around the 1100mm or 42inch size.
Last build I discovered this forum part the way in so it didn't have the full pompeii flavor".......so this time I'm headed in that direction. I have bricks for the base to match my house and have oven bricks for the dome, also got brick saw and planning on an IT"....... Still considering insulation layers......more soon.