Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

The brick dome will be 54" diameter or 27" in radius. I had planned a 27" high dome but with the first course standing on its side that will add a bit. Yes I know its big but for parties I want to be able to roast an entire pig Filipino style, and that takes some space.

Under the brick there won't be much. I figure I'll tie the lava rock together with refractory mortar 1" thick but mixed with perlite instead of sand. A bit more insulation that way. On top of that 1" bricks on their flat sides make the oven floor as you guys commonly do and below that maybe an inch of insulating refractory mortar and under that lava and perlite. Mortared in lava rocks carry the load of the brick oven down to the foundation floor.

With 9" of insulation which is partly perlite I need to provide a solid surface on which to set the bricks of the floor. If I tried to set them directly on the uneven lava rock and fluffy perlite the floor would not be even. I figure 1" of insulating mortar is a minimum to tie it all together and support the brick floor.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Gudday lancer
I don't know why I asked that question.... When I really knew that a pig really meant A PIG not a just a 15 kg piglet .
Now you have me thinking who has built a BIG oven, only one that comes to mind is Ilwood,s phillipino build but I can't find his build thread
Regards dave

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

The pics one sees of the ancient ovens in Pompeii are large ovens. I wonder how they insulated thousands of years ago? Could be lava rocks I guess...and that does make sense considering what happened there.

I think it will hold together. We're building it strong anyway, like the house etc. Everything survived the quake. With the scale of the thing I have to make the free fuel work though. Also planning to be able to bank the fire really well to slow the burn.

Lots of stuff to think about. Thanks for your help cobbler, really appreciate it.

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Finally made some progress. Its been one thing after another, like someone somewhere didn't want me to make pizzas. Now, we're movin!

Now for something completely different...

"Insulate the floor" So I did. 9" of pumice which provides structural strength with perlite poured in around it. We used most of the 35 cement sacks of lava chunks (pumice) that we brought home from Camiguin Island.



Set cardboard on top of the perlite which is is light and fluffy and I didn't want to take a chance on the floor pour screwing it up.



The mold for the pour is set first time. The pour extends out 4" past the brick, then there's the 4" brick, then the oven. So the oven open space interior will start 8" inside the form, and the thickness of the pour and flat laid 2" brick higher.



Pictured is Fidel, our excellent carpenter.

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Once the pour was on I realized the door was too small. Dell did a quick redo on the form and the pour continued. Since the floor is somewhat isulated by using perliite I don't really care if its too big. When I climb up there and lay out the oven I want some space to play with.



Here's the floor at the door out to its full size. Some of those metal bars will be cut, others will be part of the onion dome.



Dell is an excellent mason too.

Minus 8" remember, or 16" total. I made the pour wider than the oven to spread the weight of the brick oven load wider, to more pumice. The pumice is connected piece by piece to the poured floor at the bottom. The mix I used could not be 5 perlite to 1 portland. I figure it will get too hot. Instead its 3 perlite, 1 portland, 1 clay, 1 lime and 1/2 silicate.

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Last one.

So you see the floor pour on the left where the oven dome will sit God willing. On the right you see the start of the base of the onion dome and the metal bar sticking out. From there on up the onion will be refractory and the bar will be wrapped in paper and tape to give it some expansion room. Between the oven dome and the onion wall will be 12" of perlite, loose. We'll build the oven first and then the onion and then pour perlite down between them.



I have a question. I know the height of the door is 63% of the height of the interior of the oven. How wide should it be?

[cobblerdave]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

G'day
Good question I had to double check my old plans . They gave a lot of recommends of sizing for a 36" and 42" oven high and low dome.
Basically,all could be said to be 1/2 the diameter or an inch under for low dome.
So keep it under 27 ins and you should be right.
Regards dave

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Thanks again cobblerdave, that's good to know. My intention is to make 2 foot wide pizzas. The ones you find here are pretty small and I want to see a sea of pizza.

[oasiscdm]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Hi Lancer nice pictures

Your going to need to burn a whole tree to heat that baby. As you will need a lot of coals to heat that there floor. I'd rather make smaller pizzas and more variation than one massive 2' pizza. Personally i'm finding 10" the perfect size.

You could get a whole carcass in there Lancer.

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

That's the plan oasis, a whole pig. Looks bigger than it is. The oven will be 54" wide, 27" radius. The rest is insulation, and lots of it.

I'm planning on pressing rice husks into fuel. Hope it works... They are free in unlimited quantities.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Lancer,

That is one big oven!! I am curious, have you done any experimenting with how hot the rice husk fuel will get and will you need to supplement the husks with a higher BTU content fuel. Sure interesting to watch your build and great to see that life is moving on in your part of the world.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

G'day Lancer
10 in pizza might be a better option actually then a 2 ft one.
The roof height at 27 might be great for a pig but a pizza is a bit lower to the floor.
In a high dome 42 in my dome roof is 20 in above the hearth floor. There are times when the bases cook faster than the toppings. Easy solved lift the pizza on the peal into the super heat closer to the roof and brown them off. Not to easy with a 2 ft pizza however.
A still think you should think about lowering the dome ( and resulting door height) heat only radiates so far. The roman ones were big but were they cooking pigs and pizza?
Regards dave

[david s]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

I'm pretty sure that the Ancient Roman used pumice for their insulation. There is plenty of it in Pompeii as it's at the base of Mt Vesuvius. They transported tons of the stuff from Pompeii back to Rome to build the dome of the Pantheon, which is still the worlds largest unreinforced dome. Because of the weight in the top part of the dome being a problem they carefully graduated the aggregate and the wall thickness as the dome got higher. The base of the walls are 7 metres thick from memory.

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

Lancer,

That is one big oven!! I am curious, have you done any experimenting with how hot the rice husk fuel will get and will you need to supplement the husks with a higher BTU content fuel. Sure interesting to watch your build and great to see that life is moving on in your part of the world.

No trials of the rice husks. Wood and coconut charcoal is available to bring the heat up if needed.

Here's a vid on the process, take a look. We can use other stuff until we get to this project.

School Fuel - Google Project 10 to 100th - YouTube

[Lancer]

Re: Lancer's Philippine Build, Close to Australia Anyhoo...

G'day Lancer
10 in pizza might be a better option actually then a 2 ft one.
The roof height at 27 might be great for a pig but a pizza is a bit lower to the floor.
In a high dome 42 in my dome roof is 20 in above the hearth floor. There are times when the bases cook faster than the toppings. Easy solved lift the pizza on the peal into the super heat closer to the roof and brown them off. Not to easy with a 2 ft pizza however.
A still think you should think about lowering the dome ( and resulting door height) heat only radiates so far. The roman ones were big but were they cooking pigs and pizza?
Regards dave

I'm glad you posted this cobbler, I had planned to raise it by putting an upright brick as the first row. Now I'll just start with the dome.

I've been considering making a second oven of the proper size later, for smaller get togethers. Also planning now to open a pizza place here to make a few extra pesos and employ the family when the construction is finished. The wife talked to me about it a while back. When the family and friends who built this place are finished with construction some of them will be out of work. My bro in law has a wife and 4 kids to feed. If he's working then he feeds them, if not we put food on the table. Also, he's a good cook. In a way he's free labor since we have to provide if he's not working. While the location wasn't picked for a business and could be a lot better, at least its on the busy main road, but not in a major town.