Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

[Greenman]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Hey Tom - Your oven looks good and it fits well into your surroundings. I downloaded the Cookbook from the FB Store and it has plenty of good info in it. I have been using the Pizza Dough by Weight recipe from the forum and it works well. It is the same as Dave's, simple and good. The thing I found useful was to have a look at the tutorials on YouTube on stretching the dough. The end product improved greatly for the effort. How To Hand Slap Pizza Crust - YouTube

Capsicums are aplenty here at the moment and I made some sauce from capsicum grilled in the forno, passata, fresh chilli, garlic, fresh ginger and Italian Herbs all blended together. It made an interesting sauce for a base and the more chilli the more interesting it got!

The river has been a bit quiet but with the warm weather the crabs and prawns should be around soon. There are a few Blue Salmon to be had and it was a cracker Bream season with a lot of 35cm + fish.

The bream cooked whole in the forno come up very well.

Enjoy your forno & good luck with the dough slapping.

[oasiscdm]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Well done Tom pizza soon. I agree with Russell great outlook.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Congrats on the first fire and completing the oven. What a nice view from your oven to the lake.

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Final posting for now:1_final oven next day without chimney;2_ ditto but with a small fire experiment (I had put thermocouples (Jaycar purchases at $10-$13) in a few areas above door in oven (expecting this is the firing temp) as well as below the hearth bricks and below the bottom insulation; 3_WE then placed the chimney through the roof and fixed it vertical and then I could work out the final grinding of two firebricks to allow the chimney down the final depth but also sit on a less ground out rim that supported the chimney. mortared the final two bricks in place around the chimney; and packed up all the brick saw, and bags of paraphernalia. Done. Photos of final product in service to still to come. 4_photo of overall site lighting night before wedding. Shed area encompassing oven in middle distance.

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Getting near the end: 1_Oven ready for the final render: 2_This shows the first render (about 20mm thick) followed by what Dunlop called the "Fine Render" of about 1 to 2 mm thick;3_Applying the final render _btw as much as I tried to achieve a smooth finish, the best advice was to follow-up after a while with a wet sponge which eliminated those trowel edge markes and generally smoothed out the area; 4-another shot of the the bridge location with lights set for final check pre-wedding

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

1_from the bridge showing more of the site;2_the oven now covered at the back with the vermiculite/perlite mix;3_the chimney area at the same time with blanket still exposed;4_oven completely covered with verm/perlite mix

[stonecutter]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Again nowhere neat as others but it has worked out OK

Neat brick work doesn't cook any better than any other kind...it looks good.

Your throat and arch work looks good too....interestingly, it looks like you have more than half a diameter on both of them. No matter structurally though, there is plenty of thickness in the voussoirs for what you are doing.

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

And then 1_ shows the outer arch and oven; 2-as I started to cover the oven with CB blanket: I used 25mm thick blanket and used 2 to 3 layers depending on the area (more around the neck of the oven/arch interface). Surprisingly I didn't need to use a lot of the mounting screws I'd put in- the blanket seemed to stick very well to the oven even on steep areas; 3_Then started my vermiculite/perlite layer - target approx 25mm - but this was harder and hence slow in the steep bits, very easy over the top of the oven. The "chicken wire" helped but so did the blanket as its absorbent properties seemed to hold the mix in place;4_Dave has asked for wedding photos - this was in prep: we built an arch bridge over a spillway using rock and reinforced concrete- this shows the view towards the general site

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Next lot - 1_We lit a small fire after the final seal, still hadn't done the outer insulation and render; 2_ the smoke out of the inner arch gave me some idea as to how encompassing the chimney entrance way had to be in the outer arch construction; 3_built the chimney base bricks and this shows the heat break below (actually done as a 50 mm wide SS channel: also did up the sides of the arch);4_another view of the chimney base and outer arch which I set back 50mm from the inner arch (the reveal)

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Next photos show 1_ keystones ground out and ready (quite large but that's how it turned out - worked well); 2_ Roof of the oven - note how close to the roof of my structure, hence the need to keep the rising height under control; we actually shifted a piece of the roof for the oven construction and slid it back after the final render; 3_ the hole at the top; 4- the keystones from the inside before the final mortar and finish. Again nowhere neat as others but it has worked out OK

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Photos attached show 1_ the oven level getting close to top; 2_ People have spoken about how the firebricks and the brick saws wear out the fingers; so true; I resorted to electrical tape mainly which worked better than band-aids (better at resisting the water of the brick saw and generally) but had to use the tape as fingers lost skin layers: 3_ Inner arch done; 4_ a look inside - not as neat as many but I was happy with result.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Gudday Tom
Go back to the forno "store" and chuck a free Cook book on pizza cooking and another on WFO cooking in the basket.
There also a section in the forum on Pizza.
I like to keep things simple ... So its 500 gm flour 325 of water,yeast salt.
It's imprinted , stick to those basics and you can always play with the other things
Regards dave

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Dave, No problem with posting the photos. Just getting them close to the laptop for posting is my time issue. Will do. BTW in terms of preparing pizza bases (and toppings maybe) what do the forum think are some good sites?

[cobblerdave]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Been a while but been busy setting up the area for my son's wedding. Did finish off the oven and will post photos once I get organised again. Hopefully soon.

Gudday Tom
From me as well it is great to see you back. You sons wedding, so I went back through the thread page 2 and the photos of the pond. Wow what a place for a wedding. I suppose us oven mob forgot about the original purpose of the oven was as part of that plan!
That's indeed a beautiful area of land and a lot more work than just an oven has gone into it.
The forum has always demanded oven pics, first pizza, pics etc.
But we have a really truly wedding here.
Could we ask. No demands of course Some wedding Pics , please.
If the answers no ... That's cool.
Regards dave

[Brooky Tom]

Re: Brooky Tom's 900mm build Brisbane

Greenman - Interesting combo here. My youngest son has a girlfriend who is now in Bundy - and I remember your prawns photo. I am a prawn fanatic and best I've tasted ever were in Karumba - so creamy. Anyway for wedding sourced an outlet in Brisbane who sold me bananas quick frozen on the boats in the gulf and I cooked them up for the wedding - 20kg. Just tasted great. Great price too if anyone in Brisbane wants to try this way of enjoying prawns if you can't access the fresh green prawns that Greenman obviously does.