Thoughs with small WFO mods?

[dariusk]

Re: Thoughs with small WFO mods?

Thanks David, I'll keep that in mind and try to dry it out as much as possible.

Managed to get a bit done and have the vermicrete on now. I'm not overly happy with the finish but I found this stuff very tricky to work with.. Maybe I should have used the suggested perlite/vermiculite/clay/cement mix, I think I'll do that for the next oven.

Well, I wouldn't have thought it, but I ended up using about 97 litres of vermiculite for this. And to think I considered getting only a 25Lt bag at first! I've left the front of the chimney area exposed as I didn't think I would get the vermicrete to hold there. I think I'll test it out and see if heat loss is still an issue. If it is I will likely need to do something about this area. I will also do some trials with blocking the chimney to varying degrees to see if sealing it off completely is the best option, or leaving a small vent that I can manually close off when needed.

It'll need to dry for a bit before I try a few fires and also before stuccoing.

Anyway, hopefully what I've done so far will hold together!

[dariusk]

Re: Thoughs with small WFO mods?

I could only put one photo in that post so here's another.. Not sure if that is normal when posting from an iPad..

[Greenman]

Re: Thoughs with small WFO mods?

It looks like you have done a great job with a difficult material. Very tidy. Congratulations.

[dariusk]

Hey there
Been a while but thought I'd follow up with how this oven has been going. I gave it a run tonight and I think I've finally come to terms with how to manage this fussy little sucker..!
I've fired the oven up about 7 times now, with the last two being by far the most successful. It's taken me this long to work out heat management and pizza management to get reliable and good results. But I gotta say I'm happy with what this oven can do.
Being such a small oven, you can't leave the pizza still for longer than 5 seconds without risking burnt edges. With the dome wall being so thin, the heat dissipates pretty quickly, but if the fire is fed regularly this is not a huge problem. The two 25mm fire brick tiles are doing a great job too,

Things I'd do different if starting again would be... Add a bit of additional thermal mass to the dome walls, around 25mm to be roughly equal to the floor tiles. I also should have used some chicken wire mesh to help hold the insulation layer together. There are a few cracks and I'm a little worried it may fall apart someday. They don't seem to be getting bigger now though

Here are a couple of picks from tonight. This oven was definitely worth the trouble of modifying and will keep me going until its big brother is finally done.
Darius

[cobblerdave]

G'day
Great to hear your ovens turned out all right.
You little oven was like reading a book and finding the last page missing so it's good to hear a happy ending at last.
Has it kept up you enthusiasm for building a larger oven
Regards dave

[dariusk]

Thanks Dave. Yes, enthusiasm is still there for the full size oven but this will keep me cooking until I find the time to get going with it. This oven has convinced me to plan for something larger than I originally was thinking, so I'm going with a 900mm base now.
Cheers
Darius