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Post by jsmythk on Jul 21, 2014 16:22:05 GMT
I got more work done this weekend including starting to get the slates on the roof:  I also managed to find a fantastic old analogue pyrometer on a certain auction site so I drilled a small hole through the front wall into the oven for a thermocouple and then filled the hole up with heatproof silicone  |
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Post by minesamojito on Jul 22, 2014 5:43:20 GMT
What a beautiful oven, and a cracking build, love the use of storage heater blocks.
Looking forward to seeing you cook on this.
Cheers
Marcus
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Post by jsmythk on May 6, 2015 14:47:06 GMT
Its been a long time since I have posted any progress reports, mainly due to starting a new business and having no time to do anything apart from work. But the oven has been in regular use, even through the winter. It works fantastically well and I have to say that it retains so much heat its brilliant. I have burned a number of doors in my quest for a perfect solution and am currently working on door no. 5...!!! The following two pics are the final point of development I got to until this last weekend:   |
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Post by jsmythk on May 6, 2015 14:58:31 GMT
And then it all went wrong.....!! The grout around the stones on the front of the oven became cracked when the oven got hot and eventually one of the stones could be pulled straight out. As there was just a layer of mortar between this stone and the chimney stack, I figured out that the chimney stack was getting too hot as I have not got a big enough thermal gap between the front of the oven and the chimney stack.  So I could see two ways of fixing this, either take the whole chimney stack down and start again, or remove all the stones, put more insulation on top of the chimney stack, using homebrew rather than mortar, to secure in place and then add stones on top of that. As I do not want to take the whole chimney stack down, I decided to take all the stones off and start again. However this led me to a slight re-design of the roof so I decided on a fairly major re-modelling job, but I hope that it will be OK in the end. Following pic shows the oven once I had taken the roof off and ready to start the re-modelling!  I got the roof back on by the end of the day and will start the insulation of the chimney stack next week....! I put it all down to being a total amateur, but I will learn from it and make the re-build much more robust to the heat. |
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Post by jsmythk on May 11, 2015 15:06:10 GMT
Roof has been re-modelled and put back on, full covering of slates on both sides, fascia boards cut, trimmed ready for final fix...   Chimney, ridge tiles and finish the cladding next.... |
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Post by jsmythk on Sept 17, 2015 19:56:41 GMT
I have managed to do a little more work over the summer to try and finish off the oven, pics below....      And of course a quick shot of the latest pizza making session.....  I am nearly finished, its only taken me two years to get this far but its been quite a learning curve for someone who has never laid a brick or a slate before! The chimney height is now 96cm which is about as close as I can get to the 1 metre that Terry advised me back in the early days of the build, I will be lighting it again this weekend so it will be interesting to see how well it draws. I have created a new "firing door" from a sheet of 1.75mm stainless steel which works a treat out and stops smoke coming out of the front of the oven even in very windy conditions. I have found a couple of pieces of beautiful thick slate to finish off the front of the oven and once those are on, then the oven will be complete. Phew..... |
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Post by jsmythk on Aug 17, 2016 14:49:16 GMT
A quick sign-off from me, as I am selling my house and moving abroad, I am so sad to be leaving my oven behind, but wherever we settle next, I will have to build a new one and learn from the many mistakes I made with this one. I have cooked literally hundreds of pizzas in it and it has performed amazingly well. I have also cooked bread, chicken, pulled pork, burgers, rolls, rye bread, sourdough, naan.... the list goes on. Thanks to all in this forum for the inspiration and support! I could not have done it without this forum.  P.S. I have a piece of Calc Sil board and nearly full bag of powdered fireclay that I am happy to give away to a forum member if you PM me and come and pick it up from near Newbury. |
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