South Oz Pompeii

[cobblerdave]

G'day mick
You can't leave this oven unfinished hoes it going
Regards dave

[wotavidone]

Ha, Ha! I suppose I should provide an update. My mate has been slowly bringing her up to temperature. Last fire saw 350C on the inside of the dome just inside the inner arch, 90c on the outside.
He was surprised to see moisture spots forming on the outside. I explained that clay has chemically combined moisture that is only released when the temperature is well over 100C.
There are some hairline cracks, probably due to the temperature gradient meaning the inside of the dome expands more than the outside.
He's pretty sanguine about these, partly because our Greek mate says these are to be expected and won't cause the dome to fall down.
I reckon that is the best reason to insulate - the difference between outside and inside temps would be less, and what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over, as they say.
I inspected the inner arch very carefully. Couldn't see any cracks there at all.
Looking inside, I could see that the very top of the dome had started to clear. I told him to do another fire the same, and if no more moisture is visible, she's ready.
I reckon use it, then insulate it over summer, where our 45 degree days will take care of water in the perlcrete.

[wotavidone]

Saturday lunch.
1st and 2nd pizzas - note the fancy stainless steel tray for the fire. My mate thought it'd make things nice and clean, which it does, but it also made the floor a bit too cool.
Still the pizzas looked great and he is very happy.

[wotavidone]

It's been a while, and my mate has been hounded by friends about having a pizza night. So a couple weekends ago, we went out to his place and fired up the oven and cooked for 20 people.
The oven is amazingly good. There are a few cracks that don't seem to be getting worse and don't seem to leak smoke. Can't be seen from the inside and if he'd let me insulate it wouldn't be seen from the outside either.
Regardless, the oven cleared the dome in less than two hours the floor got really hot and we turned out stacks of "Fat Aussie"pizzas.
There's no telling these people that "less is more" on a pizza
The big fella is a convert, I managed to get him to let me run the fire directly on the floor, and he also has decided that the home made dough beats the bought stuff he has been using.