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Post by cobblerdave on Jun 30, 2015 10:40:36 GMT
G'day To be truly honest at this point. I'm a bit worried about the entrance. You have no structure at the oven mouth. A brick arch would make the mouth, the entrance strong. I'm thinking more about the long term of your oven. I know that you want to get it cured. And cooking. But I'm thinking that a strong entrance would be better at this point Regards dave
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Post by smagsmith on Jun 30, 2015 20:58:41 GMT
Hi Dave, I am planning to do the tunnel/ entrance this week. I will hold off anymore fires until I have done this tunnel. I rendered it today with mortar to seal those pesky leaks. Looks surprisingly good which bodes well for the finished render when I have insulated it. Cheers Smag
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Post by smagsmith on Jul 11, 2015 19:19:48 GMT
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Post by cobblerdave on Jul 13, 2015 6:15:31 GMT
G'day The oven looks great! Well done Regards Dave
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Post by smagsmith on Jul 16, 2015 18:43:17 GMT
Thanks Dave. Enjoying experimenting with fire management. Cooked two pizzas now on different days. One a success and one a fail. Never got enough heat into the oven floor with the fail. Rushed it in my excitement. Success was great though. Loved the bake the base of the pizza got. Cheers Smag
I will finish off the asthetic look of the oven soon. Enjoying the fire bit at the moment.
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Post by smagsmith on Jul 20, 2015 20:31:13 GMT
Did some more experimenting this weekend with fire management. Cooked a lovely roast chicken crown and some roasted Mediterranean veg. Yum yum. Also got the final render on the dome. Just need to paint it now. Any tips on choosing the right paint?
Cheers Smag
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Post by smagsmith on Jul 20, 2015 20:34:00 GMT
Also, check the oven temp today after yesterday's fire, it is amazing that it is still warm 24 hrs on. Was around 100 degrees c after 24 hrs.
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Post by oblertone on Jul 21, 2015 8:52:18 GMT
Also, check the oven temp today after yesterday's fire, it is amazing that it is still warm 24 hrs on. Was around 100 degrees c after 24 hrs. Looking good ! Your next step to prolong your cooking time is to fit an insulated door; a tight fitting door will kill the fire but dramatically slow down heat loss enabling roasting and bread making the following day. A looser fitting door will keep the embers burning by allowing a reduced air flow, giving you further cooking options. Your oven performance will improve as it dries out but now is the time to start understanding the 'heat gradient' and what you can achieve with the oven you've built.
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Post by smagsmith on Aug 2, 2015 19:31:34 GMT
I have constructed a door of 3 layers. Wood, then 1 inch layer of thermo block, then a sheet of metal. I quite surprised myself how well it looks (and works). My oven entrance narrows from front to back, this means that if I put the door right at the opening, then it is loose fitting and air can get in ( and smoke can get up the chimney), but if I push it further in it is much tighter. I tend to leave the door at the opening when lighting the fire, then push it in past the chimney when the cooking has finished. This seems to work really well.
I am struggling a bit with temp control. Last week I had it perfect. The floor of the oven was 400 degrees and the pizzas were great. They cooked in 2 mins. Then yesterday I thought I had replicated the fire, but the oven floor was only about 250 and although the pizzas were still nice, they took 5 mins to cook. Any tips on getting the oven floor screanming hot. Is it just a case of more wood? and for longer?
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Post by cobblerdave on Aug 2, 2015 21:20:35 GMT
G'day You can only get out what you put in when it comes to heat. A longer fire will build yourself a bank of heat. Your insulation and insulated door will only kee the heat in that you've put in there. The challenge is to use this heat to cook with over time. There are no hard and fast rules as all these ovens operate best in the hands of there makers Regards dave
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Post by smagsmith on Aug 5, 2015 20:32:40 GMT
I have been watching a few videos of people lighting fires in the ovens. I think that I have neot been building a large enough stack of wood. I was quite surprised at the amount of wood people are putting in before lighting. IS there a ratio of wood to oven volume? I have been building stacks just over a 1 foot in cube , yet my oven in a metre across in diametre. I have seen videos where the stack pretty much fills the void of the entire oven. I will try doubling the size of the original stack next time.
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Post by jspaolonzi on Aug 5, 2015 23:15:34 GMT
I love the oven you have built here!
Fantastic job. what material is the chimney?
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Post by cobblerdave on Aug 6, 2015 1:25:04 GMT
G'day Not a big fan of stacking the oven full of wood and just putting a match to it. It's not that it's wasteful of the wood the oven doesn't breath and burn things efficiently. I use the top down method of lighting a fire I build this at the entrance, under the chimney where it will draw and prewarm the chimney. A raft of larger pieces on the bottom. A "log house" of smaller sticks on that with newspaper, fire lighters etc in that. I use old charcoal soaked in "metho", denatured alcohol myself. Twigs and smallest stuff piled on top. When lite the smaller stuff burns lighting the thicker stuff below. After it well caught push into the oven. As it's well lite it will continue to burn and you get a level of smoke in the top 2/3 of the oven with the bottom 1/3 clear, really cool to see this happen. This disappears as the heat starts to get thrown back off the walls. The oven starts to breath now the air gets drawn in low and the hot gas gets taken out up high. The heat of the oven will burn off the smoke and gases in the top 1/3 of the dome and there will be hardly any smoke. Your oven is burning efficiently and will heat up in the best time. Keep the flames from licking out the oven mouth and wasting the heat and you'll use the least wood. As it gets hot the walls will be cleared of soot from the top down. This is the oven "clear" and the brick starting to saturate with heat. In a dry oven this takes 60 to 90 mins. Once at this point it only takes a few sticks aflame to maintain those temps at above the 400C to cook pizza. This way you use 1/2 the wood you'll use by packing the oven full of wood and letting it burn by itself. Regards dave
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Post by cobblerdave on Aug 6, 2015 1:27:27 GMT
Doubl post
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Post by smagsmith on Aug 20, 2015 8:15:45 GMT
I love the oven you have built here!
Fantastic job. what material is the chimney?
Thanks, the chimney is metal and was bought from a builders merchants. I have bought a taller one now as the one in the pictures was too short. Cost 39 quid
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