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Post by simonh on Jan 2, 2018 22:38:51 GMT
Nice work
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Post by khylen on Jan 6, 2018 18:32:01 GMT
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Post by khylen on Jan 11, 2018 19:46:04 GMT
Ceramic blanket and half the vermicrete done!
For the ceramic blanket I chose not to use chicken wire. I've kept chickens for a number of years and the wire is an absolute pain in the backside! I also didn't like the idea of putting a load of metal in my insulating layer! The blanket is quite heavy and sat perfect on the dome so really don't see the need for wire.
For the vermicrete I went with DownunderDave's advice on here and did a 10/1 mix which I found perfect! The stuff is time consuming to put on but soon builds up. I also put 6" of the "porridge" on and then left it for 24 hours to set which also helped, along with a handful of clay into the mix now and then. I mixed in small batches which worked a treat.
I'm not looking forward to seeing how long it takes to dry however, I recon I've used near on 40l of water and I'm only half way through!
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Post by khylen on Jan 11, 2018 19:48:38 GMT
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Post by khylen on Jan 15, 2018 19:12:18 GMT
Vermiculite all done eventually! I also popped a vent in the top to let any moisture out of the CF blanket. This was simply a short piece of copper pipe, with a stop end screwed to the end. Going to give it till the weekend and then do a week of curing fires. I also sanded and waxed the ring on the front of tree trunk.
Then should just be the render, which I'm still debating weather to make waterproof render. Although there is a roof, it does suffer from a lot of condensation which drips. Twin wall chimney and done!
Pizza is in sight!
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Post by khylen on Jan 15, 2018 19:14:39 GMT
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Post by oblertone on Jan 15, 2018 19:15:04 GMT
Sterling work given the current weather; pizza time indeed!
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Post by khylen on Jan 15, 2018 21:16:49 GMT
Thanks Oblertone. Your not wrong, the weather in Sunny Devon is far from Sunny, it's been atrocious! The area around my oven is now an absolute quagmire, not a blade of grass in sight! Roll on Spring!
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Post by khylen on Jan 24, 2018 21:21:42 GMT
Got my twin wall chimney on now and been having fires over the past 3 days. Got it up to 300c tonight but only right at the top of the dome. It gets cooler as I measure further down. The bottom 2 rings of bricks are clear and measured about 150c.
Should I just keep building bigger fires to go past 300c? At what temp will all the black bricks turn back to normal colour or does this not happen and they stay black? Dying for pizza now but still think it may be a bit too soon!?
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Post by Thomobigands on Jan 25, 2018 11:11:53 GMT
Well done!
The dome will clear with sufficient, prolonged heat it just takes time. I would just say to go easy in this cold weather with a new oven. Plenty of gradually increasing curing fires.
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Post by oblertone on Jan 25, 2018 14:31:46 GMT
As above, slow and steady is the way forward, with time between firings to let the oven completely cool. The dome will clear when it's hot enough to burn off the soot, wet wood won't help either, but thats difficult to avoid at this time of year.
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Post by khylen on Jan 25, 2018 19:19:45 GMT
Thanks Thomo and Oblertone, sound advice as usual! I was just getting a bit apprehensive as to the black bricks!
I've just had it up to 400c tonight, again just the top of the dome. Iv left it at that and will probably light another fire tomorrow or Saturday and push it a bit further. Slow and steady!
Luckily my brother in law sells fire wood for a living from our farm, so I have an endless supply of free, seasoned dry wood! I dread to think how much I would spend otherwise! Iv used about a trailer load already just getting to this point drying it out!
Hopefully pizza at the weekend me thinks! Going to make some dough tonight.....
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Post by khylen on Apr 10, 2018 22:20:56 GMT
Has been a while since I posted my progress so here is an update! I have now finished my oven and had many pizzas to say the least! After the vermiculite layer, I left my oven for a good month or so before adding the final render layer. Over this time I slowly built up the oven to pizza temp and cooked a few pizzas in the process. I then coated 2 layers of a simple sand and cement render. I did not add any waterproofer to these as my oven is under cover so I did not see the need. I found the rendering quite time consuming but after a good few sessions i got it done. I then used a masonry paint to finish. I only applied 1 coat of this and may change the colour as its not quite as green as I want. In all I used 130 fire bricks for the dome and inner arch, and about 14 reclaimed reds for the outer arch. I don't know how much it cost me overall, and I intend to keep it that way!! Ii i go crazy and load the oven up good and proper I can get it up to pizza temp in about an hour and a half. But I usually take it a bit easy and bring it up slowly over about 3 hours before I cook the first pizza. This is usually when the dome is at about 460/ 500 and the floor is about 360/400. I have the fire either on the left or the right and keep alternating. I have tried having the fire at the back but find this not as good as you can't see the pizza burning! I also made a crude door out of some left over silicate board and some hardie backer board.I then put some fire rope around this as a seal. Although I'm not sure how long it will last the door works a treat! I usually put it on at about 300"c. I then tend to lose about 60"c over a 24 hour period. SO after 3 days I can still slow cook a joint of meat for 6 hours......it's tremendous! I'm thoroughly happy with the way the oven has turned out, and Im so glad I spent the time and effort to build it! Pizzas are a work of art and an art I'm still perfecting and practising! Cant thank every one on here for all the help and guidance given, I wholeheartedly could not have done it without this website and the people on it, Thank you from the bottom of my oven! My goal when building my oven was always to hopefully 1 day open some sort of pop up restaurant, and I am glad to say that this summer I will be doing just so! A bit of shameless plugging (hope it is ok to post this link!), but if anybody is in sunny Devon and interested in seeing my oven in action then please come along to 1 of my Farm Pizza Nights over the summer. My website is http://www.thesecretstable.co.uk.
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Post by khylen on Apr 10, 2018 22:23:42 GMT
1 More pic!
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Post by oblertone on Apr 11, 2018 7:53:01 GMT
Nice website, very professional looking. A few suggestions if I may ...
The link to the ticket agency needs to be more prominent, maybe direct from the date menu ? The cost is hidden until you get to ticketing, maybe worth being up front. The picture of the skull jars a bit with the rest of the theme. Mention that you produce bespoke pizzas one at a time, therefore queueing (in wonderful surroundings) is almost inevitable. Consider timed tickets to spread the load.
... and finally
Look at the 'what3words' website and add a link to your property, the system is gaining traction and is more accurate than GPS.
Good luck with your venture, you may well be getting a visit.
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