Use of doors

[louis]

I'm pretty new to wood fired cooking. I built my oven from scratch about a month ago. It holds heat well thankfully,and I've had some reasonable success with pizzas.

I am pondering either adding doors, or getting a folded plate made to fit the hole. I've been holding a flat piece of steel over the hole with welding gloves up until now (I know, not advisable!) to experiment with draft and temperature.

I'd like to get to a stage where I can cook joints of meat etc at some point.

I can't seem to add a picture of my set up, but I was wondering what's best. Two doors folding in, one folding down or a separate plate?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[truckcab79]

My own door is a 5mm thick single steel plate that lifts out totally to give the best access. It has no insulation but i tend to only use mine for pizzas so it’s not really an issue.

If I was making one to hold heat then I’d still make it as a single lift away door but have it welded with a deep lip to enclose a piece of calsil board of the same size and then closed off at the back. Basically a deep single door with a calcil filling. Then find a long stemmed thermometer to fit all the way through. Not difficult to make if you have the tools to cut and weld. Probably an expensive thing to pay someone else for.

Worth a look on eBay. There are hundreds of doors on there. Most are uninsulated and almost certainly won’t fit your oven as they are designed to be built into the structure as you assemble it but worth a look. You might be lucky and find one that you can make fit.

[oblertone]

Fixed doors just get in the way, a removable but insulated door as described above works well. There is a picture of just that in my build thread below, somewhere on page three !

[woodywun]

I'm thinking of making a lift-out door from two sheets of 3mm galvanised steel, with insulation such as ceramic blanket in-between.  The two parts will be held apart by 6mm threaded rod.  I'll cut it to the profile of the entrance and attach a metal handle (and use heavy oven gloves!)  I want to incorporate some sort of 'stop' part way into the entrance so I can push the door in to a known position.

Maybe not beautiful but functional and affordable.

[truckcab79]

Picture on my Milano 750 build thread somewhere but when you make the metal handle wrap it in natural rope. Looks great and never heats up. Load on eBay in every diameter you could want. Think I used 6mm. 

[oblertone]

Before using galvanised steel you might want to consider the effects of Zinc Oxide in your food. Ordinary plain steel will rust, but it won't render you unconscious.

[webbm00]

I've got two pieces of 50mm thick ex-decking held together with two 25mm square pieces of wood and some fire rope nailed around the edge. It was a temporary solution but has lasted till now. I soak it well before fitting and although it's quite charred now it's never actually set light yet!

Before I made the wood door I had some celcon blocks that I piled up against the arch. That was even more temporary than the wood door but it never set light or charred