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Post by oblertone on Nov 8, 2020 8:50:22 GMT
Having recently moved from a cob based house I can say with some certainty that the only durable protection is shelter. All cob houses are built with large overhangs to prevent direct water impingement, at the lower levels this is supplanted by stone facings to prevent bounce-back wetting the cob. Of course a protective render will help, but shelter is key. A tarp may work in the interim but it doesn’t allow the material to breathe, which is important.
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Post by oblertone on Nov 1, 2020 22:55:45 GMT
Do the spuds in your kitchen oven; when they’re done put them in the wfo to keep warm !
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Post by oblertone on Oct 28, 2020 22:59:40 GMT
Low and slow seems to be the way forward; I find the morning after a pizza session to be perfect; oven below 200c place veg in bottom of a roaster add liquid and the joint then cover with foil, bung it in the oven and go and do something else for minimum of fours hours. It doesn’t really matter if it’s for longer as your oven will to too cool to do any damage, just keeps things warm.
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Post by oblertone on Oct 7, 2020 10:52:15 GMT
Sorry about the link: Go to ‘Home’ (top left) and scroll down to ‘Guide to Pompeii build’ and help yourself.
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Post by oblertone on Oct 2, 2020 17:40:59 GMT
Hi Mark, I think you’ll struggle with a step-by-step guide as self builders use such a range of materials it would be superfluous; I suggest you look at links in the section you are interested in, i.e. Cob built, brick built, cast refractory etc and decide which route you want to go down. There is an American site called forno-bravo which has a calculator to predict the number of bricks you’ll need for a diameter of X, but it is a bit anal and cutting trapezoids isn’t much fun. This link for example deals with the construction of a Pompeii style oven: ukwoodfiredovenforum.proboards.com/thread/447/photo-diary-stage-views
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Post by oblertone on Sept 30, 2020 16:26:05 GMT
Well you can't say you haven't been warned ! FWIW I used standard tiles from B&Q and cut them by hand, over the five years since completion only about four bits of tile have succumbed to frost damage where the coloured surface has flaked off.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 29, 2020 8:13:47 GMT
A reasonable indicator is when the interior dome goes ‘soot free’. During the heat up process soot forms on all the interior and you won’t be able to make out the detail of the dome; once it gets to around 500c all this carbon will burn off and you’ll be able to see quite clearly the internal dome. At that point it is heat soaked and ready for extended use. The most pizzas I’ve ever cooked in mine is 70 in one long session, all the extra fuel required after ‘soot free’ was an occasional wrist-sized log to keep it topped up. The following day i cooked breakfast in it and then baked bread, all with no extra fuel.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 28, 2020 14:10:18 GMT
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Post by oblertone on Sept 28, 2020 14:04:50 GMT
I haven’t reviewed the whole thread but an hour to heat up sounds waaaaaaay too quick, especially if it hasn’t been used for a while. Mine take fours hours to become fully heat soaked, after that i just feed it the occasional split log to keep it topped up.
ps - cheapo digital thermometers are about £10 on eBay, although it’s been a while since i bought mine.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 20, 2020 18:24:27 GMT
That's a great finish; however, you do know that if you try and point it out to your pizza 'customers' they'll just roll their eyes and wander off ...
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Post by oblertone on Sept 19, 2020 8:25:10 GMT
Very nice use of heater blocks !
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Post by oblertone on Sept 16, 2020 21:17:49 GMT
I cut mine using a diamond blade in a tile cutter; not recommended as I had to remove the guard which is also the spray deflector so I got pretty filthy.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 16, 2020 8:40:26 GMT
Excellent progress, well done.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 16, 2020 8:38:44 GMT
I used storage heater blocks (laid flat) in my WFO and they’ve survived quite happily for four years. A single layer works sufficiently well for extended pizza sessions followed by bread and a roast the following day. Just bed them corrugated side down on fine dry sand and you’ll be fine.
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Post by oblertone on Sept 11, 2020 9:38:09 GMT
I rather think you’ve answered your own question; build a wooden former to support the weak part and re do it.
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