September 30, 2011 - 10:21am
My WFO & Pls. VOTE for my little brothers!
Hey everybody! Just poured my cladding on my WFO. On the countdown to finishing this project! Can't wait to fire it up! My little brothers came out from So Cal. to help me put together the next phase of the oven. They are in the top 10 competing in a competition sponsored by Dell to be America's Favorite Small Business. Will you vote for them? They are "Related Grey"!! They have payed for most of my oven and helped me do all the hard labor part! Couldn't have done my oven without their help. So if my "Fresh Loaf Family" can help vote for them, they would greatly apppreciate it, and so would I!! :) Thanks to you all!!
Faith
http://www.youtube.com/dellbusiness?x=us_entries_435
Share
Voted : )
Sylvia
Followed your progress in the Wood Fired Oven Group. Haven't had the chance to go through all the pictures LOL.
Looks like you guys had a ball building a fine oven. Now be patient and allow it to cure properly before you start any fires! Great job and I can't wait to see the finished result.
Ah...thanks! Thanks for voting, and thanks for the kind comments! I can't wait to fire it up, but I'm sad to get my beautiful inside dirty! HA! I know, I'm crazy! I did post a lot of pictures didn't I! :) Well..., I would have loved to look at a million pictures if I could have. I posted them for all those who come after me! :)
Thanks again, ya'll!
Love the Fresh Loaf Fam!
Faith
I was also in a continual search for oven building pictures when I built mine. I found that most of the AS design build is documented fairly well. The one aspect that was lacking was the flue area and chimney. When you start on that area take a lot of pictures and you will be sure to help someone out:)
Lookin' good! Don't worry about getting it dirty -- if it's fired properly, the insides stay almost as clean as it is now. ;-)
When you build the flue, consider adding a smoke shelf to the design as shown in this quick sketch. Should help a bit with the draft.
ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA
You're sweet! Thanks for the idea! How do you think I should do that? Maybe just use some Heat Stop and mortar a cut firebrick there? The chimney thing has been a brain twister. Hopefully I'll get it right! Just put up my Foamglas thermal break on the front. I got 3 BOXES for FREE!! Can you believe it!! The Lord is blessing me!! ;)
Thanks again for the encouragment and helpful tips!! I appreciate it!!
Faith
The flue seems to make almost every new oven builder scratch their collective heads. It seems like the authors of the various and sundry "How-To" books kind of gloss over that. I suggest you view your oven construction as a fireplace with a door in the back wall that just happens to lead to an oven chamber. You can then construct the outer arch and flue just like an ordinary fireplace. Google "Rumford Fireplace" or "Smoke Shelf" for some images of how to construct these. The back wall of the "fireplace" does double duty as the front wall of your oven. That said, if your oven is outside, and away from your house, you shouldn't need to worry much about an occasional whisp of smoke from the front arch so it may not be worth the extra effort.
If you're building a Scott style oven, he has you cutting the brick for the last roof arch row to slope the oven ceiling down towards the door. It's the hardest part of building this style of oven, and I'm not convinced that it's necessary. I see no reason not to simply run the last roof arch straight into the front wall just like the back wall/arch is constructed. I've not tried it yet, but I intend to build my next oven that way and do a test firing prior to the cladding just to check it out. I'd bet a buck that it'll work just fine. Maybe some of the other builders around here can comment about that.
ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA
Yes, I am building an AS oven. Just finished putting down my bullnose tonight!! YEAH!! Tomorrow we work on the chimney! My oven is outside and far enough away from the house that I don't think the smoke will be a problem. It's a little late to put in a shelf for me.
I think that you are probaly right about the arch coming to the front, just like the back. That was a challenging part of the oven, but I had awesome helpers! I was just the onsite supervisor!! :)
I was worried about putting my bullnose on, but they came out great. My dad is worried about the chimney, but I think it will be fine too. I'm covering my oven with Foamglas insulation and then a layer of Perlcrete, then a final Lime Plaster. After all these layers are on, I think it's going to be pretty huge looking!! Cute, but huge! :)
I'm still going for my little farm look, but figuring how to cover the chimney and make it look like a silo still has me thinking at night! :)
Thanks so much for all your tips! I appreciate your help and insight! :) I'm having fun looking at FG's oven store! I will be getting a gun soon. Any thoughts on which one is best? I see his store has one with the probe on it, but I don't know if I want a gun with 2 things? Maybe just a gun, and then just use a plain old Walmart probe? What do you think?
thanks again!
faith
I have a nice Fluke IR gun that goes over 1000°. But I rarely use that full range. If you remember that the soot will burn off your oven at right around 900°, that's pretty much all you need to know for the high side of the temperature scale -- once the oven gets white again, you're right around 1,000°. Other than that, you'll rarely need anything over 600° for surface temps since anything over that is too hot for baking. Pizza, of course is the exception -- but you can cook a pizza pretty much as soon as the walls burn clean if you have a bright fire going.
As for the temp probe -- I just use my kitchen instant-read thermometer. And I only need to resort to that when baking something big, like a turkey, just to be sure it's cooked through. I never use it for pizza, bread, or any of the various other stuff I bake. But the unit at FG seems to be about the same price as any other decent unit without the probe, so it should work for ya. I wouldn't worry about getting the "best" -- you won't need extreme accuracy, so go with what fits your budget.
ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA
Faith,
This is an oven much like my own. Great crew. Voted for them. Keep it up.
CJ
Thanks again CJ for all the help you gave me in the beginning when I was working on my slab! I apprecitated the help so much!! You're sweet! Thanks for the vote too!! :)
Faith
Can you provide the link to the forum you referenced? nice job!
Sure, here it is! Thanks again!! You guys are the best!! :) "RELATED GREY"
http://www.youtube.com/dellbusiness?x=us_entries_435
Just in case. Here's the link to the Yahoo, Brick-Oven group. THEY ARE AWESOME!! Totally helped me build my WFO oven from start to "almost" finish. A WHOLE BUNCH of helpful information about ovens, but bread, pizza, etc...you should go and check it out! Sweet people! :)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brick-oven/
faith
..................................how did your brothers fare in the contest?
Hummm...major bummer! I think they lost, but I'm still holding out hope!! Dell hasn't offically said anything yet, but there are lots of rummors going around that the eyeglass kids won! Oh well, it's good to be humble!! ;) I'm so disappointed though! :) Thanks so much for asking! :)
Working on my chimney right now!! That's fun! It's kinda raining, so we are taking a break for lunch! I'm so excited! Can't wait to get this part behind me!
Thanks for asking about my bro's! I'm not giving up yet! It ain't over, till it's over!!!! :)
faith
Yep, not this time!! Shwood won America's Favorite Small Business.
But hey, it's alright! The Lord still has a plan!! :)
Thanks everyone for voting! You guys are the best! My brothers will always be winners to me! :)
Finished my chimney!! Aiyiyi! Boy! I sure hope I can make it into a silo and cover it up!!
I don't even want to show anybody! HA! It's pretty, "put together"!! But hey, I think it's going to do the job!!
Can't wait for tomorrow!!