Wood fired bread / pizza oven

[mikm]

after a nice session of wood butchery (or anything else for that matter), its a wonderful thing to kick back with a beer or three and eat steaming hot pizzas straight out of your wood fired bread / pizza oven. ive also done roasts and apple pies, etc,

there are four levels to my house block and i decided to include a pizza oven into the design of one of the necessary retaining walls. the wall in question is about 2500mm from top to bottom and holds up a driveway about 1400mm from the lower level

from memory, the additional materials set me back less than 200 au dollars over the cost of the wall itself.

depending on a few factors relating to how the oven was fired, you can churn out pizzas as quick as one every 2 minutes or so.

[mikm]

"elevation" shows a cross section of the oven and its relationship to the wall.

"wall1" has the me trialing the green enameled doors (salvaged off an old kitchen stove) against the outside wall. note that the doors were ultimately installed against the inner aperature

"wall2" demonstrates how the dome is formed over a mound of sand (removed out the door when the mortar has dried).

“wall6” is just before the insulation layer is added to the dome

“wall7” is looking into the operational oven. the pizza was tandoori chicken, from memory. very tasty...

[ozwinner]

Very nice, so whens the open day and pizza tasting taking place??


Al :p

[knucklehead]

Very nice. Great way to use those off cuts for something.

Yet another project to add to my "one day I'll build it" list.

[mikm]

when the weather fines up again, ill put the word out for those interested to come and have a taste test.

not sure if i should allow practicing brickies, though - it was my first attempt at troweling mud and i havent rendered it yet to cover all sins :)

[Sir Stinkalot]

not sure if i should allow practicing brickies, though


Bad luck Al ..... perhaps you will need the craporium hat on that day :D

[AlexS]

Does it cook pancakes?

[ozwinner]

when the weather fines up again, ill put the word out for those interested to come and have a taste test.

not sure if i should allow practicing brickies, though - it was my first attempt at troweling mud and i havent rendered it yet to cover all sins :)
Bog and paint, bog and paint. :)
Covers all sins.

Al :D

[journeyman Mick]

............not sure if i should allow practicing brickies, though - it was my first attempt at troweling mud and i havent rendered it yet to cover all sins :)

I wouldn't worry about Al being a practicing brickie, it's the ones that have gotten good enough to not need practice anymore you'll need to watch for! :eek: (with apologies to Al :p )

Mick

[mikm]

come to think of it, maybe i *should* invite all interested brickies and see if i can get some rendering done..... only kidding...
as for pancakes; i dunno. im willing to try anything once :) the door is probably a bit small for any hansel and gretel action, though :eek:

[mikm]

and now for some more details:
i did a bit of research on the web before commencing construction and found that there appear to be a couple of good books on the topic (the names of which elude me at the moment, im afraid) and a fair number of websites as well. i never got around to purchasing any books but its on the gunna list. most of the web pages seemed to want cash before any real info is forthcoming but there are a couple of good ones out there.
the most critical information i was able to find at no cost however and it is this:

the width of the door (hole in inner wall in my case) should be 50% of the floor width of the oven and the height is 62% (+ or - a couple) of the dome height. this apparently gives a good compromise between air and smoke flowing in and out and actually retaining heat in the thing to cook with.

with nothing more than that, the rest of my design was plucked from behind my left ear....or was it the right?

the only real expense was purchasing refractory cement and vermiculite to make the insulation layers with and refractory mortar. this was from consolidated refractories (in port melbourne, i think) they also sell furnace bricks in many different profiles and sizes (normal brick shapes, keystone shapes for arches etc) but i just decided to use good old house bricks to save a couple of hunge extra cost. i have seen an old oven that i assume used ordinary cement for the mortar but i wouldnt advise this as it breaks down with heat. having said that, this thing had seen a lot of use so give it a go if you like.

[mikm]

a further note on the flue situation. i wanted to make sure that i wasnt going to offend my neighbours who have a kitchen window about 4m from the oven so i use a good length of flue to get the smoke out of the way.
having said that, its a bit of a matter of pride in a job well done to have a fire that smokes minimally or not at all so its not much of a concern but i like to do the right thing by them.
the walled flue is about 1400mm from the outer door hole to the top of the wall and i then use a 3.5m section of 150mm stainless flue. so around 5m of flue all up and it still draws beautifully, getting any blue stuff way up and over the eaves.
there is a bit of a trick to starting and maintaining a fire in such a confined space (a hairdryer got plenty of use the first few times :) ) but i now have the knack of getting my oven plenty hot enough with very little or no smoke. ill be happy to provide lessons for one and all at the afore mentioned open day when i get around to it and the weather improves.

[Clinton1]

Good one. Maybe Al should build one and put on some pizzas for his love-ins. I'm sure he can get some left over bricks. :)

[ozwinner]

I wouldn't worry about Al being a practicing brickie, it's the ones that have gotten good enough to not need practice anymore you'll need to watch for! :eek: (with apologies to Al :p )

Mick
Ya know what they say Mick.

They only take the bad tradies off the tools.
They end up as supervisors.

The good ones spend there lifes on the tools.
Which I dont have a problem with.....:o


Al :eek: :rolleyes: :D

[soundman]

Have a go at some of soundman's scones in that there oven.
Find the plans here http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=18396&highlight=scones
I've contemplated building a similar oven for ages but I think I will have to be content with the camp oven for now.
Are you doing your pizzas direct on the floor of the oven or on a metal tray?

I've found get better results in the normal oven cooking the pizza on pre-heated large clay pot saucers.

Try 30% wholemeal in your pizza dough & keep it as wet as you can & still handle it without it sticking to everything.

I'm sure I can smell bread cooking :)

Cheers

[martrix]

Brilliant job Mikm! I am green with envy, and I have a huge case of F.O.M.O!
When I get a house, a Wood Fired Pizza oven will definately be a priority in the design plans...............................mmmmmmmmmmmm..............I can smell that pizza from here..............http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gif

[mikm]

scones would be good to try, soundman. i was going to suggest that you would have to come and show us all how its done when i get the open day off the ground but brisbane is a bit of a long walk home. :)
as for cooking pizzas: there is no hard and fast rule. what i find is that the characteristics of how the oven is burning dictate whether you cook directly on the tiles or if a tray is to be used. the first pizzas spend most of their time on the tray as the floor is so hot but get put on the tiles to crisp up. the tray time lessens as the oven cools down over the course of a session. the last time i fired her, the fire was in the center of the oven as usual to kick things off. once the oven heats up to temperature (the bricks at the top of the dome are hot enough to burn the soot off - colour change from black to white) and i pushed the coals to the back of the oven to begin cooking, the 300x300x45mm clay pavers on the floor where the fire had been were glowing red! very impressive. only bummer is at those temperatures, a pizza base will weld itself to the floor in about 2.5 seconds fllat! so as you can see, its very variable. something i like actually, as you learn something new every time you use it

[mikm]

Brilliant job Mikm! I am green with envy, and I have a huge case of F.O.M.O!
When I get a house, a Wood Fired Pizza oven will definately be a priority in the design plans...............................mmmmmmmmmmmm..............I can smell that pizza from here..............http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gif

cheers, mate.
maybe you could use an idea i had that didnt quite work out for me...
its a bummer that my retaining wall holds up a driveway and so i cant use the space on top, but i thought what would be really cool is to put a hot tub above the oven (perhaps off to one side - there'd be a lot of weight in all that water) and install one or more of those water jacketed flue sections they use on coonara type wood heaters to heat the water. imagine that, sucking down wood fired food of some description while soaking the bones....

[ozwinner]

cheers, mate.
maybe you could use an idea i had that didnt quite work out for me...
its a bummer that my retaining wall holds up a driveway and so i cant use the space on top, but i thought what would be really cool is to put a hot tub above the oven (perhaps off to one side - there'd be a lot of weight in all that water) and install one or more of those water jacketed flue sections they use on coonara type wood heaters to heat the water. imagine that, sucking down wood fired food of some description while soaking the bones....
So now we are going to be eating pizzas in your hot tub?? :cool:

Al :)

[mikm]

So now we are going to be eating pizzas in your hot tub?? :cool:

Al :)
nah mate, sadly my mad plans for world domination involved the tub heating using a thermosiphon (cant be bothered with a pump to put it below) which means putting it where i park my car. swmbo would not be pleased!

[Brickyau]

Hi all, I`m searching for some plans/drawings for a Wood Fired oven for my back yard ,can anybody point me in the right direction? Have been searching now for about 3.5 hrs and nothing I`ve seen so far really get`s me hot :cool:...so to speak..lol:D
Came across these threads and thought you guys might have some ideas.
I know this is in reply to a very old thread. :doh:...but I`m an old brickie lmao!:2tsup:
regards
brickyau

[Cliff Rogers]

Yup. Go here.
Forno Bravo Forum: The Wood-Fired Oven Community - The Pizza Oven Installation and Cooking Community (http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/)

They have free plans for a couple of different sizes.

The Free Plans are here.
Brick Oven Plans | Build an Italian Brick Oven (http://www.fornobravo.com/pompeii_oven/pompeii_oven.html)

[Cliff Rogers]

There is a bloke who posts there called Johnny the oven man.
Forno Bravo Forum: The Wood-Fired Oven Community (http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/4399-johnny-the-oven-man/)

He is in Melbourne & has some of the harder to get bits.
Here is his web site.
Refractory & Ceramic - (03) 9560 4477 (http://www.refractoryandceramic.com.au/)

[Robson Valley]

I have had both bread and pizza done in one of those. Do not recall what the plans were or where they came from. The key point seemed to be a very sturdy and elaborate wooden form around which the oven brick and mortar layers were laid. Then, when all was said and done and thoroughly dry, he set fire to it all. Perhaps that's commonplace but was news to me.

Do you ever get a chance to watch the English chef = Jamie Oliver, in his "Jamie at Home" series? I'll bet that domed brick oven in his garden cost thousands.

[soundman]

take heart chaps.....if you've got a taste for wood fired pizza but ya havn't got the space, time or money for one of these big ovens.

Go and buy ya self a big cast iron camp oven and do ya pizza in there...all you need is somewhere to light a decent fire.

cheers