Denn and Butches wood fired oven

[dennford]

I, together with my nieghbour Butch have just completed our first wood fired oven (haven't yet fired it up - so keep your fingers crossed).

Anyhow It is currently something that I am quite proud of so I thought that I should share it, after all maybe someone will benefit from whatever I have done.

I shall put up a series of hopefully self explanatory pic's with a minimum of text, so here is the start; the footings. We would have liked to make the oven a tad bigger but were limited by space and the fact that the siting was limited by a nearby leach drain that I didn't want to build on top of (future maintainance of the drain being in mind).

At the moment it looks nothing but we had great visions.

[Stevenp]

Looking forward to the pics Denn, these things are getting pretty popular at the moment, and hopefully will have one in my yard this summer.
did you go by a plan? I am trying to get as much info / options as I can.:2tsup:
Cheers Steven.

[dennford]

Looking forward to the pics Denn, these things are getting pretty popular at the moment, and hopefully will have one in my yard this summer.
did you go by a plan? I am trying to get as much info / options as I can.:2tsup:
Cheers Steven.


Yes they are popular, however I have been considering building one for many years now - I just love BBQ's and outdoor cooking of any kind.

This one was planned,desighned by myself. However we did modify our thinking as we progresed and gleaned much info from the internet - particularly this site - http://www.fornobravo.com/

Here is a rough idea of what we envisaged with a BBQ to the left and work surface to the right.The whole thing was to be built as cheaply as possible as my pension doesn't allow excesses, I will do a costing as I post the stages. Up to the footings we used rubble and sand tht was lying around my yard plus two bags of cement that we had purchased from our local at $3.50 each because they were broken.

Grand total so far $7.00

Denn

[dennford]

Sorry, I put the wrong site on that last post. Although "forno bravo" is an okay site I had meant to put this my favourite one up.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/

The guy is Aussie so he should be okay and have some idea of Oz materials, likes and dislikes - mind you as he is a Queenslander, one does have some concerns:U

Denn

[Cliff Rogers]

Watching :2tsup:

[Cliff Rogers]

....The guy is Aussie so he should be okay and have some idea of Oz materials, likes and dislikes - mind you as he is a Queenslander, one does have some concerns:U....
He wasn't born here, (Qld) he wasn't even born in Oz.

[dennford]

He wasn't born here, (Qld) he wasn't even born in Oz.

I wasn't born in Oz either, but I reckon I'm as much Aussie as anyone.:D

[Cliff Rogers]

I wasn't born in Oz either, but I reckon I'm as much Aussie as anyone.:D

Just not a Queenslander. :p

[dennford]

Just not a Queenslander. :p

Just one of the chosen few Cliff:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Anyhow here are a couple more pic's that will give some idea of the shape.End to end is about 3mtrs.

The brickwork although straight and true wasn't too tidy looking but as the other half of the team is a plasterer we intended rendering it anyhow.

Denn

[AC-Jacko]

Sorry, I put the wrong site on that last post. Although "forno bravo" is an okay site I had meant to put this my favourite one up.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/

The guy is Aussie so he should be okay and have some idea of Oz materials, likes and dislikes - mind you as he is a Queenslander, one does have some concerns:U

Denn

Looking good denn. I ordered the CD for idea's and tips from that site for tips. I will be watching your developments and see how the beast turns out :U

cheers Jacko

[dennford]

Well the base was nothing too much to think about - just straight forward brickwork, but now even though we had thought most of the job through we still had some serious thinking about the oven itself.

Obviously it needed building of solid bricks to retain the heat but we had to decide just how thick, how much and what insulation to use - if any,what sort of mortar and a handfull of other points.

The two end sections were easy, just using 600x600x50mm slabs for the bases - as seen in the last pic's. As for the centre we filled it to within 200/250mm of the top with sand and rubble well compacted, then poured a concrete slab on top to a level 150mm from the top, this would provide a solid base for the oven itself. We then laid solid bricks without mortar to support the two sides of the oven - these were embedded in well compacted sand on either side. the outer sand beds were then rendered whilst the section inside (the oven floor) was paved with solid bricks. this meant that the oven floor would be loose paved ontop of a bed of sand.

The picture here was taken at a later stage but may clarify some of the above. the briks at the front were only temporary but you can clearly see the oven floor and the outer rendered section. the outer sides of the floor are supported on solid bricks and in turn support the oven walls. the inside is supported on compacted sand.

hopefully I have explained this well enough to be understood.

I shall continue tommorrow - which by the way will be my first test of the thing.

Denn

[AC-Jacko]

Starting to look the goods ;)

[dennford]

Starting to look the goods ;)

After Sundays cook up it certainly supplied the goods.

It's my bedtime now (early to bed etc ! ) but I shall try to continue the saga tomorrow.

Denn

[dennford]

I know that we still have some building to go (on the posts) but last Sunday we fired the beast up for the first time, this was supposedly a trial and error session but in actual fact I was confident that everything would work fine, after all I can cook in an ordinary oven and I am okay out in the bush; so as long as the wood burns and heats the oven, what can go wrong ? (other than the oven cracking).

After firing for two hours to make sure that we had plenty of stored heat, we threw in a couple of pizzas to cook with the door left off. Within minutes they were cooked to perfection and we waited a short while for the oven to cool a few more degrees before putting in some simple white bread.All cooking from here on would be done with the oven closed. A while later the crust was looking a beautifull golden brown, much against my instinct I listened to everyone else. Yes i took it out maybe ten/fifteen minutes too early and although the top was perfect, the lower part was more like chewing gum.

Now for the meat. One medium sized piece of topside beef and a small piece of pork. I left these in for a little over an hour before adding some vege's, and closing the oven for a further 20 minutes. Once again I was being encouraged to take them out early but thankfully I resisted the taunts and ended up with a beautiful meal.

The big surprise was the next day when we realised just how much alcohol the whole process takes.:wink::rolleyes:

Denn

[dennford]

Back to the building part.

So we have the base comleted and ready for the oven itself. I am told that it is important to have no mortar joints visible on the inside of the oven. this is because if the mortar does crack (and even with refactory mortar that is a possibility)then your food will be showered with mortar making it useless.

We laid two lawers of brick vertically before starting an arch. we filled the space between these two layers with sand on top of which we placed a sheet of thin ply to support our form for the arch. This meant that once the arch was completed we only had to dig out the sand to allow the formwork to fall free.

The first pic' shows the general setup - remember that the bricks at the front are only there to retain the sand and are not a permanant fixture.

The oven would be 3 bricks in length plus one half to form the opening.

The second pic' shows the sand being removed to release the formwork

Third pic' shows the completed arch minus the half brick long opening

Of course this is only the basic oven form, we yet have to give it insulation and an outer skin. More of that later.

To present our total cost has been less than $100. Mostly spent on cement and sand, the rest being bricks that we had laying around.

Denn

[Cliff Rogers]

...we realised just how much alcohol the whole process takes.....

That is the best bit about outdoor cooking. :2tsup:

[dennford]

That is the best bit about outdoor cooking. :2tsup:

Why d'ya reckon I enjoy outdoor cooking?:D

Denn