OT - What’s In The Crate?

CTMike

SciAggie said:

Does this help with motivation?

It does, looking forward to my first fire.

SciAggie

@CTMike I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed this one so far. 

thetrim

My bet is he will and might even give you a run for your money.  

CTMike

Weather was finally warm enough to pour the concrete inside the blocks. Next up is to build forms, add more rebar, and pour the shelf.

Getting closer.

SciAggie

That’s exciting. I know you are anxious to get the project completed. 

CTMike

SciAggie said:

That’s exciting. I know you are anxious to get the project completed. 

Yup, hoping to have the oven up and running by 31May for a party as it is our youngest granddaughter’s second birthday and my 58th.

Only problem is we have a refueling outage starting in 10 days and I will be working 72 hour weeks for 6 weeks. 

JohnInCarolina

I can’t wait to see this thing finished and put to work!

CTMike

JohnInCarolina said:

I can’t wait to see this thing finished and put to work!

Thanks John, I am looking forward to having this done also. It’s been killing me having this sit in the garage since January considering the cost.

CTMike

So I have a question for all you big-brained Engineering types. For the shelf that will support the oven I want to cantilever out 10 - 12" in front for a landing in front of the oven. 

I am using 5 kpsi commercial mix, and there will be rebar that runs across the entire depth of the shelf to within 1" of the edge of the cantilevered portion. The shelf will be poured as a single monolith.

I don't envision any portion of the oven resting on the cantilever with the exception of potentially the arched opening.

I appreciate any and all input, as my gut tells me I will be fine, but don't want any disasters.

Thanks.

Sea2Ski

I am not an engineer, but I would go for it without hesitating. I assume the shelf is going to be  2” (or more thick. And rebar enforced? You will be set. 

CTMike

Sea2Ski said:

I am not an engineer, but I would go for it without hesitating. I assume the shelf is going to be  2” (or more thick. And rebar enforced? You will be set. 

It will be 4" thick as required by the oven manufacturer's requirements, reinforced with plenty of 1/2" rebar.

SciAggie

Unasked for - but I have a couple of comments. 

#1 I assume the oven is refractory cement and goes together in segments. Of course the joints are not mortared together (so it can expand/contract) but at least my oven had me apply high heat mortar on the outside of the joints. 

I COULD NOT get the mortar to stick to the oven. I finally figured out the oven pieces were cast - they used a mold release - and it was on the outside of the oven. Mortar wouldn’t stick to it. It took two failed applications to figure this out. 

Get a stiff brush and soap and water and scrub h$ll out of the cement - problem solved. They don’t tell you that in the instructions. Ba$tards...
#2 Cure the oven SLOWLY. My oven is fine but had a friend crack his. 

The folks I bought my oven from gave me this advice:
Get a propane weed burner and a 20 lb propane bottle. When you are ready to cure light the burner on the lowest flame possible - it’s like a pilot light. Put it in the oven and burn the whole bottle. 

When that bottle is empty do it again on a slightly higher flame - burn the bottle of propane. 

Then one more time - up the flame - burn the bottle. 

You can control the heat and have a long steady burn. 

I almost guarantee if you try to cure with a wood fire you’ll get the fire too big and get the oven too hot too soon. 

YMMV

if there is anything you care to ask about my build just PM me. I’ll be glad to offer my experiences. I’m not an engineer or a builder but I got through the build. 

CTMike

SciAggie said:

Unasked for - but I have a couple of comments. 

#1 I assume the oven is refractory cement and goes together in segments. Of course the joints are not mortared together (so it can expand/contract) but at least my oven had me apply high heat mortar on the outside of the joints. 

I COULD NOT get the mortar to stick to the oven. I finally figured out the oven pieces were cast - they used a mold release - and it was on the outside of the oven. Mortar wouldn’t stick to it. It took two failed applications to figure this out. 

Get a stiff brush and soap and water and scrub h$ll out of the cement - problem solved. They don’t tell you that in the instructions. Ba$tards...
#2 Cure the oven SLOWLY. My oven is fine but had a friend crack his. 

The folks I bought my oven from gave me this advice:
Get a propane weed burner and a 20 lb propane bottle. When you are ready to cure light the burner on the lowest flame possible - it’s like a pilot light. Put it in the oven and burn the whole bottle. 

When that bottle is empty do it again on a slightly higher flame - burn the bottle of propane. 

Then one more time - up the flame - burn the bottle. 

You can control the heat and have a long steady burn. 

I almost guarantee if you try to cure with a wood fire you’ll get the fire too big and get the oven too hot too soon. 

YMMV

if there is anything you care to ask about my build just PM me. I’ll be glad to offer my experiences. I’m not an engineer or a builder but I got through the build. 

@SciAggie,

Thanks for all the great advice, I really appreciate it. 

The dome comes in two halves mated via a lap joint. The oven comes with refractory clay that is used to seal the joint, or can use high heat caulk.

The dome is made of refractory concrete reinforced with stainless steel fibers. 

The curing instructions call for 8 days of curing fires - 8 hours long each:

Day 1/2/3: 8 hours not to exceed 150 F dome temp as read on installed thermo

Day 4/5: 8 hours not to exceed 195 F.

Day 6: 8 hours not to exceed 210 F.

Day 7: 2 hours not too exceed 195 F, then gradually raise temperature not to exceed 300 F for 6 hours. 

Day 8: 2 hours not to exceed 150 F.

At this point the oven is fully cured and ready to clear the dome. Current plan is to split my firewood in to very small splits so that I can control the temps closely. 

I can think of worse things than sit tending a fire for 8 hours while consuming brown water. 

CTMike

Got the shelf poured today, hope to start building the oven soon. The PVC pipe is to make a hole in the shelf to allow wiring some lights.

SciAggie

Nice! This is exciting!

alaskanassasin

This thread is beyond awesome thanks for sharing @CTMike

thetrim

Eggheads helping eggheads.  I love to see it.  

This will be a great addition to your home and this forum.  

Ozzie_Isaac

@CTMike that overhang will be a non-issue. Looks good, plenty of structure 👍

paqman

Very nice Mike!  I wish our municipal bylaws allowed me to build one, just got a Roccbox and I’m hooked, wood fired would be another level.

CTMike

paqman said:

Very nice Mike!  I wish our municipal bylaws allowed me to build one, just got a Roccbox and I’m hooked, wood fired would be another level.

Thanks Christian. I have been planning this for at least 5 years, going back and forth between many manufacturers (Forno Bravo, Mugnaini, Le Panyol, and several others). Finally decided on Four Grand Mere based on reviews over on pizzamaking.com, the customer service Antoine provides, and the price.

SciAggie

The wood fired oven community is very disjointed in my experience. I found it hard to get reliable information about ovens and particularly oven building. The instructions that came with my oven were horrible.
The reason I went with Forno Bravo was because of the folks at Texas Oven Company in Austin. They were great to talk to about building the oven and gave me many tips and bits of advice. FB may not be the best oven but the advice was worth it to me.
I see a lot of folks that have the Mugiani ovens. I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.
I can say I have zero regrets about having the wood oven.
I can't wait to see what this one looks like when finished.

CTMike

SciAggie said:

 I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.

https://mainewoodheat.com/wood-fired-ovens/

The Le Panyol ovens are gorgeous, but very pricey.

hvhunter

Looks really nice. A couple questions. How thick of pad is that sitting on, and do you have block below the pad down to the frost line?  And why did  you opt not to motar the block joints?  

CTMike

hvhunter said:

Looks really nice. A couple questions. How thick of pad is that sitting on, and do you have block below the pad down to the frost line?  And why did  you opt not to motar the block joints?  

The pad is 6" thick reinforced concrete. I do not have block below the frost line. This pad was the original site of my hot tub, which took a dump a couple years ago. Hopefully I don't have issues with frost heaves.

I didn't use mortar because I'm no mason, and getting a level surface was probably beyond me. Also, I knew the blocks would all be tied together because I was filling the webs with concrete to make it a solid structure.

SciAggie

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

 I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.

https://mainewoodheat.com/wood-fired-ovens/

The Le Panyol ovens are gorgeous, but very pricey.

Those look like super quality ovens. 

CTMike

SciAggie said:

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

 I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.

https://mainewoodheat.com/wood-fired-ovens/

The Le Panyol ovens are gorgeous, but very pricey.

Those look like super quality ovens. 

Yup, when I called for a quote it was $13K, definitely beyond my allotted budget. 

SonVolt

Is there main community/forum like this one for wood fired ovens? 

SonVolt

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

 I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.

https://mainewoodheat.com/wood-fired-ovens/

The Le Panyol ovens are gorgeous, but very pricey.

Those look like super quality ovens. 

Yup, when I called for a quote it was $13K, definitely beyond my allotted budget. 

The DIY kits seemed to be priced more reasonable?

https://mainewoodheat.com/portfolio/diy-core-kits/

CTMike

SonVolt said:

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

CTMike said:

SciAggie said:

 I need to look up Le Panyol - I never heard of them.

https://mainewoodheat.com/wood-fired-ovens/

The Le Panyol ovens are gorgeous, but very pricey.

Those look like super quality ovens. 

Yup, when I called for a quote it was $13K, definitely beyond my allotted budget. 

The DIY kits seemed to be priced more reasonable?

https://mainewoodheat.com/portfolio/diy-core-kits/

Yup, but for the same size oven I was looking at another $1,000 plus shipping. That put me outside the budgetary constraints given by my CFO. That same size oven weighs in around 1,250 lbs, whereas the FGM I went with is just under 700. Seems reasonable that the Le Panyol would retain heat much longer, but would likely also take much longer to reach operating temperatures.

Ozzie_Isaac

SonVolt said:

Is there main community/forum like this one for wood fired ovens? 

Yes, it is egghead forum.com .... This place has all your cooking needs.