Closed in and ready to fire!

Many days of hard work paid off. I managed to get 6 chains up without use of a yoga ball and also with the help of my eldest son. 

After the opening was set, I figured it was time to get a ball to use. And to start to close the Forno up. 

The closing went well however the bricks I laid weren't perfect, so unfortunately the ceiling is a mix of crappy cut bricks and globs of mortar.  Oh well it's still functional!! 

I built the archway with a 10"x8" opening for the flue. I used all firebricks and fire mortar to keep the heat resistance all the way out. 

Once the archway was mortared and set, the next step was to insulate. I used Roxul ComfortBat insulation.  It's a stone fiber insulation that I made myself believe would work the best for my price range. I covered the insulation with chicken wire to prep the dome for the final stucco coats. 

After I believed the dome was set naturally enough (about a week) I started to set small fires to cure the mortar.  These were used firebricks, so the bricks are mostly all cured. 

Finally this past Sunday we fired the oven to around 650F at the floor and 700F at the dome.  We made 7 pizzas at around 7 mins per to cook. 

 I also made buns the following day at around 400F. Everything came out wonderfully. 

Next steps are to finish the facade of the archway and complete the stucco work. The plan is for a terracotta coloured stucco on the dome with a combination of charcoal and medium grey brick on the land and archway. Stay tuned...

Frenchy

Starting the forno dome

Today I started the actual dome for my forno. Feels like it's taken forever to get here. I started off by settin the insulation down to position the soldier course of bricks down. Those were set on a 1.5" thick insulation board. 

Once I had that all figured out, I mixed some mortar and started to mortar the soldier course. Once it was setting. I started to cut and lay down the floor tiles on 3" of insulation board. I used a 4.5" angle grinder with a turbo diamond wheel to cut the bricks. It was like a hot knife through butter!

I figured since I wasn't tired enough yet, I would start the first chain. I used the indispensable tool for the first couple bricks, but used a measuring tape after to stay level as the mortar held very well. 

I'll continue the next chains when I have some more time. Pleased with the results so far!!

Forno build continuation...

So tonight I got to cutting the insulation for the floor and measuring out my bricks. I'm using Roxul ComfortBoard IS as the under floor insulation. It's 1.5" thick so I'm going to double it and also put cement board over top of that. Here's the insulation after it was cut to shape.  

After that was done, I set my floor bricks in the herringbone pattern on my garage floor and laid the insulation over top to mark my bricks. 

Yes my bricks are used, but honestly after a few firings, new ones would be dirty anyway! 

Once that was complete, I decided to make my brick holder for my indispensable tool. It's simply a Irwin squeeze clamp welded to a eye bolt then screwed into the "IT". This will enable me to have the tool hole my brick at the perfect angle while I mortar them in place. I didn't come up with that idea, but it certainly is brilliant!! 

That's all for now. Saturday is floor laying and dome building time!!

Build of my backyard Forno (Wood Fired Oven)

First off i'm going to explain that pizza to me is more than a food. It is a passion. It is such a versatile food in the sense of the variables that make it whatever you want it to be. My first real job was at my step-mom's pizza restaurant. I was a delivery driver, but soon ended up cooking. I developed my first interests in different toppings then, but then my culinary prowess grew after I moved out on my own.

Fast forward to the past few years and I'm making my own dough and have pizza at least once a week. I can crank out a dough recipe that yields 4x 12" thin crusts in about 15 mins. Not bad... So after using my BBQ to make pizzas in summer I started to research how to make outdoor ovens. My first idea was to use a steel barrel and line it with fire bricks and use PL Premium adhesive to cling it all... not good enough so I said screw it, let's go for broke.

A few months ago I decided it's go time. Time to start sourcing materials. I went to a used brick place and put 200 4.5"x4.25"x9" fire bricks in the box of my 2009 Toyota Tacoma (bad idea). I also put some raw chunks of Tyndall Stone (limestone) to use for my arch way. Here are some pics of that venture.

 These slabs of wood are from my dad's yard. They are Manitoba Maple. The plan for these bad boys is to plane them and laminate them for my door. I'll likely steel line it as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

For my foundation, I dug out a 72"x72" space in my yard about 4" deep at the shallowest and approx 10" at the most. My yard isn't very level, but this needed to be. As you can see in the pics, I filled and packed the space with 1/4" down crushed lime stone and then set in sidewalk stones.

Once I completed that part (some of the hardest physical work i've done in awhile) I sourced some cinder blocks from a good friend of mine for my base and wood storage. The plan, make a 54"x54" enclosure to hold up a concrete slab and also to store my fuel wood in.

There are several ways of putting the cinder blocks together. I used mortar between each chain. You can stack all the blocks and fill every second hole with concrete. At the time that seemed like too much work, in hindsight I would do it that way if I ever did this again. 

Once the foundation was built, concrete time. I made my form with OSB and spruce 2x4s. I set a piece of OSB in the middle of the block wall up with cinder blocks and jack stands. This made pouring nice and easy out of the back of my truck with a cement mixer!

Next, I started to build my template for the brick chains.  Note the hinged design so the form can come out after the dome is built.

To be continued for now.... next post will highlight the dome build!