Semi Portable Pizza Oven

[TimT]

I love Pizza... and in NYC and the burbs there are places that have legacy ovens that operate at insane temperatures.... and can cook a pie in 2-3 minutes....

Patsies, Grimaldis, Lomardis, can crank out pies...and every neighborhood has a Pizza joint that provides a good pie...

On edit... Omitted Tottonos

In any event.. I want a blast furnace type oven of my own...

So I designed a refractory concrete mix.... using perlite and silica as coarse and fine aggregates with portland cement and another cement, and stainless steel fibers as reinforcement...

I wont be grouting or cementing any of the components of this oven together... I.E. Ill be able to lift the arch off to give the floor a good cleaning...


The mix I designed is 85 pcf the arch is 1.3 cubic feet.. I can move that around...

Stainless reinforcement




inner mold or formwork...



Outer formwork..



The ports in the end dam are where the concrete mix gets into the mold (form)



Completed form



A dam to prevent spillage while I am filling the mold...



I hope to fire this oven up in a week or so with some small fires..

[john70t]

I worry a bit about an un-reinforced 3" concrete mix shell combined with high heat. It might crack.
An inner layer of tiles might help keep most of the heat inside.

Run it empty, or with something like flavored wood to seal the pores, about five times before first use.

That is a brilliant project.
Keep us posted.

[look 171]

Yeah, keep us posted. That thing is too cool.

[Ziggythecat]

Cool idea, but without substantial insulation below and all around the oven, you will have a very hard time keeping the heat even and within the oven, and baking a proper, evenly baked pie.
The heat will quickly heat up the outside of the oven to 800 or more degrees.
Think insulation.

[Gogar]

Cool!

My first thought was fire bricks, but I'm interested to see what happens with concrete.

[Charles Freeborn]

Sweet!

But..... have you heard of a Big Green Egg.....

[gtc]

Sweet!

But..... have you heard of Pizza Hut?

[jtfreels]

Take a look at
Wood Fired pizza Oven | Pizza Party

I've read some good things about this, haven't splurged on it yet.

[MikeSid]

Check out the Forno Bravo forum. It is the Pelican of wood fired oven building.

Forums - Forno Bravo Forum: The Wood-Fired Oven Community

Forno Bravo also sells a precast concrete oven that you can assemble yourself, if you are not into cutting firebricks into hundreds of tiny wedges.

[TimT]

I got the itch to make my own wood fired oven after going to some amazing Pizza joints in NYC like Patsy's on 1 St Ave @ 115th St Where they cook a pizza in about 2 minutes....It looks like a dump.... but...

I found Forno Bravo and researched... then saw on Instructable where a guy made an oven formed over an exercise ball. Then on further searching found a company that sells molds so you can diy pieces of an oven with castable (un-reinforced) concrete...BrickwoodOven So I said to myself... Self you can do this... my mold cost me about $12... since I didn't have any thin Masonite laying around I had to buy it... I had enough scrap plywood laying around etc for the rest

I worry a bit about an un-reinforced 3" concrete mix shell combined with high heat. It might crack.

Concrete cracks..... that's a fact jack!!

The mix I came up with is a lightweight fiber reinforced refractory mix, the fibers are in the first picture.... #10 twisted stainless steel wires..

But..... have you heard of a Big Green Egg.....

$1000

Take a look at
Wood Fired pizza Oven | Pizza Party

$900

Less my time, in all i'll be into this for about $350-400, and I like doing things like this....

Cool idea, but without substantial insulation below and all around the oven,

Ya think? Building the mold is simply the first step....the arch is going to sit on firebricks.. which will be cast into a 2 in refractory concrete base....After I get some good fires going Ill check the temps on the outside of the shell.... if it really hot Ill get some ceramic batt insulation, some expanded mesh, plaster it up and form a second removable insulating shell...

I'm interested to see what happens with concrete.

Me too, I was thinking of getting some stainless maybe 20 ga to line the portion of the stove where the fire is....

Pizza Hut?

Cereal?

Pizza Hut is to good pizza is as McDonald's is to a good burger...

[356racing]

You are going to want a lot of thermal mass in the floor. If I remember correctly mine has 4" of concrete, 4" or vermiculite/concrete mix, and then a layer of fire bricks. You can also build a shell over your formed oven and fill with vermiculite to help insulate. Where are you going to exhaust the smoke from?

[vash]

i love it.

our Pelican buddy Westy built one.

dont forget the chimney. pizza ovens are all about the movement of hot air inside. if my next home is suitable, i am going to build one. i want a dome, which seems really difficult since i have zero skills.

[M.D. Holloway]

a credit card or check book will solve that

[304065]

Tim I love it
A friend has a couple of forno bravos and loves them.
Cooking time for a large pizza. . . 90 seconds. Of course prep time is a couple of hours, but the results are worth it. Soon you will start wood smoking EVERYTHING in there.
Get yourself a Fluke 568 IR temp gun, you will want the 1400F range.

[KevinTodd]

Can't wait to see the outcome here!

Great project.

[TimT]

Slowly I turned step by step, inch by inch....

The arch is done....I have to do some finishing with refractory cement in the fire area...

Zaa should be cooking in a week or two...



The mold I built is able to multi task

Unfasten it and slide it up a bit and cast one of the ends of the oven.





It is a lot heavier than my design mix penciled out to... I think the perlite aggregate loses a lot and settles more.... making a more dense mix than my design...


Coolio....