Mark CH's build finally starts...

[Mark CH]

Howdy All,
It's been a while since my last post and I've done a bit of work since then. I've finished most of the insulation with vermiculite and cement fondue. No photos yet as it's generally pretty dark when I get home form work at the moment but I'll take some this coming weekend and post them.
I had an 'interesting' time with the vermiculite. Even though the plans and advice said not to I tried to mix a small batch in my cement mixer just to see what would happen! Sure enough all the cement went to the bottom of the mixer and did not coat the vermiculite at all. Experiment successful, I poured the dry ingredients into a small tub and mixed by hand, which was much more successful. I found it was a real challenge to get the right amoutn of wate rin. Too little or too much meant that the vermiculite didn't 'stick' to the chicken wire and the slightest bump would find a pile of insulation fall off onto my base! When it was exactly right, though, it went on like a dream. Lots of trial and error.
I've got a 1 inch blanket and about 3 inches of vermiculite over the top of that. In some palces its still a bit crumbly butI've got another bag of ingredients so I'll mix that up with a slightly higher ratio of cement to firm it up.
I couldn't wait to get a few small fires into the oven so after a few days I set my first paper one and I've followed up each night with a slightly larger one. The one in the photo was last night and was around the 400 degree mark. No cracks visible inside the dome and absolutely no heat through the insulation. I've read that with the drying process, moisture escapes and the insulation gets quite hot. Is the fact that mine isn't an issue or does that not occur until larger fires? I'll continue to light small fires this week, put the last layer of vermiculite on on Saturday and then ramp up some larger fires a few days after that.
Oh, by the way, I picked up a 30 year old flue kit (from my parents in laws wood stove) and with a bit of rust inhibiting paint it should come up a treat. I'm bleeding that I forgot to take a photo of my vent but it's basically some curved sheet metal that sits nicely on the front and rear arches with a short sleeve for the flue to slot into.
On the home stretch (hopefully) and very excited!!!
Cheerio,
Mark

[Mark CH]

Hi again all,
Well, we're almost finished! I went to get the piece of granite for the entry cut and when the guy said it would cost between $30-40 I decided to try myself with my diamond balde on my circular saw. 20 minutes later I had an almost perfectly cut piece of granite! Couldn't have been easier. Sure you couldn't use the granite for any type of bench top but it fits like a glove in the entry.
Had a couple of large fires which seems to have really dried the oven out. The first one cleared about 40% of the dome and the second one did the whole dome.
Today we cooked in the oven for the first time. Basic pizzas to start off with; garlic and parsley; tomato, olives and mozzarella; tomato, olives, anchovies, ham and mozzarella and finally Snickers bars wrapped in very thin pizza dough (like a calzone). My daughter liked the last one best! Some photos attached.
I'll be rendering the oven over the rest of the weekend so I can finally get rid of the tarp and then we'll think about mosaicing!
Finally, grazie milie to everyone who has posted in these forums. I've looked at so many builds and had so much inspiration. Although my meager skills don't go anywhere near achieving the results that many others have, I am really happy with my oven and know that we will have many years of happy cooking. Now I look forward to looking and posting on the cooking forums!
I'll keep updating with my rendering, mosaicing etc.
Cheerio,
Mark

[Mark CH]

OK, we had our first cook a couple of Saturday's ago and all went well. I then rendered the oven to protect it from the weather before we decide how we mosaic it (pictures attached).
Last weekend was a real pizza fest! Sunday we had friends over for lunch, pizzas all round, Sunday night we had leftovers so invited another group of friends over for more pizza, then on Monday my 12 year old had a friend over (school hols here in Melbourne) and she stayed for dinner, you guessed it, pizza! Last night, more pizzas!
I downloaded the general cooking and bread baking ebooks from the website and over the next few weeks will start to cook other thigns in the oven while still doing the finishing touches to the oven (rendering the base, tiling the Hebel and mosaicing the dome).
Cheerio,
Mark

[BackyardPermaculture]

Well done Mark - that's looking great!

Cheers,
Mick

[Mark CH]

Thanks Mick,
I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out. I have only had one small crack so far and it's just in the render in front of the flue! I'm not sure what I did right but no other cracks so far!
Cheerio,
mark