Neill's Pompeii #10

[nissanneill]

Hi James,
the lights are set directly behind the front arch facia bricks and are aimed diagonally across the oven door frame onto the floor on the opposite side. They are mounted as low as possible without beng visible from the front and out of harms way. With one aimed on each side of the oven floor, they put heaps of light onto and into the oven exactly where you do all of the baking/cooking and because of their low angle reflect quite a lot of light to fill the oven proper. In fact they cover the whole of the oven floor beautifully. Very easy to see everything as it happens. It is very easy to see all of the dome brick detail and makes working within the oven a treat. Being downlights, they are designed to get very hot, we have had a few houses catch fire here in Adelaide from poorly fitted downlights, they are made of glass so will be easy to clean (well the lenses at least), the white surrounds will eventually go black but who cares! You only need to ensure that the cabling is of the high temp variety and that it is protected from the heat as much as possible. As mentioned previously, I used left over heat blanket insulation and offcuts to pack behind the lights and to offer protection for the wiring. I also exited the wiring directly behind the lamps so only 60mm of cable (which is of the hight temperature material)is subjected to the heat. That is 350mm drom the oven outlet and is cooler than directly over the oven arch.
These are 240 volt lights left over from a major renovation but there is no reason why the 12V variety wouldn't work just as well, only need to fit the transformer away from the heat. Mine cost me $5 each when I bought 35 of them and am very pleased with the results.If you like,
I can pull the vent out to get a better photograph for fellow members and visitors to see. It is very hard to get into the oven for a picture back out into the vent because if I am in the vent, the there isl no room for the camera, let alone seeing the lights!

Damon,
although I have only temporarily wired in the lights, they are well eartherd with the mounts welded to to stainless vent, a direct earth onto the metal structure is well secured and more than appropriate. I am sourcing a couple of ceramic connectors and will be running higher temp cabling from the power swithing (which will be on the side of the front facia archway) to the lights. The cabling will then be buried in a thick layer of cermiculite cement insulaion which will hold and seal the vent to the brickwork.

Neill

[Bacterium]

cool, I think downlights are probably the best choice for mains wired lighting. Compact yet bright lighting.

I like your flue chamber setup, I'm guessing it would draw well.

Its great to see you are now at the cooking stage.....it gets addictive ..... I have fired mine every weekend for 6 weeks.......I might have this weekend off and finish the insulating bit

how was the response at your work with the pizza you took in?

[nissanneill]

Bacterium,
I have temporarily put the galvanised chimney flue (just lying around doing nothing), in to get the smoke up a little but am planning on 2 lengths of 8" stainless flue. When I have this, I will weld a flange onto the top of the vent chamber, screw and seal the flues in place. Yes it does draw exceptionally well. Very pleased with it's performance.

Then it is only to make the doors and tile the outside dome.

As for the work show and tell, well around the lunch table, rather I am envied and the crew would like me to arrange special "friends cook-up". They have had a smell and a few a taste of the finished (but reheated) product. I plan on cooking all of the left over dough and feasting on them when home alone at night and also the occasional lunchtime or school evening meal.
Looking up the bread information at present and will try a batch of loaves, rolls etc. this week end after the pizzas.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained they say.

[nissanneill]

Sunday 1st July
another lousy day, the wife is over in Sydney and I have the place to myself, so I decided to get into the pattern for the cast iron oven doors and components for the hinges.
Thought it best to leave the two doors as a single pattern to cast and then cut the casting with one of those magical 1mm cutting disks. At least the doors should meet perfectly by doing it this way. Made the hinge brackets and screwed them into place on the customwood leaving sufficient clearence angle for removing the pattern from the sand mould.
The pics show the various components with a brass latch assembly (still to decide on the knob which will have to be heat resistant) and adjustable off-centre brass hinge bushes that will be inserted into the holes drilled into the door castings.
The steel frame brackets will be welded to the oven door frame once the doors are made and ready for fitting. The brass off centre bushes will allow me to adjust the door so that it will seal on the fibreglass rope seal already installed into the frame.
I decided not to incorporate sliding vents into the doors as I figured that when the doors are closed to seal the oven, then no fire should/will be in there and I woild not need the doors closed whilst the fire is burning vigorously preheating the oven.
I also got a little lazy and have decided on rather plain rather than decorated castings. Is it really worth the extra effort, as my oven is designed to work well rather than being a showpiece?
I need to paint it in reaadiness for the foundry this week.
I went looking for 2" mosaic tiles yesterday and none are available. They are all 3-4" today so I guess I'll have to keep looking or simply put some oxide into some render and put a stucco finish on it.

Neill

[nissanneill]

I dropped the pattern for my oven doors into the foundry to find that they no longer do jobbing work as they are too busy to make the mold, but sent me to a foundry that I used earlier in the year to cast 2 plaques for my folks burial plots. This foundry estimated that polished cast brass doors would cost Aus$260 and only Aus$60-80 for aluminium. They cast their ally at 650°C but I plan on screwing a folded steel frame behind each door which will contain a 1" thermal blanket for insulation. I am aware that the oven will reach 500°C but that is for Pizzas and the doors will not be used. They should be fine at the lower temps when they will be used. If all fails, I still have the pattern and can get them to make the mold and then have them cast in iron.
I might even give them a call first thing Monday as they are taking other patterns around to the cast iron foundry for iron casting and to include my doors.
I could not get 8" stainles chimney so had to settle for galvanised. This will do for a few years and will keep my eyes open for the stainless. I will add these two to the one that I already have which will raise the height to around 10 feet.
Will post pics when I have the final result.

Neill

[Bacterium]

Hi Neil.....just a thought (albeit a bit late but maybe good for others). Did you try A & B Industries Pty Ltd (Salisbury direction) for your flue? They made up my stainless one....different size to yours tho.

[nissanneill]

Damon,
sorry that I didn't get back to you earlier but been thrown into disarray with the arrival of our first grand child.
I purchased 2 galv sections and will put them onto the existing galv section making a 3 metre chimney. It really isn't worth travelling all that way across town and waiting for them to make it. Galvanised looks almost the same and after all most of it is weel out of sight and above the proposed new roof line.
I found a place at Tonsley Park that sells woven stainless mesh, expanded metal and punched sheet for my spark arrester. Rather than buy (or have them order in for me) 1.2m wide X 1 to 2 metres of mesh, I purchased a 1200mm X 300mm offcut ally expanded mesh for the arrester. They sell it for fire screens which are put in front of open wood fires. I plan on cutting 3 or 4 rectangular sections out of the top flue section and wrapping it (probably on the inside of the 8" flue) to kill any sparks that might venture up the flue.
I collected my cast aluminium doors on Wednesday and cut it in two, drilled the adjustable hinge pins/bushes and fitted it this morning.
I forgot to purchase a 3/16 whitworth taps for the latch/catch but will get them first thing in the morning.
Any one bought any brass metal threads lately?
I had to ask politely yesterday when ordering 50 x 3/16"X 1" metal threads for the doors (to secure the backing insulation frame onto the back of the doors) when the salesman asked me if I was sitting down and told me Aus$128 or $2.38 each!!!
I quickly changed to stainless for only 1/4 the price.
I tiled the vent opening floor and need to grout it tomorrow before another cook-up on Sunday.
I also purchased some new thermocouple wire, welded the ends and now ready to slip into the copper tubes which have been built into the hearth and dome. I received my 10 station thermocouple switch during the week and hope to install it all tomorrow, including a thermocouple on the outside of the dome (directly beneath the proposed ceramic tiles) and another to measure the ambient air temperature.That leaves me with 4 spare swith points for later if needed.
Getting closer to finishing the oven! Now I need to concentrate on using it (cooking a range of goods) and the new roof and tiling/redevelopement of the patio.

Neill

[Kemo]

excellent work on the doors. looks great! thanks for posting.

[nissanneill]

Another Sunday gone and another family cook-up. We ended up with 16 adults and my first 4 day old grand daughter Annbelle (Belle to her friends) here for home made soup, pizza and sticky date pudding.
I put the other 2 sections of 8" flue on the chimney and dyna bolted the vent into the dome and facia brick arch. Added the brass latch to the doors and replaced the waterlogged insulation from around the down lights (from not having the vent sealed until finishing the welding/fitting).
Went to make the vermiculite cement only to realize that I gave all of my portland cement to my son when we concreted his garage floor for topping, so will do it later in the week and grout the vent floor tiles once the oven has cooled down.
Lit the fire at 3pm and connected the thermocouple sensor wires through my 10 position switch and into my digital display whilst getting the fire going. However, problems when compared to the infra red digital temp readings. Need to problem solve that one!
Had a great fire, no smoke after the first few minutes and got the dome to over 500°C. The hearth got to 475°C and consequently cooked 24 pizzas in just over an hour. The flue is 3 extensions high (approx 10') and draws exceptionally well, no smoke at all out the front arch what so ever. The picture attached was taken 5 minutes after lighting the fire.
Got the message tonight that I have two other oven to build, one for one son in law and another for his mate. They will also be Pompeii ovens but will have to put them on a base. A little more time and expense, but not my problem! At least I have around 80 fire bricks leftover from my oven build so that will reduce the son in laws costs a little.

Neill

[janprimus]

Top work there Neil! Your oven is grand looking. Everything is well planned and quite tiddley.
Congratulations.
Chad