Thickness of sheet metal for a door Tools, Tips and Techniques Discuss Thickness of sheet metal for a door in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Here are the photos of my oven door. I started out with a 24"x30" sheet of 22 gauge steel, then ...

[papavino]

Here are the photos of my oven door. I started out with a 24"x30" sheet of 22 gauge steel, then marked it so that I could mirror the door over a gap of 1.5". I initially thought of using tabs on the edges (see the 2nd and 3rd photos) that I could bend, then screw into the door for added rigidity, but the construction of that turned out to be difficult to accomplish with my limited tools. I cut the side tabs off, then used a piece of 1.5" angle iron to hammer the door over. This worked relatively well, although it was very loud. I then marked out the locations for the handles and screwed those in using 8-18 x 5/8 self drilling screws with hex washer heads.

So, currently, there is only a 1.5" air gap between faces of the door. I want to close off the sides of the door and put some insulating material in eventually. The handles stay cool, so that's a good thing, but I think I'm still losing more heat than I'd like.

Cheers!

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

can you fill it with vermiculite ?? or are the sides open ??

[Eric Pfeifer]

Nice! I also like the idea of filling the gap with vermiculite. How about vermicrete or perlcrete?. I suppose then you wouldn't have to worry about closing the top arch with metal then.

[nissanneill]

Papavino,
Next time you have a sheet to cut to shape, try to get a small angle grinder with one of those thin (1mm) metal cutting discs and you will end up with much cleaner, squarer cuts. Curves are not a problem as I have cut as small as 8" circles out of 1.6mm stainless steel sheets.
I made a door to seal my oven as I was slack and didn't get around to it when I should have. I used plywood and expanded steel and placed 2 X 1" layers of left over superwool thermal blanket within it. See:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f28/...door-5719.html (Neill's prototype oven door)

It works an absolute treat and I probably won't replace it with anything better for years.

Neill

[papavino]

can you fill it with vermiculite ?? or are the sides open ??

The sides are open. I'm hoping I can find a 1.5" U-Channel to use for the sides, but I may leave the top open and fill it with perlcrete.

[kebwi]

Where did you buy the steel sheet from? It's time for me to build a door...and some pizza peels.

[heliman]

Here is another door design that may be of interest. It is made of 2mm thick stainless steel. Should be easy enough to make.

I have a copy of this in mild steel which I use for "high heat" environments like the end of the night to kill the fire. The stainless one is more decorative and I noticed some blueing inside so that's why I opted for the 2 door arrangement.

[kebwi]

That's beautiful. I definitely want an insulated door, so something a few inches thick either encasing vermiculite or InsBlock 19. In either case, I want it completely sealed from the inside of the oven obviously, yet I don't weld, so I'm not sure how to do that. Solder seems to melt at pizza oven temperatures so I won't be going that route.

How easy was it for you to manipulate 2mm steel? How did you cut it?

[heliman]

I didn't actually make my door - it was supplied by the company who built and installed my WFO so I can't comment on manufacturing process.

I have the door, flue and entrance to the oven in stainless which gives a nice overall appearance. It was quite a bit more expensive to go stainless but definitely worth it in my view.

[Les]

Originally Posted by kebwi

That's beautiful. I definitely want an insulated door, so something a few inches thick either encasing vermiculite or InsBlock 19. In either case, I want it completely sealed from the inside of the oven obviously, yet I don't weld, so I'm not sure how to do that.

Use rivets - there is a picture of mine in the photo gallery, it wasn't to hard to fabricate.

Les...