Mobile Oven for Pizzabistro

[pizzabistro]

Hi David, thanks for your reply. Are these ovens made totally of ref. cement?
What is metal batten? I only need to fit 2 pizzas, one is ok too. My purpose is to test some doughs or recipes. I was thinking of making one with clay. What is the base or floor made of? Thanks

[pizzabistro]

Hi TDVT,
oh my god, 2' of snow! This year in NY we got 3" total but for me it is too much after I lived in AZ for 2 years, I am thinking of going back. Somebody told me to make a frame of 16ga metal studs and tracks and then put a sheet of wonderboard on top. What do you think about doing the floor with clay and vermiculite and the rest with the firebricks? I need a small oven for now just for tests.

[TDVT]

Originally Posted by pizzabistro

Somebody told me to make a frame of 16ga metal studs and tracks and then put a sheet of wonderboard on top.

I think the metal studs are a bit lightweight for that application. If you just want a test rig I'd look for a piece of steel plate like 1/4"-3/8" thick (heavy!) & make a temporary base out of cinder blocks.

Check out all the Masonry Heater Association Workshops site. Links to all the previous years are at the bottom & they all have lots of photos. These guys have an annual meeting down in NC & seem to always put together a pizza oven for the weekend, which they then tear down. You'll get lots of ideas studying the photos, particularly for temporary/test stuff.

[david s]

I used 50 x50 mm (sorry about metric for you yanks) galv angle which is about 4mm thick with two flatbar rails on the bottom to support a Hebel floor. Hebel is a special lightweight airated concrete. It also has reinfoced steel bar running through it. It is ideal because it's strong and with all the air in it, it is areally good insulator. Weighs less than a third of normal concrete and can be easily cut with hand or power woodworking tools. Yes my oven is entirely refractory concrete. Insulated with 70mm vermiculite and a hard ferrocement outer shell 10mm thick.

[david s]

The weight of my frame and supporting slab is: 40 Kg

[TDVT]

That Hebel material sounds great. I'm wondering if something similar is available in the US? The guys at MHA site that I linked to above seem to use some kind of pre-cast slabs as a base for their ovens.

[pizzabistro]

TDVT,
a few years back I went to a builder show and there was a company that was selling these light weight blocks but they were expensive. I do have a small sample that I got at the show, it looks like the stone that people use to file the callus on their toes, almost like hard styrofoam. There is a company in the US called AACS,Inc(autoclaved aereted concrete systems) in Sanford,FLA., their phone# is 407 320-9989.

[david s]

To make the Hebel apparently powdered aluminium is mixed with lime and reacts to create a reaction and resulting gas which makes lots of tiny bubbles through the concrete. I'm told the factory is very secret and you can't take photos. But it would be fun to try and make the stuff.

[pizzabistro]

David,
I don't know if I would be interested in this kind of material if it contains aluminum. I called the rep from aacs to get some quotes, for 24"x8"x8" blocks,60 in a pallet $268 plus freight from Fla to NY. With the price of diesel over $4,it might be an expensive proposition. If I had to build another house, I would go for styrofoam forms and pumped 3000psi concrete. Thanks for telling me.