Building an oven in Hawaii General Building and Construction Discuss Building an oven in Hawaii in the General forums; RT Thank you again. It helps very much. My wife has been taking pictures and I will try to post ...

[sacco]

RT Thank you again. It helps very much. My wife has been taking pictures and I will try to post them. Aloha Paul

[sacco]

I am using the Kaowool blanket to insulate the oven and want to cover that with concrete. Would I need to use refractory cement? I am thinking that the blanket would not let the heat get to the cement so I wouldn't need refractory cement. Any comments would be much appreciated. Paul

[egalecki]

No, Paul, you don't have to use refractory concrete. I used vermiculite concrete on the outside of my blanket just for overkill insulation- but you can use regular, no problem. Do you mean concrete or do you mean mortar, by the way?

[sacco]

Thank you Elizabeth: I was thinking concrete but can I use mortar?

[egalecki]

I believe that others have used type N or S on the outside of the blanket. I used type S on the outside of my vermicrete as the first two layers of my stucco. It worked fine.

[sacco]

Help! I finished the oven, cured it and lit the first wood fire. Lot of smoke. What is the best wood, that might be available in Hawaii. I used mango from a tree I cut 6 months ago and I am not sure I should use mango wood or such young would. All comments appreciated. Aloha Paul

[Jed]

Paul,

Use dry - well cured wood.

The variety is less important.

The harder the wood, the more BTU's per volume, but one of the beauties of the oven is that it will get hot with any wood that will burn. And dry - cured wood burns well.

Past that, folks will have preferences. Some wood will do 'this' job a bit better or 'that' job a bit better. I seam to remember one of the guys was happy with the way mango worked in his oven... (Can't report from personal experience as we don't get much Mango here in the high desert). Generally hard wood is better than soft wood, and generally it will take more than six months to cure wood through. If your fire was smoky, even after it had been burning for awhile, you probably had green, or uncured wood.

Your oven will take awhile to drive all of the moisture out of the concrete. I think as a rule plan on about a dozen good fires in the oven before you start evaluating if the thing 'holds heat well'.

But at the end of the day, heat that baby up with any wood that will burn! (Try to avoid pallets or any wood from an industrial application - some are treated with chemicals we don't want in our food...)

And report the results!

Good luck with it..

JED

[Modthyrth]

Mango contains the same chemical in poison ivy that causes such an awful skin reaction. I'd be wary of burning the wood. You might be lucky and not be affected by the urushiol in both, but If you were ever to have guests over for pizza, there's a good chance one of them would be highly sensitive. Me, I can run through a field of poison ivy (and have, many times) without any reaction, but for those it affects, it's miserable.

[Jed]

Originally Posted by Modthyrth

Mango contains the same chemical in poison ivy that causes such an awful skin reaction. I'd be wary of burning the wood. You might be lucky and not be affected by the urushiol in both, but If you were ever to have guests over for pizza, there's a good chance one of them would be highly sensitive. Me, I can run through a field of poison ivy (and have, many times) without any reaction, but for those it affects, it's miserable.

Nikki,


Good information.. new to me and worth reporting!

JED

[mabrunetti]

I am on the Big Island. Did you find everything you needed to build your oven? Could you let me know where you got it?