39" Stargate Pompeii

[Gulf]

Originally Posted by Amac

Gulf
..... How does that guage pivot. Is it hinged at the back and rotating over the top?......

It pivots on a pipe which is temporarily secured to the apex of the dome and to the roof-over.

[Amac]

Newsflash - or as the US TV News anchors say - this just in:
First stargate pizza voted major success.
I am on the record as saying I am not all that fond of pizza. I like it OK but just once in a while. So this weekend while my son and his fiancee were home I had to fire up the oven. First on Saturday I just put in a small chicken and tried some more of that ciabatta bread using the Lidl mix. The chicken was good the bread looked good but was a bit heavy for my liking. My next effort at bread will not be using any premix.
Yesterday I fired it up again and this time we made a communal effort and had a go at pizza. The dough recipe was Jamie Olivers but we cheated a bit on the sauce using a jar of napoletana I think. Some mozarella, Spanish chorizo salami, Italian prosciutto, Irish musrooms and some pineapple, The result though was an unqualified success - and it really was the best pizza any of us had had. Very skinny base and only 2 mins or so to cook.
With my usual planning and preparation expertise I of course had no peel so had to make a crude one from a small sheet of aluminium and an old broom handle which were lying around.

That bite gone from the pizza in pic 2 was a sacrifice to the oven god helped by clumsy use of the peel

[kpms1st]

Hi Amac pizza looks good tried that lidl mix myself its not to bad home made brown holemeal works well .If your going for a render or brick igloo finish there's a sealer I used that is suposed to last 10 years from seka or sika but it aint cheap but so far is keeping it dry.Sorry missed your problem with vermiculite cover had trouble myself until I added more water & then it seemed to work quite well with trowel .
all the best Kevin

[Amac]

DJO
thanks for the comment

I worry about how to keep the water from seeping in from the exposed bits of the hearth and getting into the oven that way.

I'm still not quite decided on whether to make an enclosure. I went this way because I thought I would try the igloo finish, and if it looks like it will be problematic I will add an enclosure later.

[Amac]

kpm1st
thanks - I think that one had just milano salami

If your going for a render or brick igloo finish there's a sealer I used that is suposed to last 10 years

I will check that out - Is it an additive to render or something you paint on afterwards?

I decided the thrown together aluminium peel worked so well and didn't stick (iused some flour just in case) that I would try and make a more respectable looking version. I originlly got that sheet of aluminium from that engineering guy to make an angle for the IT - but it was too brittle. He gave me quite a big sheet for a couple of euro. I bought two wooden handles and made a bigger peel with the rest of it and converted the other one to a turning peel with a hacksaw, a grinder and finsihed the edges with a file.

Looks OK I think - I was constrained by the width which was 9" so only small pizzas for the moment. Anybody know what the advantage of wooden peels are?

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by Amac

DJO
thanks for the comment

I'm still not quite decided on whether to make an enclosure. I went this way because I thought I would try the igloo finish, and if it looks like it will be problematic I will add an enclosure later.

FWIW, it seemed easier to make an enclosure and have a very good chance of keeping the oven dry for years; compared to a dome with layers that had to be water proofed and then water proofed again when it settled or otherwise cracked/leaked. In my view, the roof of an enclosure makes the water seal around the vent more reliable. I guess I didn't want to deal with moisture leaks down the road.

P.S. The eaves of the enclosure can allow for lighting, tool storage and even wood storage. The enclosure can add versatility to the oven in ways the dome finish cannot.

[Amac]

lburou

FWIW, it seemed easier to make an enclosure and have a very good chance of keeping the oven dry for years; compared to a dome with layers that had to be water proofed and then water proofed again when it settled or otherwise crackedleaked. In my view, the roof of an enclosure makes the water seal around the vent more reliable. I guess I didn't want to deal with moisture leaks down the road.

P.S. The eaves of the enclosure can allow for lighting, tool storage and even wood storage. The enclosure can add versatility to the oven in ways the dome finish cannot.

You have me almost convinced to go for an enclosure - one thing I do not have with this oven is extra storage and I do have an oversized slab.
The difference between the igloo and enclosure is like the difference between a family estate car and one of those sporty coupes. I like the coupe but it's not very practical

Oh I forgot to post a photo of the peels I made today. I fitted them to the handles just by cutting a slot in the handles with a jigsaw - which they fitted snugly, and then drilled a couple of holes for the woodscrews with a steel bit.

[Gulf]

I don't see why you can't have an igloo and at least some of the benefits of an enclosure. That was my thinking when I decided to go with what I call a "roof-over". I like the looks of an igloo and I like dry .

[Amac]

Originally Posted by Gulf

I don't see why you can't have an igloo and at least some of the benefits of an enclosure. That was my thinking when I decided to go with what I call a "roof-over". I like the looks of an igloo and I like dry .

Thanks Gulf. That's an option which I have not totally dismissed either. But there was a post a few weeks back describing a problem with dome shell heating after a period without using the oven.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/o...uch-17608.html (Oven render warm to the touch?)
If you follow the build links in his picasaweb album it shows a really nice hexagonal gazebo like enclosure. The general consensus was that moisture was the cause of the problem, and I guess the domes exposure to ambient humidity and maybe windblown rain could have contributed.

It would be good if I could depend on the rain descending vertically all the time but quite often it approaches the horizontal here

[Gulf]

As Forrest Gump said "We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath".
We live in a subtropical climate. Thunderstorms, Hurricanes, Tornados, and when there is nothing exciting happening: just high ass humidity .
down here, if you keep something covered long enough in the wet months and only seal after a couple of the low humidity months, it will be OK.