Beaglestorm's Oven Questions

[beaglestorm]

Finally got sometime this weekend to redo the drawing to include the mini-taper. I had said I would post it last week so I wanted to follow through in case anybody wanted to see what it looked like. It really shrinks those joints and makes an 18" dome seem easy.

I’m almost sold on the idea of putting the dome back on the floor. (Thanks Dmun) You can still replace 85% of the floor bricks and it just seems so much easier and stable if you’re using a tall soldier as the first course. I can also make the floor 43" instead of 42" using the same space as I would be eliminating the 1/4" expansion gap and a 1/4" of extra floor insulation I had put around the outside edge. I know that I am dreaming if I think it’s going to be easy and that I am going to hit the tolerances in my drawing, but it sure helps for planning and building confidence. I also calculated that the little ¼” expansion gap all the way around would have left what seems like a huge 33” square inches of total open space directly between the oven heat and the floor insulation. With the dome on the floor, all heat has to flow through the bricks to eventually dissipate through the insulation. The envelope just seems better with the dome on the floor.


On more question I had, was about the oven door (Pic #3). Taking 60% - 63% of the height I came to the compromise of 11.25” for the door height on the 18” dome. The 60% has been used for flat and arched openings with success. But comparing the two, an arched 12” door seem like it would release less heat than an equivalent 11.25 rectangular door. Do you all think an arched entry will allow you to squeak out a little taller door (3/4”) with out a loss in performance?

-Michael

[gjbingham]

.666666666666666666667 is probably fine for a ratio of entryway to dome height. You could always make you dome an inch higher to reduce the ratio. A 42 inch oven with an 18 inch dome height seems really low to me anyway.

I didn't read back to determine again what your planning, but it sounds like a pizza machine. The closer you get to 63%, the better the oven will perform. I wouldn't sweat it too much if you're happy with your plans though. A little more wood is all it will cost you. You definitely will lose heat faster than a similar dome with a smaller arch - at least that's my guess.