Boccu's oven

[jengineer]

It is found in Oven Managemnt Forum, Heat Management subsection and finally here...
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f17/...ght=draft+door (Oven Door Design)

Yes I will keep my day job as long as certain folks keep purchasing my product - I think I am out of a job in the middle of 2008

One of my favorite quotes from Jim so far makes reference to train buffs and a certain rock group "the draft door makes my chimney huff like the proverbial locomotive on steroids"

[boccu]

I'm well into firing up the oven now, but boy does it smoke! I gave up smoking myself almost a year ago now, but this oven sure is making up for any lost smoke!

Would this be because I am still using bits and pieces of wood found around the garage and garden? I am actually getting worried that the neighbors will soon start to complain! Should this improve once I begin to use seasoned firewood?? .....I read somewhere in this forum that the oven should hardly smoke at all once it reaches higher temperatures. I don't have a thermometer yet so I cannot say exactly how high I've gone so far but I don't think I have reached anything high yet - yesterday's firing took the first 'log' about 2.5" diameter by approx 10".

B

[CanuckJim]

Boccu,

My oven has a different configuration from yours, but here's what happens when I fire up. For the first five minutes or so, I get "some" smoke while the kindling is catching. For kindling, I mostly used twigs and split cedar, a fair bit, then put on the draft door to get it really burning. When it's going well, I load on the wood, ordinarily well seasoned limb wood, both hard and semihard. Back on with the draft door. After ten minutes I get no smoke at all out of the chimney, just a rising column of hot air.

Your problem might be that your wood is wet, damp, very sappy or not seasoned well enough. Wood in the round takes longer to catch than split wood. Once you get up to the 4" diameter zone, it's best to split it then let it season.

Managing the fire takes a bit of time to learn. Don't worry, you'll get there.

Jim

[jengineer]

To hit it with a bigger hammer

Let your wood season for 6 months before you use it. Stuff around the garden definately needs to be seasoned unless you are a total slacker like me - cut it down one month and cut it up a year later. In some locales the FB builders have been known to stuff in a load of wood into the oven after they are done baking and after the oven has cooled down a bit. This will dry out, to some extend some of the surface moisture that the wood may have. If you are talking about a 3 to 4 in ch round it will not dry it out.

As Jim pointed out sappy wood will smoke and pop quite a bit - stay away from massive ammounts of pine - i.e. since Christmas is over and that tree has been sitting in the backyard for a month now it probably is not a good idea to use it as your main source of fuel. In 6-8 months maybe use some for a starter but that is it.

[boccu]

Got the fire up really hot yesterday and got my first pizzas out. Not yet a fully white oven, so they took a bit more than the prescribed 90 seconds .... but we ate them, they tasted pretty good .... and the oven still stands

... so it's all hand-made: the oven, the dough, the pizza base .... and yes even the pizza peel

bread should be my next step, so I'm off to make some more dough.

cheers
B