Door design?? Design Styles, Chimneys and Finish Discuss Door design?? in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Excellent !!! Thanks Jase. Good luck with your door....

[nodoubt68]

Excellent !!! Thanks Jase. Good luck with your door.

[cvdukes]

Attaching pics of my plug door that seals the oven chamber. The plug part that fits inside the oven throat was cast of vermiculite concrete. It was pretty easy to make a mold for it just by bending 3" wide stips of counter formica laminate to the approx configuration, and tacking them into place on a scrap of plywood. I think it only took me about 30 minutes to fabricate the mold once I figured out the shape with some cardboard templates. The vermicrete was poured to the 3" thickness and allowed to harden a few days. After the vermicrete cured up, I simply knocked the mold apart to release it...

The outside flange of the door was cut of hardee concrete board. sptThe bolts holding the wood handle were inserted before the vermicrete was attached so their heads are shielded from the heat by the 3" of vermicrete.
The vermicrete plug was held to the concrete board by some construction glue (pl premium) and one bolt that passes through bothe the vermicrete and the concrete board. The glue was simply to hold things together long enough for next step.

Since the vemicrete is rather soft and crumbly, I coated everything with a layer of surface bonding cement. I had to do this in two steps since I couldn't figure out a way to coat all sides at once.

This door has survived at least a year now pretty much unscathed with probably 25-30 good fires. I can't see any evidence of the surface bonding cement breaking down. I usually don't insert the door until the temp has dropped to 600 F, so probably not in the temp range where I need to worry about it. I added the fiberglass roping a couple of weeks ago to get a better seal (visible on the last pic of the inside surface)... while I was at it, it was easy enough to just recoat everything with a new coat of the surface bonding cement.
It ain't the purtiest door around, but highly servicable and cheap.

[mfiore]

cvdukes,

Thanks for posting the door images. Did I read correct? Is the door 3 inches thick? The photos don't seem that thick.

How heavy is that door?

[cvdukes]

The problem with taking pictures in bright winter sunshine... washes out the dpeth of field. For reference, the stuccoed wall on the right side of the door plug is 14 inches, but looks about 6 in the photo...
I cast the vermicrete as 3 inches thick...the backer board is another 1/2 inch. I would guess it weighs 10- 15 pounds...not too heavy that I cant easily lift it out of the way with one hand

[james]

I'm going to briefly highjack this thread to ask Mike if he's having a lot of fun. :-)

How many times have you cooked in your oven? Is this one of the coolest thing you've ever done? How's it going?

When you've made it to thinking about your door -- you've come a long way!
James

[mfiore]

James,

Sorry i missed this.

I was only able to use the oven once. I was really excited to make a few pizzas before the winter. It was a blast, and really the best pizza I've had. Unfortunately, the snow started really coming 2 days later. Since my oven is still quite primitive and not yet "water proof", it is covered in tarp, with 8 inches of snow on it. I had ambitions of using it anyway, but it's just been too cold (10 F today!!).

I've been catching up on everything else that I neglected over the summer. Also doing a lot of reading about sour dough, etc. I'm really looking forward to finishing the oven. Next summer will be a big year of WFO baking/cooking, that's for certain!!

By far the coolest project I've ever attempted. I have a "white collar" job, and have always been intimidated by such things. Frankly, I enjoyed every part of this build more than going to work!