Stand design modification?

[stuart]

Forgive me if this subject has been covered in an earlier post, I did go back 10 pages looking for a title that would lead me to believe it had. I'm planning on making a change to the design of the stand and would like insight as to if I were making a mistake.

While designing my oven and the kitchen that incorporates it I began to consider storage of not only cooking accessories but also fuel. I have a Big Green Egg smoker/grill that uses lump charcoal that I must consider. More significant is the storage of wood for the pizza oven. The stand design we've all seen and most have used is that shown in the plans provided on this site, that being cinder block or poured concrete walls in the configuration of a U. This of course allows for storage of our fuel...wood.

This area based on a 110 series oven or a 42" Pompeii is roughly 4 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Now the impression I get is that the optimum length log for burning in the oven is 12-16". If that is correct, I see the storage of more than one row of logs deep as being difficult to access.

In my situation where access to the back of the oven is not a problem why not construct the stand in the configuration of an H? You have a storage area on both sides of the oven and additional support in the middle of the oven.

Thoughts?

[james]

Great idea. I find that the back of the wood store can become a no man's land, where you rarely venture.

My mind is blank, but I am thinking I have seen an oven with front and back storage access. Can anybody help with that (not the blank mind part)?

Regardless, I like that idea.
James

[jengineer]

Ans - to just the H question.

there is no reason why you cannot build using an H pattern.

or a bracket
[ ]

or a star pattern like Carioca

The open box pattern was based for a simple outdoor approach where the back side would be placed windward and the opening on the lee. In areas where you get rain and snow you do not want the water hitting your wood bin.

The stand was also modeled to just fit the oven.

No matter how you design your base make sure that the open spans are well supported (rebar, reinforced lentel)

[dmun]

Here's an oven where the stand is built on two piers, with the wood storage open from both ends. The builder put in real footings below the frost line, though. This construction method might stress a flat slab.



Mine is sort of an 'H' with the cross bar of the 'H' being the wall of the building I busted through to build the oven.

[stuart]

Originally Posted by jengineer

The open box pattern was based for a simple outdoor approach where the back side would be placed windward and the opening on the lee. In areas where you get rain and snow you do not want the water hitting your wood bin.

Good point, something to consider. My oven will be positioned at a right angle to the prevailing winds, which are N&S. But I might do something in the rear storage to help keep things dry, such as a raised rack and perhaps some sort of sheild or door. In our area of the country we need to be concerned with Scorpions, Brown Recluse and Copper Head Snakes all finding wood piles nice refuge. I may look into a tightly sealing door!

[james]

Stuart,
A line of blocks placed in the middle of the two rows is just what you are describing.

In testing out new designs, I built our second Florence oven with just the two sides, and then terracotta beams -- no back wall. The problem was not so much the sag stress on the hearth as that lateral thrust (is that called shear?). I built the stand, hearth and the oven, and felt a very uncomfortable left-right sway when you pushed with some force on one side. I came back and laid a crossing course of blocks, about 3/4 of the way back of the stand. It stablilize the hearth and stand, and it was solid from then on.

Hope this adds something.
James

[stuart]

Yes, thanks James.