Does anyone have any info on this design??

[pennygirl]

I'm clearly new but have exhausted the search option before posting. So please don't flame if my question's stupid.

My research has told me that this is a clay mixtured dome over the bed of flat fire bricks. Refractory mixture possibly?...not that i completely know what that means yet. Stainless steel rods also?







My goal is to make almost a clay/cement like dome that can handle extreme heat for the back yard.

Is Kiko's book about earth ovens something useful for this oven? Any information or direction on this build would be such a favor to me. I'm hoping my dad and I can build this together at his house. Thank you guys.

[dmun]

Welcome. This is pretty much a flame-free zone unless you do something abusive. As far as questions go, I think it's better to ask a stupid question than to make a stupid mistake.

As to the pictures in your post, it's either a clay or cobb oven, or a cast refractory concrete oven. I've seen that picture before, but I can't remember the context.

Either of these types of ovens will work. They will work better with a chimney, unless you like soot stained openings (notice the fire-in-the-oven shot is taken at night) and hot combustion gasses in your face when you're cooking.

A couple of points. A cast refractory concrete oven, particularly if it's reinforced with stainless needles, is a very expensive proposition. It really doesn't make sense in the land of cheap firebrick. Clay or cobb is mud: it has to be kept extremely dry to work, and not to dissolve into a puddle. I'm not convinced that a dome covering is sufficient to that task. Since cobb ovens are built on the cheap, they often skimp or skip insulation. This severely limits the usefulness of your oven.

These sorts of ovens are covered in the "other ovens" section.

Good luck with your project. I suggest you take a look at the pompeii oven plans (Finding the Pompeii Oven Plans):
They will give you a real idea of what's involved in doing the build the way that's proven to be successful .

[gdest]

PennyGirl

If you want some examples of some stupid questions, you might want to check out my thread!
This is a great site and there are a number of great people here that will give guidence and advise just like dmun just did. There are times that you might have to restate or rephrase your questions at times to get the answer you are looking for.
Welcome to this forum

Gary

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by gdest

PennyGirl

If you want some examples of some stupid questions, you might want to check out my thread!
This is a great site and there are a number of great people here that will give guidence and advise just like dmun just did. There are times that you might have to restate or rephrase your questions at times to get the answer you are looking for.
Welcome to this forum

Gary

As far as ignorant questions and comments go, you might have to get in line

The smartest and one of the best supervisors I ever worked for was not afraid to ask the most basic or seemingly stupid questions. When he was finished, his grasp of the subject was striking. Stupid questions don't bother me in the least. I go out of my way to prove that

[Tscarborough]

Also notice the steam coming off it when fired. That is an extremely simple design that could work well for immediate firing, but if retained heat is something you want, that is not it.

It looks like a cobb oven with minimal to no insulation, cladded with some type of cementious stucco.