movable ovens

[bdasko]

Hi everyone!

I know, I haven't posted an intro yet... so I'll put it in here My name is Bethany and I love to make pizza. I currently use my home oven with a regular stone, but on Thursday we will be making the long overdue move from apartment to house where we will be at for at least several years.

Problem is, we do plan on moving again in about 4 or 5 years to our "permanent" home, up in the mountains where we've got acreage. But in the meantime I was thinking... it would be great if I could build (finally!) a WFO to make my pizzas with. I think what I make is better than most of what I could get and so of course I can only imagine how great they would be if I had the "proper" oven to cook my pizzas in! This house is a rental and so I wouldn't want to leave it behind... although realistically I'm sure when the time came, if I couldn't get the right equipment to move it I could build a new one and sell this one on craigslist but I also have a feeling that doing something like that would just feel WRONG.

Anyway I've looked around quite a bit and am having a difficult time finding how I would modify an oven, or build one, so it could be moved eventually. I know they can be done, though. I've also heard of temporary ovens that can be dismantled but I can't find any information on them, seems to me like they wouldn't work as well as the permanent ones.

Any thoughts?

[dmun]

There are a number of options. You could build your oven with fireclay and sand only mortar, and when you were ready to move you could just break it apart. (fireclay mortar stays mud like, and wetting it makes it come apart). For a base, you could dry-stack concrete blocks, and put a thick sheet of steel on top, instead of a slab. All this would come apart, and the materials would be re-usable in the new location.

Another option would to build more permanently on a slab, and if it were in a place that were fork-lift accessible you could transfer the whole upper unit to a flatbed truck for the move. This involves riggers, and would tend to be expensive.

[nissanneill]

Build a good 40" Pompeii on a reinforced 48" hardwood pallette which would sit on a dry stacked concrete block base. Angle and position it in such a way as was easily accessible for a tractor mounted forklift to remove and transport to the next owner once sold. These pallettes carry over a ton of house bricks transported and delivered by tractor here in Australia. With a little planning, you could build it with a suitable void but I would utilise a metal chimney for size, weight and portability, with practicability in mind.
To play ultra safe, I would use a vertical soldier course sitting on a insulating board, BUT with a 2" x 1/4" steel strap surrounding the soldiers for additional reinforcement. This would mean cutting the hearth bricks to fit but that is not difficault (from my oven build experience). See:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/n...-1-a-2005.html (Neill's Pompeii #1)

From this oven build and use, you will then have enough knowledge and experience to build your 'perfect, permanent oven'.

Neill

[SpringJim]

The hardwood pallet idea is good but I worry a bit about wood expanding and shrinking with moisture. If you had a reinforced plane on top of the pallet, that might help. Like a steel sign that allowed slippage on the pallet surface.

We had a discussion about building a ferrocement pallet for a portable oven ... chicken wire and mortar. CVDukes posted a drawing somewhere.

That's my next project: rolleyes: Do they make synthetic pallets?

[nissanneill]

Good point Jim,
however, with the sheet(s) of insulation on the palelette, that would allow any slippage that may be evident or even put down a sheet od compressed cement board which would provide the ideal interleave for movement.
This would also be the ideal base for a mobile oven BUT extra precautions (along with driver/transporter common sense) to prevent the whole lot from sliding on such a surface particularly when cornering, accelerating or braking.
Sinking or recessing it into the base by 10-20mm would aleviate that.
We do have here in Australia, especially in the wine bottle manufacturing industry, high density plastic pallettes wich are impervious and can be pressure washed, disinfected etc. which would support more weight than a normal Pompeii oven.

Neill