New door for our Pompeii

[waynespizzaworld]

New Aluminum door shown here is a work in progress.The door painted black is my old steel door that I have sold to a customer. I have put a temp gauge in this new door and may put insulation between the outer two layers of aluminum as well. The three layers of aluminum with air spaces keeps the outer aluminum face and handle assembly cool to the touch so not sure if insulation will be needed or not but I will experiment with things over the next little while.

The unit with the circular ring on the bottom is to hold the door up off the ground and also tilted backwards to allow fresh air in at the bottom and hot air to escape up though the vent area. My last steel door I had made had a similar set up so I could hold the heat in some what and still keep a fire in the oven which is shown in picture attached. I have found this nice in the past for keeping a small fire going and cooking meats in a large cast iron fry pan.

What do folks think about insulation.....will I need it? The air space seems to be working good for stopping the heat transfer for keeping the handle cool but not sure how well the heat inside the oven will be held inside with out insulation. What is nice right now is the door is light. If I was to insulate I would most likely go with the vermiculite and portland but this will add weight that I dont really want.

[brickie in oz]

I put calcium silicate in my door, its not heavy at all.

[Les]

I filled mine w/ vermiculite before I sealed it - didn't add squat to the weight.

[Hank10746]

Hi
Not sure if it applies with a door but some people have reaction's to food cooked in Aluminum. I am not sure it translates to cooking with a door mad of Aluminum? Just something else to think about.
Hank

[gt40]

I think it looks really cool. I would throw some extra fiber blanket in there if you have it and weld the sides although it probably isn't necessary