Fire/Ash Tray

[OvenBoy]

I am pretty close to finishing the oven and firing it up. I had an idea of using a fire tray in the back of the oven. The fire would be built on the tray and when it was all finished, cleanup would be easy because you could just pull out the tray with the ash on it and don't have to fish around for it with a shovel. Could this work? Does the fire have to be directly on the brick to work?

[maver]

This would work in the sense that the fire does not have to be directly on the brick, but I'm not sure it provides any real advantage. I think having an oven rake and a brush does the job of managing the ash and coals quite well. I have a nice brush, but still use the old garden hoe I used to mix mortar during the oven build as the rake. I think you'll still want to use a brush even if you have a tray as the wood spreads ash when it pops (maybe you'll have better seasoned wood than I so it won't pop at all).

[nissanneill]

Oven boy,
I'll jump in here with a thought as well.
My experience with fires and heat sources on/in trays is that when the heat is applied to the tray, the edges lift and the plate buckles, just like a barbeque plate. Remember that the bulk of the heat will rise to heat the dome, but much less will be transferred to the hearth due to an air layer beneath the tray, which will act as an insulator.. You need the coals on the hearth to transfer the heat directly into it for the heat required to cook your pizzas.
I believe (not experienced) that the hearth would ultimately heat up but at a much slower rate than by lighting your fire directly on the hearth. Hey, it only takes a few moments to either push back the fire/coals and brush the hearth or scrape out the coals into a metal bin and then brush the hearth clean.
I merely push the coals back, brush the hearth bricks and cook either pizzas or bread on that without wiping over with a moist cotton mop.
I have even eaten damper (tradional Aussie bread) baked directly in the hot white ash of a campfire with no foil, or oven whatsoever, covered with ash and cooked for 10 + 5 minutes flipped part way through with no grittty bits. This was demonstrated by a group of Aboriginal women whom we as a 4WD club did a pile of work for.
The truth be known, you might do yourself (or visitors) a serious injury when trying to remove a largish very hot, heavy metal tray through a smallish oven entrance.
Good luck.
Neill

[Bacterium]

ovenboy,
you'll be surprised how easy it is to sweep the coals aside (with something like a shovel) and then tidy it up with the brush or slightly damp mop methods.

I assume the metal tray idea would have no holes/perforations underneath. 2 things:
- I've found with my oven, having the coals burning evenly across the oven (more central than rear) it gets to the "white hot" stage quicker and more evenly.
-As the fresh air for the oven comes in down low its good to have areas of your wood up off the hearth (maybe an inch or 2, here and there). James sells a log holder here which is the go:
http://www.fornobravo.com/store/Pizz...p-1-c-249.html
You want to encourage cold air(relatively) to come in underneath but you don't need all the wood off the hearth.

Once you get to white hot, the coals can go along one side (useful for browning off the pizza crust). Plus if you have any spills where toppings of pizza end up on the hearth and burn(yep I still have them). You can then rake some coals from the side back over the spill, let it burn off, then you can push the coals aside, brush again and then reuse that area.

Each and every oven has its differences so part of the fun is experimenting with different things......which is probably part of you suggesting the tray in the first place......