December 2004
 Monday 11/29/2004 While the
concrete cladding is
drying I started laying the first course of 4" concrete blocks.
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 Saturday 12/04/04 Continuing to
work on the
facade. Check out the curves.
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 Saturday
12/04/04 I called it a day after laying two more courses of brick.
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 Sunday 12/05/04 On Sunday I only
laid one course
of bricks and then started working on the sides.
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 Sunday 12/05/04 I
decided to fill up
the front gaps with brick leftovers and layers of mortar. This gives me
some kind of "Home Blended" concrete.
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 Sunday 12/05/04
Once dry, I will be
able to stack 12" by 12" blocks on top.
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 Wednesday 12/08/04
The first 12" block
is in place. We're currently debating how many we will stack on top of
each other.
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 Wednesday 12/08/04
The first and
second row of 4" blocks were bonded together by 14 inch pieces of rebar
and concrete.
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 Wednesday 12/08/04
Current front view.
I'm still waiting for the chimney flue liner to come in. Until then, I
can't finish the brickwork.
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 Saturday 12/11/01
The side gaps are
filled with a vermiculite/cement mixture.
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 Saturday 12/11/01 I
slightly
underestimated the amount of vermiculte I was going to need. I bought
10 cubic feet and this is how far I got.
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 Saturday 12/11/01
Two extra 12" blocks
were added on the sides.
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 Saturday 12/11/01
Chimney flue.
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 Sunday 12/12/04
Looking down into the
chimney.
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 Sunday 12/12/04 Two
pieces of angle
iron will hold up the flue.
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 Sunday 12/12/04 A
second piece of
angle iron will hold up the bricks.
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 Sunday 12/12/04
Everything gets filled
in with bricks.
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 Sunday 12/12/04
Looking up from the
bottom of the chimney.
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 Sunday 12/12/04 The
chimney has been
closed in and now I have to figure out how to build it up to the top of
the flue.
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 Thursday 12/16/04 I
got two more bags
of vermiculite to cover the rest of the oven.
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 Thursday 12/16/04
The two bags covered
everything but I will buy one last bag so I can bring the thickness of
the insulation to 6 inches.
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 Thursday 12/16/04 I
also added two
flat coral stones on both sides.
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 Saturday 12/18/2004
Before I covered
the thing with stucco, I needed to make sure there was some kind of
ventilation in case moisture got trapped in the vermiculite. I decided
to place three stainless steel tubes in the vermiculite.
The reason why I went with this system is because I my father-in-law had these pipes laying around and he suggested it might be a good solution. I agreed. |
 Saturday 12/18/2004
Every inch I made
a small incision on both sides of the tube so that moisture (steam)
could easily escape from it.
In case you are wondering: It does work. |
 Saturday 12/18/2004
I started a very
small fire to help dry out any moisture left in the oven.
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 Saturday 12/18/2004
Woohoo. Exciting!
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 Saturday 12/18/2004
Good draft.
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 Saturday 12/18/2004
Aaaahhhhh.....
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 Sunday 12/19/2004 A
first layer of
stucco is applied.
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 Sunday 12/19/2004
One layer of rabbit
fence for strength.
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 Sunday 12/19/2004
This is how the oven
looks after 3 layers. The lines in the stucco are there on purpose. It
facilitates the bonding between layers.
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 Tuesday 12/28/2004
At first the oven
turns black because of the soot. When the bricks get really hot, the
soot burns off. When there is no more soot left in the oven, it's said
to be "white hot". You will want a white hot oven for baking foods.
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 Tuesday 12/28/2004
To limit the amount
of fresh (i.e. cold) air that can come into the oven I made a draft
door. The next day I found out how fast wooden contraptions catch fire.
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 Wednesday
12/29/2004 Tonight's
temperature reading is brought to you by Ybor Gold. The dome peaked at
about 550F and the hearth at 620F. I took about 2.5 hours to heat up.
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 Wednesday 12/29/04
We decided to take
advantage of the heat and make our very first pizza.
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 Wednesday 12/29/04
This pizza was
baked at 550F. Note that the oven is "white hot".
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 Wednesday 12/29/04
Four minutes later.
Yummy! Soon I will bake them at 750F which is the ideal temperature for
pizza's.
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I completed my challenge succesfully. On December 31st we had a pizza party at our house. We baked 18 pizzas in a row and everybody LOVED the pizza. Here is a picture of me and pizza Nr. 15 that evening.  Although the oven was functional, cosmetically it was far from done... |
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