Image: Tim’s oven with roof on

Well, it took a few years of coffee roasting plus cooking seasons with the oven, and then .. my wife an Artist/blacksmith built the roof ribs and the front supports in between jobs .. I had to drill and tap 60 holes to attach the steel roof .. (more…)

I pay 24 bucks per 1x 100L bag (3.53 cu-ft), you will need more of them for insulating of the whole oven as per below described quantities.

What is Vermiculite? Insulation applications.

Where to buy vermiculite insulation? Best places to find vermiculite containing products, or most importantly dry loose-fill vermiculite insulation in bags, are large landscaping yards (because in horticulture the vermiculite, as well as Perlite, are used to prevent soil compaction or as soil conditioner/amendment after adding a composting matter.) Pool shops and businesses that build and install swimming pools also work with large quantities of vermiculite.

Then obviously those who work with different kinds of insulation materials. Such as; refractory firms (handling mostly refractory and high-temperature insulation) or factories producing (more…)

Now days they are called heavy and dense Firebricks but old masters still call them fire clay bricks just because they are made of simple fireclay (which actually is the most ordinary mud.) Fire clay can be easily located out in the nature but it must containing the right refractory properties, suitable content ratio of silica and alumina. Some shops call these bricks fireplace bricks. They are used for instance for building cooking chamber in wood fired ovens, for creating fireplaces, all sorts of fire boxes and wood heaters’ lining, linings in a small or the hugest industrial furnaces, (more…)

All refractory are based on fire clay, what it contains, alumina and silica. In fact all high heat resistant firebricks are made of fire clay. Like heat resistant mortars, insulation, pottery, ceramics, ceramic blankets or ceramic tiles on space shuttle, origins of these start from the fire clay, its melting starts at 1600 Celsius °C or 2912 Fahrenheit °F point. Only special manufacturing technologies of those expensive materials change their properties and usage applications. But we are not going to space, at least (more…)

Red Clay Bricks

Substitute for firebricks can be old red clay solid bricks. In ovens these alternative red clay bricks will heat up, retain heat, cook, bake, roast, re-fire, absorb conduct store and hold the heat from wood fire and perform the same way as proper refractory firebricks do. If you can not locate fire bricks where you are or for any reason obtain them, Red Clay Bricks will perform much the same way in wood fire temperature levels and can be used instead.

How do I see it’s the right alternative for firebricks?

The replacement bricks must be of this type, old solids. Clay body is the same on the brick’s inside as it is on the outside. Break or cut one of the bricks (more…)

Insulating fire bricks are soft and light in weight. They can be easily cut by handheld hack saw or any other hand tool like chisel or even drill bit. Color of insulating bricks varies but usually they come in shades from light brown to white, see pictures. In refractory air is the best insulation and this is why insulating firebricks have excellent insulating properties. Their body is made of tiny air spaces similar to honeycomb effect.

How to use light weight fire bricks insulation

Use of light weight fire brick insulation is broad, mainly in industrial and hobby kilns heated up with either electric spiral elements or gas burners, furnaces, both for hot face lining or outer back-up heat insulation.

IMPORTANT:
Do not confuse lightweight insulating fire bricks with heavy dense firebricks. Insulating bricks are refractory too and of course (more…)

When the subject turns to analog oven thermometers and cooking in wood fired ovens; you will find out, if you haven’t already, that measuring temperature with these great self standing stainless steel thermometers is done/useful only when the wooden door is closed – that’s when temperature in the cooking chamber evens up for baking or long time slow roasting and so on. Otherwise there isn’t point to measure atmosphere inside while firing or when the entry door is opened because logically the temp is very different at vault level vs. bottom floor. Carbon burn-off gives you high pizza temperature reading, (more…)

For those interested in using digital thermometer to measure whole range of temperatures in wood fired ovens (and reading above or below the range) here is a very good one to buy. This meter works with the right to use k-type thermocouple probe. Wherever you search for these ask for “Type K Input” thermometer.

I have 2 of them but in thermometer version only, not multimeter, from Temperature Controls pty. ltd. (more…)

Sell Your Home Faster And For More Money?!!?

I enjoy entertaining and having my friends and family over. I love to cook. I am very particular about the quality of my ingredients and how they are prepared. It then follows that if I want the best pizza around, I have to make it myself, from scratch, and cook it the way it was done originally… with a wood burning oven.

Made correctly, the wood burning oven is an attractive and functional piece of architecture in any property. How would it help you sell your home faster and for more money? (more…)

A not too conventional story

Here I am at 50, still in the pink of my condition, beautiful wife, a job that I love, great friends that I don’t have to see too often, gorgeous house in the middle of the woods, a Ford Ranger, with Bruce Springsteen on Sirius radio, healthy kids, great garden and (more…)