Steel Tiles

[Glutenboy]

Give me some feedback.  I use quarry tiles on my oven rack instead of a stone.  The advantage is that I can come close to lining the whole rack, giving me lots of surface area, and when I cook pizzas elsewhere, I can bring tiles in a variety of sizes (thickness being constant) to maximize coverage in someone else's oven even if its dimensions are different from my own.  I have been looking online, and steel tiles are available in a variety of sizes.  Don't you think this would be a great idea as a portable solution?  I haven't tried steel at all yet, but frequently when I bake pies in someone else's oven, I don't get the bake times, and browning/charring that the Glutenboy oven provides.  This might improve those results.  What do you think?  Anybody gone the steel-tile route yet?

[JD]

I'm surprised nobody responded to this. I'd like to share my thoughts.

I'm using 1/2" steel. It's very heavy, but to make it a little more portable (like you mentioned) I had mine cut in half parallel to the oven door. If I were to cut it perpendicular to the oven door, I would fear the oven rack would actually flex a lot more since the plates are no longer being supported on the two ends closest to the shelf supports. Follow what I'm saying? I attached a really sophisticated drawing for a better visual 

With this in mind, I think steel tiles would have a similar rack bending issue. But if you were to combine the two ideas and found 3" x 24" x 1/2" "tiles", it would remain strong, portable & easier to handle.

[mkevenson]

Or, you could build supports for the tiles, I believe there is a thread around here somwhere, where supports were made for 1/2" steel plate.
 
Mark.

[Glutenboy]

I hadn't even considered the weight issue as far as deforming the rack.  Those suckers must be heavy.  Hmmm...  Are you speculating, or have you actually experienced a bent rack?  It sounds painful.    But seriously, Folks, if the metal is split into parts wouldn't this reduce the stress on each individual part of the oven rack anyway by breaking up the weight?  Wish I could do a trial run without spending too much $$$.

[corkd]

Perhaps another solution would be to buy an aftermarket oven rack that would support the steel.
Many "standard" home ovens have racks that are weaker; I have a bertazzoni oven whose racks support my 1/2" steel with no flexing.

Clay