DIY WFO $40

[buceriasdon]

Here is a pic of the same chiminea the people wanted to bake pizzas in from my earlier post. AS one can see there is a glaze over the whole chiminea making drilling with no chipping unlikely. Also easy to see the opening which measures only 13" at it's widest is shaped for looks, not for a workable pizza oven. This chiminea is just not suited to baking pizzas in.

[Tscarborough]

It is a red agate I dug up in my yard while doing the footing for another patio on top of a red brick keystone. 

http://brokebrick.com/030710oven3.jpg

[buceriasdon]

Jet,you tube has some vids of some folk's clay ovens which are pretty cool where all the heat isn't lost up the chiminey.They are small but I would think less work. Some chicken wire, some refractory cement, way cool. Wish I could find refractory cement around here. Is this a scale drawing of a available chiminea? I always dug that adobe oven available online from Sunset. Also cool looking.
Saludos, Don
http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/project-sunsets-classic-adobe-oven-00400000012056/

[Jet_deck]

... Is this a scale drawing of a available chiminea? .....

The drawing is to scale, but i guessed at how big the wardens chimenea is.

Thanks Don, that Sunset oven is very cool and looks simple enough to build.  My wife's chimnea is not glazed, and it is larger than the one you posted.  Yours looks more artisan and authentic.  Hers was purchased at a border town, after one to many margaritas.  They carried it to the bus, and she brought it home.  I have been threatend with my life not to cook on it, but that was 3 years ago.  If I do this insert, everything will fit inside and no drilling will be necessary. The insert will be above the fire and just sit on legs.  I'll see if i can get a picture tonight and some measurements.

[Jet_deck]

This is the chiminea.  The base is about 24" across.  The opening is 12" wide x 9" tall.  I have plenty of room to cook pizza in this oven.

Chiminea's weren't designed to cook pizza, the Titanic wasn't designed to sink, and deep sea drilling rigs weren't designed to leak.  The world is an imperfect place and I love all of it. 

Thanks Don for your participation, I enjoy your comments.   

[shuboyje]

Are you willing to hack the heck out of it with a diamond blade and a angle grinder?  If so I would do it like this:

1. Cut off the chimney and make it into an opening big enough for your peel.

2.  Make the opening on the front a bit bigger and make that your bottom.  Set the hole that was the front over a hearth made of firebricks.

3.  Insulate the whole thing(bellow the hearth and above the dome) with perlite concrete and put a stucco finnish on it.

Like that if would work until heat eventually breaks it. 

[buceriasdon]

I came to realize that Jet wants to make the chiminea his wife bought work as is. 

Are you willing to hack the heck out of it with a diamond blade and a angle grinder?  If so I would do it like this:

1. Cut off the chimney and make it into an opening big enough for your peel.

2.  Make the opening on the front a bit bigger and make that your bottom.  Set the hole that was the front over a hearth made of firebricks.

3.  Insulate the whole thing(bellow the hearth and above the dome) with perlite concrete and put a stucco finnish on it.

Like that if would work until heat eventually breaks it. 

[Jet_deck]

I came to realize that Jet wants to make the chiminea his wife bought work as is. 

+1

[DenaliPete]

Still though, its a pretty sound idea.

[Jet_deck]

Rain, rain go away.  I wanted to test the chiminea today 

[Jackie Tran]

Let's see some pictures of the setup JD! 

[Essen1]

JD,

The opening of 12" seems a bit small to me to load and unload pizzas in a comfortable manner.

If you have a router, Dremel and the like, I'd cut open the front perhaps up to 16 inches while keeping the size of your peel in mind. But just like Don mentioned, if it's glazed you're up for some major chipping and, perhaps later down the line, cracks.

I don't understand this statement, though...

Chiminea's weren't designed to cook pizza, the Titanic wasn't designed to sink, and deep sea drilling rigs weren't designed to leak.  The world is an imperfect place and I love all of it.

Not the world's unpredictable or imperfect, it's us, the humans, who make it unpredictable or imperfect. The more we f**k with Nature the more it comes back and f**ks with us.

Plain and simple.

[Jet_deck]

JD,

The opening of 12" seems a bit small to me to load and unload pizzas in a comfortable manner.

What if the surface that the pizza will be cooked on pulls out like a drawer, gets loaded with the pizza and is shoved back into the oven ?

JD,

If you have a router, Dremel and the like, I'd cut open the front perhaps up to 16 inches while keeping the size of your peel in mind. But just like Don mentioned, if it's glazed you're up for some major chipping and, perhaps later down the line, cracks.

I don't want to hack this thing up.

I don't understand this statement, though...

"Chiminea's weren't designed to cook pizza, the Titanic wasn't designed to sink, and deep sea drilling rigs weren't designed to leak.  The world is an imperfect place and I love all of it."

It was a rebuttal of replies 1, 2 and 20; replies with basic assumptions that it will not work. 

I'm not a know it all, I just love to cook, and build.  I put my socks on one at a time, just like everyone else. Plain and simple. 

[DenaliPete]

What if the surface that the pizza will be cooked on pulls out like a drawer, gets loaded with the pizza and is shoved back into the oven ?

Unless you're planning on making your pies no larger than 10-11" and you're pretty spot on with your placement the drawer idea will not work because you'll still be contending with a small opening.

I'm still curious how the heat circulation will prove for baking pizza, the location of the chimney makes me wonder how well the toppings will cook especially toward the center.

It may be something you can improve with a rigged tin foil vortex to direct heat like Jackie Tran is doing.


You probably won't have as good results as you would if you were to modify the oven itself, but if you're willing to modify your technique (and your loading peel) and compromise the size of your pies, I think you may be able to pull something out of this without any structural modifications.


Ideal?  No, but people have surely made passable pizza with less.

[Jet_deck]

... It may be something you can improve with a rigged tin foil vortex to direct heat like Jackie Tran is doing...

Yeah, that was a pretty good idea.

[Essen1]

I'm not a know it all, I just love to cook, and build.  I put my socks on one at a time, just like everyone else. Plain and simple.

Just like me.

[DenaliPete]

Honestly, Mike and VR are two of the most shining examples of ingenuity at its finest with their LBE innovations.

Jet_Deck definitely has the tinker gene in him too, I don't doubt he'll pull something workable out of this.

[Jet_deck]

I find it interesting that the measure tv's diagonally.  A cooked pizza wouldn't be hard to quickly retrieve through the opening at a bit of a slant, but how to load them (since the drawer method won't work) ??

[Jet_deck]

I have not abandoned this idea completely, but it just isn't that important right now.  I lit a test fire and did take some heat readings.  But standing there in some thick mesquite smoke (wood was still a little wet) I came to the conclusion that the pizza would need to be cooked on top of the chiminea.  Just a simple enclosed box, with insulation, should work fine.Just going to put this idea on the back burner for awhile.

[sacwoodpusher]

Well, it isn't $40, but here is something being sold as a pizza oven.

It will probably cook a pizza, I'm not saying it will do a good job, but the bread will bake and the cheese will melt.