lil' hot rodded propane oven

[buceriasdon]

So I was knocking around Wal Mart here near me and spied this little oven and thought," hmmm, that might fun to modify." It came home with me. I pulled out the original burner, voiding the warranty of course and mounted one of my other burners, hehehe. I have a number of things to do, better oven handle, sealing up some holes, and later lining the inside with some unglazed tile. My first test firing the supplied shelf buckled under the weight of the steel plate so I went with some all thread supports.  I kept all the parts to reinstall the original burner but it will be placed as an upper broiler. However in 15 minutes preheat I hit 704, more than enough for me. Maximun pizza size will be only 10" which is just right for one person. I'll get out some pie pics Tuesday, one of them with peppers.  

[Jet_deck]

It looks like a killer pizza oven.  You must have more pictures, please post them......

[buceriasdon]

Gene, I'll get some pie photos this evening. I forgot to mention I haven't seasoned the plate yet, my plan was to have another 1/4" plate I have welded on this one, but I'm going to go ahead and season it today to be able to bake today. If you study the photo of the plate you can see the rust that has started to form on the surface. One of the drawbacks to living next to seawater.
Don

[buceriasdon]

I broke the two minute barrier tonight with the lil' oven,90 seconds at 780F. Forty five minute preheat. I made this dough this morning but look forward to trying an extended ferment. Maybe the best I've ever baked. Ever.
Don

[JConk007]

Nice work Don !! very exciting news ~! whats the top heat ? or just the blaster below?
John

[buceriasdon]

John, The top tile lags behind the hearth by 50 some degrees so the next change is to lower the top tile. The tolerance around the door is very poor so my temp taken on the door panel is barely over two hundred degrees, not good. The goofy little oven is actually a test bed to see if it's feasible to obtain a two minute pie with a low pressure burner and if the flour I can readily get will bake properly at those temps and it can. Once I am satisified with the oven layout I will draw up some plans to have a larger one built with insulating brick for the walls, ceiling and door. Whether Mexicans will like this sort of crust over Dominoes remains to be seen. Time will tell.
Don

[JConk007]

very cool ! the new round ! , any Plans to try a steel plate only,  4 min bake ?
john

[scott123]

Don, if you want to reduce the top/hearth temp differential, propping up the hearth should help. Just a fraction of an inch should go a long way- like 4 steel nuts or washers under the corners of the hearth.

Also, in instances like this where the hearth is the same size as the deflector, the hearth can heat up quite a bit more at the edges.  You probably don't have the space here, but when you scale up, you might want to decrease the tile a bit in relation to the plate it's sitting on.

Lastly, if you want to go the extra mile towards bolstering the top heat, you can build steel walls around the platform to bypass the hearth even further. That's how all commercial gas deck ovens approach deflection.

[buceriasdon]

Scott, I broke up some ceramic tile to use as spacers to close the space up some and I'll test again tonight. So when I scale this oven up the steel plate that the pizza stone(cough,cough), sets on should be larger all the way around then? Interesting, thanks for the tip. I will keep that in mind when drawing the thing up. John, tonight I'll take more readings of the roof, thanks for reminding me. It's the door that has me vexed and that issue will be addressed.
Don
I included a picture of my hi tech door latch as the door closing springs have lost their ability to work from the heat. Gloves required....

[Ev]

Don,
 The best pie you ever baked? Well that's exciting!
 However, I'm a bit concerned as to whether or not this oven can handle that much heat. You already said that the hinge springs are shot, and is the back wall melting in that last photo? Are you running this indoors? Do you have a fire extinguisher handy? 
But seriously, keep up the good work but stay safe!

[buceriasdon]

Steve, Even though it's winter here also, the temps outside dip into the low 70's at night, so yes, I have the oven outside. It sits on a wheeled stand I threw together so I can move it around. I had a very stressful night at the hotel, a shower valve blew a gasket and no stores open at 8 and had to somehow shut the geyser of water off, made some gaskets from inner tube and got through the ordeal but didn't take any photos of last night's pie. I just wanted to eat and go to bed. When I was finally able to bake the hearth tile was 835, ceiling only 730 but the pie turned out excellent again. Next is some cold fermented dough and see how that does.
Don

Don,
 The best pie you ever baked? Well that's exciting!
 However, I'm a bit concerned as to whether or not this oven can handle that much heat. You already said that the hinge springs are shot, and is the back wall melting in that last photo? Are you running this indoors? Do you have a fire extinguisher handy? 
But seriously, keep up the good work but stay safe!