oven i have been sitting on

[artigiano]

I thought I would share some pics of the brick oven I have been waiting to build but need a little more time to afford the mortgage for the country house I have been wanting to buy.  The oven is a little large, it is a 48 inch diameter.  What the pics show are the oven dome and the forms used in the dome building.  It  also shows the inner form which will be used in collaboration with the outer brick wall to pour a concrete (re-bar inforced) wall to support an insulated slab over a 10 gauge sheet metal resting on top of 4 rows of angle iron bar that will sit upon the poured concrete wall.  I have left room for 8 inches of vermiculite insulation all around the oven and on top of the dome, howevor, the form is an oval so the insulation goes up to 14 inches on the sides of the oven by the time it reaches the oven opening.  I may slightly lower the dome.. it is currently 19 inches, I have been baking some bread lately so it will require some thought.  This is a heavy duty oven.

p.s. it was initially intended for a commercial operation and the chairs you see in the background are 38 chairs I hand built, the economy was very strong when I was looking for a place to lease and I found that the places I saw were far too expensive.  I went into the plumbing trade now over a year ago and am quite happy but can't wait to build this oven.  I still have the oven, table tops and chairs at a friend's storage since I am lucky that he has a lot of extra space.  I will make a separate post with the chairs for any one wanting to view them.... I recommend against making your own chairs as they are quite time consuming .

[artigiano]

How could I turn this into a neapolitan looking oven??  I have the form for the base and the inner dome is done.  How would I tile the outside of the upper portion of the oven around the circular dome?  Is there a concrete wall built between the inner firebrick dome and insulation in order to tile that concrete wall?  I know it won't be a true neapolitan oven but i think it would look great for an indoor oven.

Alessandro

[pacoast]

The pictures below should give you an idea of how you can finish an oven to cosmetically look (not cook) like a Neapolatin oven. The rough shape is built up with bricks, stuccoed, then tiled.

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[artigiano]

nice! where did u get the pics?  is there no room for insulation?  what are those bricks against the wall?

[pacoast]

There's lots of room for insulation on the interior of the bricks as the exterior dome is substantially larger than the interior one. Also the exterior is done with insulating bricks, not firebrick. The brick against the wall is not part of the oven

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[artigiano]

cool!  I had insulated firebricks at one time IFB but they were very soft so I didnt use them.  How many inches of insulation?  What kind of insulation?  Are they the soft insulated firebricks I am thinking about??

[pacoast]

An authentic Neapolatin oven uses traditional materials such as S. Maria brick, Sorento clay floors, Tuff, Vesuvial sand, sea salt, etc. But you're not building an authentic Neapolatin oven either. So you can use ceramic blanket or perlite as an insulator. For ceramic blanket, 1" is barely adequate, 2 or 3" is a lot better. 4" is ideal and results in an exterior that is barely warm to the touch. Don't forget to insulate under the cooking floor too. And the lightweight IFB would work for the exterior dome of your oven. Have a look at the Forno Bravo oven building site if you aren't familiar with it.

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[artigiano]

sounds good, thanks PA!  You have great posts.  I will look into it, I may just build a ChriS Bianco style oven.  Howevor,  with a 3-4 inch ledge all the way around and a lot bigger in the front.

[Matthew]

An authentic Neapolatin oven uses traditional materials such as S. Maria brick, Sorento clay floors, Tuff, Vesuvial sand, sea salt, etc. But you're not building an authentic Neapolatin oven either. So you can use ceramic blanket or perlite as an insulator. For ceramic blanket, 1" is barely adequate, 2 or 3" is a lot better. 4" is ideal and results in an exterior that is barely warm to the touch. Don't forget to insulate under the cooking floor too. And the lightweight IFB would work for the exterior dome of your oven. Have a look at the Forno Bravo oven building site if you aren't familiar with it.

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I did 3" of fibre blanket & another 3" of matrilite on mine & when the inside dome is at 1100 degrees the exterior dome is still relatively cool to the touch.

[artigiano]

right on Matthew!  Any pics of your oven and building process.  I was thinking about using the ceramic fibre blanket plus vermiculite.  How is the vermiculite in comparison with what you used?

[Matthew]

right on Matthew!  Any pics of your oven and building process.  I was thinking about using the ceramic fibre blanket plus vermiculite.  How is the vermiculite in comparison with what you used?

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8340.0.html  I chose to use the durablanket & matrilite so that I could mold it to the shape of the oven.  If I had built an enclosure I would of likely used vermiculite.  The product I used is Durablanket S http://www.unifrax.com/prodinfo.nsf/LookupByFormNo/C-1421 followed by metal lathing & then about 3 inches of matrilite.  I insulated the hearth with 2" KFAC 19 insulation board http://www.fabricationspecialties.com/pdf/kfac_msds.pdf.

Matt