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Pompeii Oven Progress “All
we are saying is: give pizza a chance …”
John Lennon Last
update: 10.25.2009
As
of 05.16.05 Note:
AOL users: if you are having problems viewing the pictures then try the
instructions found at this
site. I’ve
been obsessed with the idea of building a pizza oven for several years and
having recently finished several other backyard projects (which will now have
to be torn down to make room for the pizza oven) and with the emotional
support of Eva,
my lovely and gourmet cook wife (do I get points honey?) I decided to forge
ahead. I began to assemble materials early in August and decided to
keep this journal as a guide and warning to others. I hope you find it of
value should you also decide to build an oven. Also,
check out our tandoor
oven page. Plans
for the Pompeii oven can be found at http://www.fornobravo.com/
(click Pompeii Oven at bottom of page). Highly recommend for those attempting
an oven is the Forno Bravo forum at http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/index.php?.
Also, many thanks to Jim Hatch and James Bairey for their past and future
advice. (09.13.2005) Over
the summer we built a trellis over the oven. We wanted the kind of excitement
that comes only from having a large amount of combustible wood near the
chimney! No, just kidding, we wanted something on which we could rest some
temporary panels so we don't have to make pizzas in the rain this winter.
Also, its going to help keep more of the heat from the oven confined to the
area around the oven when the winter comes. The middle panel of slats is
removable to allow easy access to the top and to the chimney. It may
just be my imagination, but I think the trellis also helps the oven draw
better. It prevents the downdraft that came off the roof when the delta
breezes were blowing.
The trellis
is also a great place to hang lighting. Here's
a picture below shot from rear of pizza oven. I installed 3 of those 7 watt
Malibu landscape lights on the inside of one of the 2 by 6 beams facing the
oven and hooked them up to a timer.
Eva
calls the area on the left my "mini-garage". I didn't realize how
much the lights helped until the timer shut off as I was making pizza. now I
can cook without using a flashlight. I'm going to buy one more light. 21
watts shining directly on the landing makes a HUGE difference. (05.25.2005) Finished the channel for the rope lights all around the
counters.
The Dilithium Crystals in Action (04.17.2005) We finished grouting about ½ of the dome this weekend
and have commenced construction of a tandoor oven next to the pizza
oven. The tandoor oven blog can be found here.
Eva has begun tiling an old milk can which we will use to hold our brushes,
peels and hooks.
“Hold still honey… wait.. not that still !!” Day and night sides of the milk can (04.07.2005) Progress has been slowed by the rains.
Nevertheless we did get some additional tiling done, and have commenced
grouting. We decided on a silvery white grout after examining our various
choices on the test board.
Test
Board After Grouting with Different Colors The
lighter grout really makes the mosaic tiles “pop” and finishes off the tile
quite nicely.
The
Other Side (05.16.2005) I had
expected the grouting to be very difficult given the fact that the surface of
the oven is so irregular. This was an unjustified worry. The
grout goes on easily and cleans off easily. We are using an epoxy (as
opposed to water) based grout called SpectraLock.
It’s expensive (therefore available at Lowe’s) but when it dries its like
hard plastic. We’ve also mixed into the grout a little glow
powder. The grout softly glows in the dark. It’s not as bright as
I would like but if you are within 4 feet of the dome it’s definitely
noticeable.
I
would highly recommend that you obtain the softest tile float tool you
can. The one I am using has very spongy rubber unlike the firm rubber
you find on most floats. Even with the soft rubber float, a lot of the
grout still must be manually pushed into the cracks by hand. (03.07.05)
well we just had our first pizza
oven visitors. This calls for a new page! Oven Pilgrimages
will be the page devoted to visitors to our oven as well as ovens we
visit. (02.28.2005) Well things are moving right along even in spite of the
rain. Eva has made substantial progress on the turtle located at the
top of the dome. This weekend, we created a test board with some
representative tiles, to allow us to try out four different colors of grout.
Ungrouted Test Board I
plan on grouting the board tonight. The Omnigrip adhesive pictured
above (available at Home Despot) seems to work pretty well for our
purposes. Keeping the oven fired also seems to enhance the speed of
drying of the adhesive because a little of the heat seeps thru to the
exterior of the dome. The opposite side of the dome is now getting most
of my attention with respect to putting down the ocean tiles. (02.08.05) Over the weekend, I finished tiling the top of the
cutting area. A hole was left in the tile (to the right of where the
cutting board will be) as a trash chute and a trashcan will live underneath
the counter. Also, the electricians began wiring the counter.
Counters
for Food Prep on Right Side – BBQ and Tandoor on Left (5.16.05) Eva
and Nick did some work on the other side of the dome. That side is
getting the “boy” seahorse, some fish and a very nice crab. Next step, decide
on a grout color. (02.07.05) Because my fish colors are “ugly”, Eva has taken me
completely off fish duty and my fish has been “harvested” from the
dome. My sole task now is to do the “ocean”. That’s sort of
like peeling a bushel of pearl onions. Our routine is to spend about 5
minutes gluing on the mosaic tiles and then step back several feet and spend
10 minutes admiring our work and so on …
Rock
(or Should it be Stucco) Lobster (01.31.05) We’ve extended the landing out to the right of the
oven for additional counter space (and picked up the additional benefit of
hiding the air conditioning unit). And Eva
has begun the Herculean task of covering the oven with mosaic. The
surface area of the dome is approximately 5283 square inches (surface area of
sphere = 4πR2 for those of you who are interested).
That translates to over 10,000 tiny little pieces of glass that need to be
glued on. (It also means no bare feet for the munchkins because there
are about 10,000 broken shards of glass on the patio near the oven now.) We
purchased our mosaic tiles from www.mosaicmercantile.com
. They have an excellent selection of tiles and tools. If you intend to
incorporate mosaics into your dome or landing then we would suggest you
purchase their sample board first. It’s a handy tool for planning your
color scheme.
Transferring
the Designs Even
with the little that’s been completed so far, I’m already wondering if, in
the summer, we will be able to look directly at the oven without some sort of
eye protection.
The
Back (as of 04.27.2005)
Cha
Dude … (top as of 04.10.05)
Honey,
I promise I’ll clean up the patio as soon as the oven is finished… The
Dome and Landing The dome
and landing were completed in October. I have moved the text and pictures
relating to that stage of construction to the Dome and
Landing Construction page. The
Hearth Form The
hearth form was completed in September. I have moved the text and pictures
relating to that stage of construction to the. Hearth Form
Construction page. The
Base The
base was completed in August. I have moved the text and pictures
relating to the base construction to the Base
Construction page. Cooking
with the Oven For
recipes and our experiences cooking with the oven click here for the cooking
with the oven page. Any
questions / comments? You can contact me at:
Address
saved as bitmap to foil spam crawlers) Copyright
2004 - 2005 Robert Musa
Robert Musa © 2005 |
