Rocket Stove / Pizza Oven Part 4

 Unfortunately every time I looked at the pizza oven,  it conjured up memories of  the bubonic plague, a.k.a. the Black Death! 

 See part three , where the plague lays a smackdown on poor Feral Turtle :(

Part one here

Part two here

 I'd walk out the door, see the oven and have to go lie down and feel sorry for myself

POOR ME

   Luckily I have one of those bodies that forgets very easily. 

 Proof is in not one kid, but two! 

  Soon after Danni's yummy fruit crumble,  rolled out of the oven,

 the plague was merely a faint memory.

This is the only dish that turns out every time!

 Chimney is complete with a cap built from the top of a keg. 

We had to burn the interior form out of the oven, which was pretty fierce.   

HOLY CRAP call the freakin fire department.

But the gnomes stood their ground!

 It survived!

Mr FT put his fancy chef hat on and started cooking up a storm.  

A SHORT pizza video for you....this one was just cheese and sauce but it was delicious!

We also whipped up a batch of buns for a trial run.....They were eaten before the end of the day. 

Somebody needs to go to the gym. 

Roxul Insulation was secured around the rocket stove.  We wrapped that baby up tight.  

 The base of the outdoor oven was covered with cement board.

  Not being able to bare the thought of laying more rocks (bubonic plague memories), we've decided to break up the expansive area with some sort of  tiles.  Any suggestions? 

I'll be going on a five kilometer run today.......thanks to our new outdoor oven!

  

Cheers!

Guest Post....Being Pink

Come check out my guest post at 

The Thrifty Rebel

Tuula, the host of The Thrifty Rebel, is a wonderful creative Canadian that I love to follow.

  She crafts beautiful garden art out of thrifted items and I swear she wastes nothing!

I don't really swear...only when I have a hammer in my hand.

 Her home and her yard reflect her creative mind! 

Tuula was brave enough to ask me to guest post at her blog and I am so excited!

I will be showing my pink side......

Thanks Tuula!

Cheers!

Rocket Stove / Pizza Oven Part Three

Part One

Part Two

Mario (me, the boss) worked the cement mixer, feverishly mixing concrete, while Luigi, the worker, danced with the wheelbarrow, filling the form. 

With the foundation complete, next up was the framework.

Pressure treated lumber consisting of 4x4's and 2x6's were used to build the frame.  Concrete fasteners  secured the structure  to the foundation with stainless steel brackets.

This framework needed Mario again.  Back to the mixer I slaved, while Luigi danced his way through a little bit of wheelbarrow opera!   Here's the recipe for the concrete mix we used.... here.  

Building the form for the "countertop and base of oven" pour.

More welding with Mr. FT!

Two ammonites were secured to the front of the form.

Form  joints are siliconed, metal reinforcement is added and ready for the pour.

Concrete sits to cure.  Tarps covered this for a few days and it was sprayed with water at least four times.

Just as you thought you were going to see something cooking, here I am to bore you with all the technical difficulties.  Next up we watch Mr. FT do his thing, and I am here to tell you his story with crappy pictures.  Sorry. 

Holes were cut into the top of the keg for  flame to escape.  Luckily we had this stainless steel pan salvaged from a few years back.  Can you believe it was within inches of the size we needed.  How lucky was that?  Mr FT used a zip-cut disk, cut a circle, and fitted the pan to sit  on top of some flanges that he welded  to the sides of the keg. 

Rocket stove is fitted into the structure, levelled and secured with a few welds.

Stainless steel is added to the top of the pan.

All done.

A top plate of upside down 5/16 checker plate was used as a cooking surface.  The video below shows us already putting it to use.  Egg pizza!

A chimney is built using an old Corny keg.   The chimney cap (not shown) was the top of an old Sanke keg.  He was the ultimate recycler using every part of the keg! 

Building the damper for the chimney!

Framework for the pizza oven is secured to concrete base

Two days of rock and brick begin...

A special refractory mix was used to glue the rocks and bricks together.

  You can find the recipe here at backyardmetalcasting.com

Cheers??

Linking up with

Katherines Corner

Rocket Stove / Pizza Oven...Part 2

We are in the process of building a wood fired pizza oven for our deck.  That damn Deck seems to be getting all the attention.  Deck wanted stairs, Deck got stairs.  Deck wanted chairs, you guessed it, Deck got them.  Deck wants pizza oven/rocket stove......here it comes. 

  This won't be the traditional, "build your fire" in the oven kind.

 It will be fired from a rocket stove. 

The minute I heard of a rocket stove, I had grand ideas of heating the house, the garage, the barn,  the outbuildings, the sidewalks and the driveway with this baby!  I would never have to shovel again, just light a fire.  Unfortunately, our sidewalk is too long, and the driveway is even longer, and really, after eating all that pizza, a little shoveling would probably do me good!

Off to the scrap yard we went!

   We found enough material to get us started, and headed to the scale for a good wallet beating!!!!

 I use the term "We" loosely throughout this post.  He (Mr FT) is the we , I'm just the helper, but I was busy cutting some  stainless steel tubing for the grate.  I figured  I earned at least two years worth of pizza for that!  

   He used two Sanke kegs to build the burn chamber,

When working with kegs, always make sure they are depressurized before attempting any of this or you might end up on a one way trip to the moon.
 or like my first episode with a keg, swimming in a beer bath.
Hmmmmm that probably sounds kinda fun to the right person.

 Stainless steel tubing was cut perfectly  to build the grate. 

 (had to add that for pizza points)

   We  also scrounged some stainless steel that was already bent into a U at the scrap yard.  The piece was cut in half, a center platform was added, and the U was welded together to form a box.   This created the wood feeder and the combustion air intake..

Two supports were attached to the inside of the bottom keg for the amazingly  fitted grate to sit on. (more pizza points)

The top of one keg, and the top and bottom of another, were cut out.

  The two kegs were stacked and welded together.

Mr. FT fitted the box to the burn chamber, and cut and welded it altogether.

And now for the moment Mr FT has been waiting for...

  Oh come on....live a little.  

 It's not one of those 5 minute videos of blabbing YouTubers.... 

 It's under a minute!  Not even half a minute. 

 In fact it probably took you longer to read this than

 if you would have just watched the video!

Stay tuned!

Click here for part one.

Click here for part three.

  

Cheers!

Linking up with

Katherine's Corner

I was featured at

Katherine's Corner