I was wondering if anyone knows of a source for plans for an indoor wood-fired brick oven, or even a gas-fired indoor brick oven.
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Clay Bake Ovens
I almost bought this for my new kitchen (still might) to be cept I need to figure a way to put a chimmny in for it
My life is my passion!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://mha-net.org/msb/html/bakeoven.htm
http://mha-net.org/html/mall.htm
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/heatmasstovo.html
http://www.bia.org - Go to the Technical Notes and get number 19D
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=26682.1
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages/?msg=8443.10
Google for ("white oven" OR "black oven") brick
The sponsored links on the right include several vendors of wood fired ovens, including one that sells kits.
Edited 5/2/2004 7:03 am ET by Uncle Dunc
Alan Scott is an oven builder in California - his website has some good information:
http://www.ovencrafters.net/
He also wrote a book called "The Breadbuilders" which, if I remember correctly, has detailed diagrams, instructions, etc.
Mugnaini (http://www.mugnaini.com/) and Earthstone (http://www.earthstoneovens.com/) offer ovens that can be integrated into site-built masonry and are reputed to be very good - if not expensive.
While we are at it has anyone had firsthand experience building a masonry heater aka russian fireplace?
firsthand helping.
If you want info on masonry heaters, the best place to start is at the
masonry heater assoc. http://mha-net.org/
All/most of their members are down to earth artists that take a real pride in their craft. My college roomate (one of their longtime members) has a great business located a short way from cloud. He'd be happy to converse with you on heaters, bakeovens etc. Email me and I'll put you in touch.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Tom-I rebuilt a stand-alone oven behind my house. The house dates from the late 1700's, they built it outside to reduce the risk of fire and eliminate heat in Spring, summer and fall. It is a "squirrel back" design meaning the exhaust gases leave the back of the oven chamber and are drawn over the dome through a flue resembling a squirrel's tail, then up a brick chimney above the front opening.
Mine was built of stone & brick, you could use block to build a raised platform, waist height or so which is the floor of the oven. How tall is the baker? The floor of mine was laid on hand hewn timbers spanning the stone walls, the ends of the timbers rotted or dried out and one side began to slump. You could use channel iron or I beams to span across between the side walls and then lay corrugated metal and a sand bed, or you could simply fill it in w/ rocks, soil and/or sand, tamp it down and lay the floor directly on that. Don't bother to mortar the floor bricks but make sure they are fairly smooth, you will be sliding things over them and don't want to catch an edge. The old timers raked out all of the coals and ash and baked with the residual heat of the dome.
Determine the general shape of the dome and lay the bricks on the floor in a mortar/fire-clay/sand (3/2/5 I think was the ratio I settled on). Mine was in operation at least weekly from 1800 or so through the Great Depression. An elderly neighbor told me she had used it as a child. They did not use portland, neither should you, it is too hard and brittle.
Each course of brick needs to be slanted in somewhat, you'll get a feel for the angle based on how high it needs to be and whether the bricks will stay put. When they won't stay, you'll need to build a form. I made a collapsible box of plywood which just fit in the walls I had up to that point, I laid rocks around the box (it collapsed inwards), the rocks were on the outside to stabilize the box and on top of the box to take up space. I laid landscape cloth over the rocks and built up to the final shape w/ sand.
I didn't want to have to rake a whole lot of sand out when I was done, I just collapsed the box, pulled it and the rocks out & had 100-200# of sand left to deal with, otherwise, it would have been (or seemed like) a ton. You will need to cut the bricks to create a kind of football shape pattern in the roof, I used an angle grinder w/ a dry blade, placed the bricks next to each other on the sand form, marked them w/ chalk and made a helluva lot of dust, remember mine is outdoors.
The ovencrafters site someone else mentioned shows the dome shape and the pattern I mentioned, you may be able to built a simple barrel vault shape so you don't have to do so much cutting, maybe none if you have a flat, vertical back wall, but I don't know how well it will draw, heat up or hold the heat and the "traditional" shape looks neat.
A woman I know cooks on the open hearth at her house and uses her bake oven at least twice a month. Her entire place is original, she even found the old tools were ther when they moved in. I've been gathering tools from long handled pokers & tongs, to antique wooden peels. I haven't fired it yet, it is basically a verrrrry labor intensive lawn ornament, but I swear I'm gonna make one damn pizza in it before the end of the centruy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!