A very small and strange WFO

Well, here's a little bit about my oven, by request...

Thermal Mass said:

Would love to see your little WFO, sounds cool!! :biggrin1:

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Well, like my smoker, it's a fairly crazy contraption!

I just can't help myself from experimenting with these things, so I threw this together in a few hours one Saturday last month. It's nice in that it heats up to around 800*F-900*F in a few short minutes and I can close off the burner at that point and start cooking. I also designed the firebox on this one to allow me to feed in long sticks, so I'm using it to clean up the sticks around the place while I bake my breads. It's small, but just right for a 12" pizza or a loaf of bread. I did do some fresh halibut in there the other day as well, which was fantastic.

Anyway, here it is in all it's muddy glory. Some day I'll get around to doing a nice finish and painting the barrels, but I'm too busy playing with what's possible at this point. When the burner to the oven is closed this one diverts the heat to a masonry bench for heated seating in the cool evenings. That's actually it's exhaust you see over by the other barrel. It heats the bench between the oven and the exhaust.

The oven....


The firebox....


Cooking Halibut, you can see the burner control underneath the pizza stone. I've since built a baffle that fits better....


The whole family with the main firepit unit I use for smoking in the foreground....



And a short clip of the burner in action so you can see it's potential. I've since put an insulated refractory plate as a diffuser so the pizza stone isn't getting directly blasted...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr0O7kSb5f0&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

hockeyfox said:

What kind of [pizza] stone are you using that will take the heat the unit gives off.

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The one in the clip is a Primo 13" stone, but I've broken enough of them now to know better than to have them in the direct flame like that. I've since added a small refractory disc underneath the pizza stones to take the direct blast. That said, I've had good luck with the Old Stone Oven brand and the Primo grill pizza stones. I also use them in the Weber, which I cut the bottom out of, as diffusers when I smoke.

Yep MS, they are basically modified RMH's. I've developed the baffled hole on top of the barrel which gives really good heat control, especially for a wood fired device. The no smoke, small fuel needs, and heated seating are really nice features. I realize that first part is blasphemous here, but I do add the smoke when I need it by putting the smoke wood on the barrel top.

I use half barrels for the benches, which act as arch molds for the cob and also make a perfect flue for the exhaust gasses to heat the benches. They are low mass benches when built this way, so better suited to outdoors applications. Quick to heat up, but they don't hold the heat like a heavier thermal battery would.

Thanks for the kind comments Brethren! I'm going to work on my dough technique and see if I can show you guys some pie here soon.