Rocket Stove Pizza Oven

[pa_friendly_guy]

I have wanted a wood fired out door Pizza Oven for some time now. After considering several different designs I settled in on the Aprovecho Research Center design. I liked it for what I mistakenly felt was an easy design that would be easy to build. Here is a link showing the basic design, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-g3jwv3R8Q They even posted a drawing of the unit and the basics of how to put it together. On the web sight look at publications, then go to about the 4th one about Pizza Ovens with chimneys. There are a number of ovens discussed in the article. Along about page 17 you will find the drawing of the oven. Turns out it is not to scale.

http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/index.php

Here is another video showing one of the ovens in operation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s2XZKA3R_8

I found a mechanic that had several barrels sitting out back in the weeds. Turns out he didn't really need them and offered them to me for FREE. Since the price was right I took them. My neighbor and I took his Pick Up Truck into town and picked up 4 barrels, 3 were 55 gal, one was a bit smaller.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Since I had some trouble with the 1st post I decided to make this in installments. I talked with a guy I know that has a welder, plasma cutter, and is a Wizard with cutting, bending and welding metal. He happens to be an Auto Body man by profession, but takes things easy these days. He said he could squeeze my project in between his paying jobs. He is sort of semi-retired you might say. So I took him the barrels after I had emptied out any residual waste oil that happened to be left inside .



He cut the bottoms out of the barrels and I took them back home and burned them



After the barrels were burned out and any residual oil was gone I returned the barrels to Ron. He started working at cutting and shaping the barrels.

[pa_friendly_guy]

He had his Grandson power wash each barrel.



Then he started to cut the barrels.



The oven started to take shape.

[pa_friendly_guy]

This was not as much of a Hands On project for me as I would have liked, I offered to help repeatedly but Ron seemed to do most all the work himself. I was given various tasks, mostly running for parts He needed. He wanted a different barrel for the main unit. He needed one with a lid, all of mine had to be cut and the lids would not fit as well. I was able to find one from a scrap dealer I know, we traded barrels so no money was involved. I needed a handle for the oven and wanted one like some of the old coal stoves had, sort of a spring thingy that dissipated the heat and didn't get hot. After looking every where including Lysippus Hardware [ A very Old Hardware store with a tin ceiling wooden front porch and oil lamps in the front window. They had lid lifters for cook stoves, but no handles like I wanted ] I saw a slag hammer that you would use to knock the flux off welds. The scrap dealer had a bucket with several old ones in it. I bought the angel iron for the metal shelves and had him cut it to length for me. He gave me 2 of the old hammers and even cut them off for me. Perfect! I had to buy the insulation, strap hinges, 3/4" angle iron, Thermometer for the door, high heat paint, stove pipe, and an 8" elbow . Ron had the rest of the metal I needed and we had the barrels. He fabricated a place to attach the hinges. Had to trim the barrel door down a bit so that it would swing open with out catching. He had to cut a section out of the top barrel that would hold the insulation in place. I had Ron weld it to the smaller inner barrel as a sacrificial plate where the flames would hit the barrel. There is 2" between the large and smaller barrels all around. Ron welded a 2" piece at the back of the larger barrel so that the smaller barrel would rest on it. In the front he used bolts with washers to hold the proper distance between them. All in All I was very pleased with the final produce, I thought Ron did a Great job. He brought the oven to me last Friday and then took his family on vacation. I had to wait until he got back to get the pictures of the oven.

[pa_friendly_guy]

My Brother in Law owns a metal fabricating shop and I had him cut and weld the expanded metal shelves for me. They were stainless steel and Ron did not really want to mess with them. One shelf is 18" X 27" the smaller shelf is 12" X 27". Both could be used to cook Pizza,

[matt walker]

Wow Guy, awesome! I have often watched Dr. W's video of that style oven and thought how cool it is. I am so glad you built it! Of course now we need pictures of pizza and bread and hopefully some cake or soufflé or something! Seriously, I'd love to see it burning and cooking. I'm sure you are going to have a blast with it. Keep us posted on how it works please.

[pa_friendly_guy]

When I got it last week it didn't work. Ron had followed the drawings and made the baffles way too long so that not enough air was able to get through, it just wasn't drawing right. So I took it apart and cut the baffles down from 24" to 18" and redid the foil wrapping. That made a big difference. It is now drawing much better and when it is running well there is very little smoke. I may need to trim another inch or two off the baffles, but for now I am going to try it this way. I am torn between having a better draw and keeping the heat and smoke inside the oven longer. I am planning on trying a Pizza for supper tonight. For the 1st attempt I bought a pizza at the store for a couple of bucks. I didn't want to go to a lot of work and ruin the thing, I will let you know if it turns out well. Even if it turns into one of those Learning experiences I will tell you what I did wrong.

[mannytheseacow]

Nice oven, Guy! I've never seen these before but I can see the possibilities. I had 10 volunteers over at my place tonight and we made a bunch of pizzas- my kitchen is still hot. I'm thinking I could finagle something atop my rocket maple cooker that could bake some pizza pies out back.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Matt has a nice cobb oven placed on top of his one barrel. It is small [ The top of a barrel ] but it cooks pizza well and I would guess fairly quickly. The advantage to the design I chose is size. It has a much larger cooking area.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Here is some more of the detail.
The hinge detail


The door handle. I was very pleased with this.



When the stove gets heated up and starts to draw better, very little if any smoke.



Here is the fire.




Here is my 1st Pizza, it was Yummy.



I did not want to put a lot of work into that 1st Pizza and mess it up in the oven because of inexperience, so I bought one in the store and Doctored it up with peppers out of the garden and extra cheese. I even added some mushrooms to my 1/2, It was really Great for a 1st attempt. My wife even paid me a Huge compliment, She said, ' It isn't as Bad as I anticipated " Coming from her that is High Praise, High Praise indeed.