With the success of our Mark I pizza oven Alan decided to make a new and improved version (Mark II) in 2019, with the recent interest in our Pizza Clay (ES 180) we felt it would be helpful for those looking to keep themselves occupied during COVID-19 and to enjoy homemade pizzas to have a bit of advice on the process of building your very own pizza oven.
You will need:
INGREDIENTS…
Dome
15 – 20 bags x ES 180 (Sculpting Pizza Body)
3ft piece of Land drain (for chimney if required)
Base – optional can use brick instead
12m x Steel angle iron (40mm x 5mm thickness) to make the frame
6m x flat steel (50mm x 5mm thickness) to support the kiln shelves or bricks
Used kiln shelf (30mm thick) or fire brick to give you approximately 1100mm square
Small bcket of fire cement to join kiln shelf or fire bricks
Canopy – optional
3m x flat steel (5mm x 50mm thickness)
1 sheet (1.2m x 2.4m) of galvanized steel (1mm thick) – (cut to size to make the roof & sides)
4m x (25mm) steel tube (25mm)
METHOD…
The first decision to make is whether you are looking to build a brick or steel base for your pizza oven. We chose to create a welded steel base for our pizza oven making it strong and permanent.
Step 1 – Creating the Steel base*
To create the steel base you will need to cut and weld the steel angle and flat steel to assemble the frame, in this case to fit the kiln shelf.
Step 2 – building your dome
A dome of clay is then created incorporating the chimney (optional). To do this you will need to use approximately 15 – 20 bags of ES 180 (Sculpting/Pizza Body). You will need to cut & curve the blocks of clay on the kiln shelf but first remember to sprinkle some dry sand onto the kiln shelf (this will allow for shrinkage when drying).
Ensure that you incorporate the chimney into the dome so that it is positioned in the centre and at the back (if required). When laying the clay against a new piece you will need to cross hatch both sides to ensure that they fit well together. You will also need to do quite a bit of moulding with your hands to create the dome and to smooth out where the clay pieces join. Use a flat piece of wood to pat the clay down which helps to form a better join & to help with crackin (you will experience some cracking during the drying process see step 4).
Step 3 – Create your entrance
Once you have finished creating the dome you will then need to create an opening. Ensure you create a semi-circular lip coming out from your dome and then cut out a tappered semi-circular hole inwards to form the door (see above video as a guide). The part of clay that you have removed will be the pizza oven door and will need to be kept seperate to dry but before it is completely dry you will need to remove some thickness from the inside of the door to 40mm to ensure it isnt to heavy to lift. Whilst still leather hard you may need to cut a holes to attach a handle later on. We fired this at 1000c to give it some rigibility and then attached a handle.
Step 4 – the drying process
The oven was then left over approximately a two week period to dry using a large fan. Watch out for a bit of cracking during this period, which is to be expected, and repair with the same clay when applicable until dry.
Once your dome is dry you will need to do a test firing to ensure that there are no further cracks both during the firing and cooling stages. First you will need to roll up some newspaper and place it inside the pizza oven, then with a match you will need to light the paper. Once lit place the kindling (wood sticks) on top of the paper to ensure a good fire.
If everything is working correctly you will start to see smoke billowing out of the chimney.
Step 5 – Cooking your pizza
Now you are ready to cook your first pizza….see our article on cooking your pizza.