Brick Oven - v1.1

I made some modifications to the original attempt the next day to result in v1.1 of the oven.

My original thinking was that I would simply double the size all the way around, although due to the tight budget I ended up simply adding on a side box to hold the actual fire. I also dropped the height of the walls by one layer - partially to save bricks, partially because it seemed to be a better height for the scale of the outer dimensions.

The resulting modifications definitely lowered the grade of the aesthetics to a D minus, but decided to go function over form at this stage:

The added box is on the left and provided much better floor space in the actual cooking area itself:

While it may not be conventional, the side box also allowed me to have second opening (with its own door) which made it much easier to start and manage the actual fire itself:

I determined that a door was a necessity - in part I suppose because the materials I’m using are not the best for storing and radiating heat (as compared to actual fire brick). I used slats from an old wood pallet I got from behind a Wal*Mart - genius here obviously mismeasured one piece, but it was very easy to put into place and/or remove by fitting into a couple of the bricks I turned outward and made a world of difference in terms of retaining the heat:

The temperature on the floor of the oven got only to about 225-275 degrees - which again makes sense considering at present the floor I’m using is concrete (the dish that’s baking is a brilliant Jamie Oliver recipe):

Although the temperature in the mid-to-upper area got up as high as 450 degrees, so I simply put the baking dish on a brick:

The fact that I was able to get a good meal out of the deal made v1.1 a success in my mind, and for anyone who wants to keep a brick oven project simple and cheap (a couple hours and $20-25 total if you can find some of the materials free) you can probably stop here.

As for me? I’ve got some additional things on my to do list - fixing the door, trying to find a better floor and roof that doesn’t add a lot to the total cost of the project, an ash pan to make the post fire cleanup a little easier and trying to reconcile the function a little better with the appearance. Details on v1.2 to come…