Hi all, im new to this forum,
im looking to build a semi comercial wood oven is their anyone who could give me some tips or points,
i am a qualified chef though entirely self taught in the realm of sourdough and naturaly leavened bread.
any help would be amazing thanks in advance
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there is a good site http://www.traditionaloven.com/
where Rado has everything you need to know about oven building he is in Australia/
Depending on how often you fire it up and how much acess to wood you have.
You either build with more thermal mass or more insulation
The more thermal mass you have the more wood it takes to heat up
The less thermal mass and more insulation the less wood it takes
If you plan on using it daily you want mass to store heat.
If you are firing it up only on weekends you want less thermal mass to heat up quicker and more insulation to hold that heat.
So you either build something many bricks thick or you build soemthing half a brick thick
I also found https://community.fornobravo.com/ very helpful. Most posts are aimed at aimed a pizza style oven but there is a lot of information.
Australia in SE Qld?
If interested I can probably help with a really well made boiler maker fabricated, very heavy fully fire bricked, insulated dual oven & firebox for about $1100.
Can fire up for anyone interested in checking out.
Makes wonderful sourdough & roasts/vegetables etc.
This oven is made from assembled manageable parts so the firebricks can be removed when moving, if needed. The oven needs to be dis-assembled to better handle/sized weights when man handling for transport or alternatively easily sling lifted with a moble crane or 4 wheel drive loader.
There is a couple of metres of spare boxed 2" thick insulation.
Dimensions: Oven external 1180 high 665 wide 560 deep....Stand 460 high....Bottom oven 470 wide x 500 deep
Call is: oh-four-1-4-for-too-to-7-double six
Send email for more pictures
I built an Alan Scott oven a few years ago, big enough to bake 8-10 big loaves at a time (his middle sized plans). These ovens have a ton of thermal mass, so when I had a full time job and only baked on occasional weekends it was misery getting the oven hot and stabilized, especially when making long fermented breads. I struggled a great deal with timing, although the bread was still pretty darn good! Now I have a lot more free time and can bake more frequently, that same thermal mass is fantastic and my breads are a lot more consistent. So if you are looking at starting a community supported bakery or taking breads to a farmer's market, that is one option. His web site is no longer up (he died a few years ago), but I know there is someone at thefreshloaf.com that has put the plans on line. There is a book called 'The Breadbuilders' that is great in its own right and will talk you through the Scott plans. I had not seen the traditional oven site mentioned above before, but it looks really good to me. I think Scott was an Australian native as well, so maybe the two are connected in some way! Good luck.
thanks every one for the help on this one. it is an idea that is very quickly devoloping into an actual business.
i will be aiming for wholesale colaboration with other businesses.
next step is finding interesting grains wholesale prices, at the moment i'm using the community co op and 'the source' but both are very expensive. up in north queensland.