Firedome_2 coming soon

For those two of you not too bored to get through the tedium that is my flatbread obsession, I made a couple observations  during the pita production to propel me into a few experiments which will inevitably lead to a new and simpler design for my Firedome pizza oven.  At the beginning of that video production, my thermocouple device was measuring 927°F with the door open and went as high as 987°F.  The entire few minutes was filmed with the door open.  I have to figure out if the top vent on the dome needs to be open or closed or if it makes a difference.  Basically, it seems that the open door really kicks up the combustion.

Because that hinged door required me to break the flanged bead of the bottom of the kettle lid, the lid fits sloppy, may be getting gaps that aren't thermally productive.  I may do away with the door; just cut in an opening big enough for a comfortable slide of the peel and big enough to increase combustion.  Dimensions of this will be a guess, but guided by a few more dry runs.  On the other side of the getting the temps up, is the rate of fuel consumption.  If I boost this thing to blast furnace temps, will I be able to cook longer than an hour?  It's looking like I might need a convenient means to do at least one charge mid cooking to get a couple hour feast in.  Not too worried about that.

Next couple weeks, I'll probably take another kettle lid as a casualty and also play around with placement of the pizza stone (it'll be placed away from the opening, not dead center), geometry of the firebricks beneath the stone which help orient the fuel properly and lots of measurements of the headspace temperatures and the cooking surface to make sure it's uniform.  Gonna be awesome!

Oh, and I'm probably going ahead with a plan with Fortin Iron Works to make a dedicated stand for this beast.  Should be a nice wrought iron simple stand; pretty much a 22" diameter and 3' high plant stand.  We sketched out one the other day and he quoted me about $100.

ps, To the locals:  I walk the alleys of C'ville all the time and I see what must be hundreds of pounds of these kettles everywhere - neglected (you bastards).  If you want, I'll take your lid and cut you an experimental design (usable on your existing bottom hemisphere).  You get a cool new pizza oven (which may not be optimal, but will be killer) and I get a data point.  Let me know if you're interested in the comments.