44 Gallon Drum Stove, now a pizza oven!

First pizzas from the drum oven this weekend!


The pizza bread is made from home bake, gluten free mix and needed to be toasted lightly on top to allow the toppings to be spread on.

still a bit smokey

I re-sealed the flue with more fire cement where the first attempt had failed due to getting too wet before curing, then oven was lit and the fire let burn for a short time. Once it was steady, but still a little smokey, the first pizza went in. Garlic and cheese thick base.

It came out perfectly! Yum.

Cheese & Garlic, the first pizza

The next two worked well, although I nearly burnt the bottom of the big one. Would a pizza stone or fire brick help to distribute the direct heat from the fire box? Probably.

Ready to eat?

Good fun and tasty pizzas.

family feast!

Then a big log on the fire and sit down to watch the bush telly.

big log makes good viewing

Brian.

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9 Responses to “44 Gallon Drum Stove, now a pizza oven!”

  1. nice pizza oven, i too built a wood fired oven out of an oil drum
    http://www.countrywoodsmoke.wordpress.com
    cheers
    marcus

  2. luxgraphicus says:

    Thanks Marcus. Do you have pics of it? I looked quickly at your blog but couldn’t find anything. Brian.

  3. Hi Brian,
    the pizza oven in the blog is made from half an oil drum that i covered in various layers of insulation to trap the heat, have you thought about adding any insulation to your oven, would be awesome built into a feature wall, I also built a bbq smoke out of a drum you can see in the background
    cheers
    marcus

  4. luxgraphicus says:

    Cool. Yes, I want to add thermal mass by putting refactory bricks into the oven and fire box spaces. This should help keep the temp in the oven more consistent, and hold it for longer.
    I like being able to move the oven if it gets in the way, but yes, it would be good built into a wall if we had an appropriate spot for it.
    Keep cooking!

  5. chris says:

    I love it , you have three doors 1 for pizza one for the wood the third?, is the pizza cooking on the metal or fire bricks and is it lined
    regards chris

    • luxgraphicus says:

      Hi Chris, yes, and the third is the ash pan.
      I have a pizza stone (like you use in hooded BBQ’s) in the oven space and place pizza’s on aluminium trays onto that.
      I found the direct heat from below was too much without the stone.
      There are bricks in both the firebox and oven but they are around the sides to provide thermal mass.
      They are actually Canberra Red house bricks which were fired to high temperature when manufactured and don’t deteriorate at high temps.
      Both the pizza stone and the brick thermal mass were added after some testing. The images here are prior to that.
      Thanks for you interest, Brian.

  6. Philipdiy says:

    Hey there, great oven, you should be proud.
    Couple of questions, from start to finish how long did this project take? And how long for a pizza to cook?
    Envious yet intrigued

    Phil

    • luxgraphicus says:

      Hi there, sorry for the slow reply !
      I’m a slow worker, so things progress over a long period of time. But not too many hours of actual work. Mostly thinking about how to do things, rather than actually doing them!
      I’d guess 25 hours?
      Pizzas take about 5-8 mins, depending on temp of oven. I’ve installed a thermometer since and found @ 250 C + its about 6 mins for a pizza.
      Cheers,
      Brian.

  7. chris says:

    Hi Chris here again I have the drum ,bricks,insulation blanket, is one full drum used or 1 and a bit , with the firebox to the top chamber is ther an opening to the flue
    regards chris