Clay oven

Formation of the clay oven

Today we are going to talk about a very useful type of oven if we have a field or a garden. It is a clay oven. It is a fairly widespread type of oven that can be used to make a homemade construction with reused materials and at low cost. It works quite well in terms of heat storage and makes food quite well.

In this article we are going to tell you step by step how you should build a clay oven.

Measures that the clay oven should have

Formation of the clay oven

For the construction of this type of ovens we must take into account the amount of food that we can cook at the same time. If we are talking that we are going to make family meals, it must at least have the capacity to fit about 3 pizza at a time. The standard measurements used in this oven They are about 50 centimeters in radius since 3 pizzas fit here quite comfortably.

The door must be designed taking as reference the containers that are to be placed inside the oven. In this way, we will tell me the width of said containers and we will make the door a little wider to be able to put and remove these materials without any problem. There are many people who recommend that this entrance be rounded to avoid heat loss, but this problem can be avoided by using a door that closes well.

The materials for the construction of the floor and the vault are quite scarce and inexpensive, so they do not generate extra costs. For the floor we must place some full or medium bricks but that are completely clean. We can use dimensions to the base of about 1.40 square meters and will need about 120 whole bricks.

For the vault we will need to use about 160 medium bricks. It is necessary to have some basic materials such as a lever to be able to mix and dose the mud, a mason scoop to place the mud, a bubble level so that the level is correct, a compass and a thread that had the same length diameter of which we are going to build the furnace. It is advisable to ask a blacksmith for a welding machine to be able to build the frame with the measurements of the door. This is the most complicated part to visit that can be facilitated by a friend that will give you a better aesthetic finish.

The clay from the oven

Types of oven

In this case, the cement that we are going to use is mud. For it we must get clean, light earth and if possible black in color to begin the installation. If the earth is black we will be guaranteeing that it has good properties to adhere to the bricks. We need approximately a quantity of 1 square meter of earth to make both the base, the vault and the plaster of the kiln. Also, it is necessary to have a horse dung with a burlap bag.

The best way to start mixing everything is to make a kind of well with a wide mouth. Here we will place some nylon lining or and we will place the earth to be able to make the mud. If we pass the earth through a kind of screen we can make the mixture easier to mix and avoid the rest of stones or impurities that it may have. The most recommended ratio is to use a quarter of a bucket of horse manure for every two 10-liter buckets. Horse manure is 80% soil and 20% manure. The consistency that the mixture should acquire is more or less that of a mashed potato.

Soil

The floor that we must build for the clay oven must have 3 levels. The first level we will build build the thermal base. We will use the bricks and we can make a formwork using irons to make a square fabric with dimensions of 30x 30cm. This part is left more to the creativity of the builder. Only some aspects should be taken into account, such as the weight that the base must support, based on what is going to be cooked frequently.

For the second level we will have to cover the base of bricks already settled with the mud. For the third level we will repeat the second stage but with the possibility of laying a cord of bricks on the perimeter of the base and placing a quantity of coarse salt mixed with ground glass to give it greater consistency. It is important to monitor the level on each of the floors so that the point is correctly placed

Clay oven vault

Clay oven

For the vault we need the base to be fully assembled and level. We will nail a compass and mark the entire circumference of the oven taking into account the width that the door will have. We will use a location of the oven where we must monitor the wind regime to place the door on the other side where we will be more comfortable to work.

We will take half bricks and a little brown to place them on the line marked previously. There is no inclination to give the first 3 courses. From this third and Lada we will have to give the bricks a little more angle. If we use the compass we can know the location of the brick and its inclination. When we have already completed two-thirds of the vault, we must leave a small space for the fireplace. This space should not be larger than a can.

I wanted to do all the vault formation in several sessions will be easier as it will continue to dry as we build it. Once we have finished building the vault, we will let everything dry for about a week. Then, we will use the same clay with which we have built the vault to make a layer of about 2 to 3 centimeters thick so that it is better protected. If we observe that the mud cracks more easily we can add a little more horse post to the proportion to make it blend better.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about how to build a clay oven.


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  1.   Carlos said

    Hello thanks for sharing, it seems to me that the amount of land is wrong since you say 1 square meter and I understand it should be in volume, cubic meters. If so, it would be a lot of land, about 1000 liters. Thank you

  2.   Alberto said

    Please at least check how the article was written. It has a lot of grammatical and spelling errors.