Build your own Pizza Oven

Your step-by-step guide to building your own pizza oven. Building it takes about two days of grubby work; it speeds up building to have two or three people making the thick-walled shell, the mass of which stores the heat of the fire. The reward: wonderfully rustic pizzas, roasts, vegetables, and crusty loaves of bread from your own oven.

You will need:
• 100 bricks
• One cardboard barrel
• One empty 1-litre can
• Galvanized wire mesh
• Chicken wire
• 1.2m of rough-sawed hardwood 50 x 100mm
• 30cm of hardwood 25mm thick
• 16 screws
• Aluminum flashing
• Eight large wheelbarrow loads of heavy clay soil
• Three bags cement
• Exterior acrylic paint
You'll also need a tape measure, hacksaw, pencil, circular saw with masonry bit, wire cutters, drill, screwdriver, large wheelbarrow, shovel, sturdy rubber gloves, sponge, small piece of scrap plywood, old towels, and plastic tarp.

Here's how:
Find a safe, level location in your garden for the oven.

1. Arrange bricks on the ground to make a base approximately 800 x 1300mm and build up three rows.

2. Cut the barrel in half lengthwise with a hacksaw. Centre empty can on closed end of a half-barrel; trace and cut out circular shape. This hole will be the vent.

3. Score and cut two bricks in half.

4. Starting at back end of base, make three U-shaped layers of bricks to support the half-barrel. Each layer is three bricks long and 2 1/2 bricks wide at back end. Position barrel on bricks.

5. Cut a piece of the wire mesh and shape it so it arcs over the barrel by about 5cm. Bend and tuck excess under bricks at side. Repeat with at least one layer of chicken wire, bending and folding edges over the rear and open end of barrel.

6. Make door: Cut three 36cm-long pieces from hardwood. Join them together with screws running through two parallel lengths of timber across the front. Cut top into an arch that measures 36cm tall at the peak and conforms to the basic shape of the open end of the barrel. Shape handle from excess timber, and screw to the door. Centre and tack flashing around door perimeter. Insert the can in the hole cut in rear of barrel.

7. Mix 3 parts clay soil to 1 part cement, add water, and mix to the consistency of thick oatmeal. Be warned: it’s tiring and muddy work. Test that the mix holds together by squeezing it.

8. Working from the base up, pack the cement mixture firmly over and through the layers of mesh - leaving no air pockets. Pack mixture around the can, wiggling and rotating it to keep it from being trapped in place. Form arch for door by squeezing mixture into the chicken wire, and periodically inserting the door (with flashing attached) to check fit. Continue adding mixture until the coat is 10 to 15 cm thick overall. Let it dry slightly, then smooth the surface with a damp sponge and a wood "float" made with scrap plywood.

9. Wiggle the door and can, then cover the oven with damp towels and plastic tarp. Keep towels damp and oven covered for at least a week while cement hardens and cures (check daily). Remove flashing from door.

10. Paint the shell after building first fire.

  source: sunset publishing