True craftsman is into building a mobile oven

It is a true delight to have found this website. You are truly a craftsmen to have a great skill and knowledge and to be willing to share it with others.

As a child growing up with my grandparents who lived on a farm where we raised cattle, pigs, chickens etc. They had a smokehouse and we cured our meats. Food was prepared on a wood burning stove. We gardened and canned fruit & vegetables, made jelly and kept bees for honey. We hunted and fished as often as possible. A great childhood indeed. My grandmother always wanted to feed generously everyone who came to visit. At that time I thought cooking and feeding people was a lot of hard work. At 16 years of age I started working in a meat market and enrolled in an apprentice program to be trained as a butcher. I was very successful with this and hence it started my love affair with cooking and feeding people. I learned all about meats and preparing them and as I started cooking for family and friends I realized the pleasure and pride that also my Grandmother got from serving meals for other people was perhaps similar. The drawback was at that time being a butcher did not pay well.

At 24 years old I started a new apprentice program and I became a welder, fitter and metal fabricator. This opened many new doors and my life as a craftsmen gave me extra rewards, deserved, pride and money. I started building grills and smokers and studying the art of cooking using different preparation methods. This extended welding practice, also over the span of time, took a toll on my health. I started to develop respiratory problems from the inhalation of various fumes, gases and dust produced by welding various metals. At 47 years old I left welding, went back to school and received certifications from the American Welding Society as a Certified Welding Educator. A Certified Welding Inspector and a Certified Welding Supervisor. I can go anywhere I want and get good paying work. It sounds good but I do not get the satisfaction nor do I feel the sense of pride that I enjoyed as a craftsman or as a butcher when I was making foods for people. Also, another courtesy of years of working as full time welder, I am having trouble passing the pulmonary test on the pre-employment physicals that each job requires. The last test I took my lungs were rated as the lungs of a healthy 79 year old man. I just turned 51 in August. Other than that I am in good condition and I am looking forward to a long active life.

That brings me to life today. My girlfriend and I are going to start a mobile food vending business. We are going to target specific events and we will have concession trailers to prepare and sell our food from. My skills as a butcher and cook along with Renae’s (my girlfriend) knowledge of baking will not only make us an honest living but will give me the sense of pride that I need to be truly fulfilled as a craftsmen. I believe I can build and learn to operate a Wood fired oven fast and easily (with some quick initial guidance or by trial and error) that is mounted on a trailer and have up to three ovens that can cook at different temperatures. It would be nice to have one fire that could be used to heat the whole unit but it may not be possible. However it can all be incorporated into one structure and the heat will help maintain temperature for the other ovens. I need one very hot oven for pizza’s. I need one oven for mid range temperature of about 350 degrees Fahrenheit for baking breads, cakes etc. I also need one section that I can flood with smoke for cooking meats, curing meats and making jerky. All high quality production. This is how I would like to support myself in the last chapter of my life. Also it is just a dream but wood fired ovens installations are becoming popular for restaurants and for backyard patios. If I learn how to build these maybe I can again become a craftsman and open a business constructing these works of art. Food and metal manufacturing works hand in hand

I have been thinking and dreaming of this for a long time. I just found your website and I want to learn all I can from a true artist builder and crafsman.

I appreciate Rado’s words > quoting:

“Building brick oven is not hard to do, many people who never held a brick have built nice ovens for themselves. Basically; take it by building gradually in stages. Focus only on the one stage that you do. Do not look at the whole picture or on the full sequence from A to Z. concentrate only one one stage at the time. Each stage/step on its own (e.g. the slab, inner walls, top slab, firebricks part etc.) is little job and much more easy to do. Then stage by stage the structure grows nicely. Not much measuring goes around either, only on the ground slab for the inner and outer-decorative walls – and after that – the oven is risen up and all is done on the brick count (if stones are used for making the outer deco walls then the total ground slab foot print and walls depth and width lines can be 2 inches – 5cm further apart on each side because some rocks might be larger.) The photo sequence from DVD’s or by more prompt Downloading it is very detailed. To reach e.g. what is on the picture 1430 in 3G MTo design, it can be done in 7 days, work with concrete cinder blocks or firebricks is fast, and there is waiting one and half day for curing the ground and upper slabs for the cement to cure. Portable mobile oven on wheels? If you build on a trailer, get a strong two axles with brakes because these ovens are heavy. When this trailer will be regularly transported and moved around as per using it daily in successful business in different location, it would be best if you look for and invest into a ‘high quality prefabricated clay blocks’ (clay not heat resistant castable mix blocks) to put on the metal trailer. If the trailer was moved rarely you can build the barrel (square or rectangle floor) refractory part out of arch-shaped firebricks all bonded with pre-mix industrial air set mortar plus the usual cladding layer on top – in this you can bake quality breads as such oven is efficient and holds the stable baking heat atmosphere much better – and I think that is what you are after.”

I am going to build a heavy duty tandem axle trailer with breaks and build the oven on it. I have taken your advise and I have been going to salvage yards and looking for used or left over materials. You are right I think by doing this I can build for about 1/3 the price of what new material would cost. I am so excited I love working with my hands as well as my mind. I will stay in contact with you and share my progress. If this is successful I may try to start a business building these ovens. I think a craftsmen has building in his blood and I am happiest when I am building something. Thanks again.
Best Wishes
Allen in location: Knoxville, TN. USA