Loved the idea of a brick oven with a cast-iron door. Using the suggested closure dimensions from BrickWoodovens.com I found a door sold on eBay. This door or one like it was mentioned on a previous post.
The dimensions of the door were too small for the planned matone barile grande oven.
As I was planning a matinee barile oven I looked. A problem I continued to run into was many doors were to big or to small. I eventually chose this one.
I used standard brick to close off the opening and utilized an aluminum L-bar to support the brick traversing the opening. This rectangle was centered and made to fit the door dimensions.
As you can see there were now gaps to fill. I fashioned entryway stones from dark grey pavers and shaped the pavers to the cast iron door. I wanted the door flush to the entry and dressed into opening created by the pavers Using a chop saw with stone blade, I fashioned the pavers to my needed dimensions and made enough to create my entryway. Except for the corners all the stones were identical in shape and size. I’m sorry I can’t locate any images of the shaped paving stones. I used cardboard spacers to raise the pavers above the door, shape the pavers in exact curve of the door , and make the door removable. High temp mortar was used to mortar the precut pavers in place. 1/2 inch foam spacers were used for uniform distance between cut pavers. Once in place the door was removed the pavers were locked in with more high temp mortar.
Having the door removable has made cleaning the door of rust easier. It made the later modifications to the interior of the oven eaisier. If ever the door needed replacement I would not need to destroy the front of the oven.
The door helps retain heat for sure. If I had a choice it would have been nice to have an adjustable window on the door to control air entry. My solution is to crack the door open, but a sliding door would have been nice.
