Realized that I had not updated this thread with what I did and how it went..
After inquiring on that thread I went out and grabbed a few fire bricks to try my hand at it. I wanted to go (as is my nature) CHEAP DIY and came up with this.
This is a hybrid of the set-up being done by Johnny on this thread:
http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=30811.msg261523#msg261523Bit of a low budget DIY run-what-u-brung attempt this weekend. I have not been able to find the fire brick slab / hearthstones here locally to use as a top plate and don't want to drop $80+shipping for a baking steal right now..
I have been able to find basic Fire bricks though and already have a thin 15" pizza stone (.35").
I will put the side dampers in to act a bit like the vaporizers you guys are using, just space them away from the fire pot shield to let lot of heat go straight up.
Then I am going to use the grease tray as my top baking steel over the fire bricks. Since I am taking it out anyway, might as well give it a whirl! It is only .1" thick so not going to have a ton of radiant heat, but I figure it is a vast improvement over just a stone in there with the grease tray in normal position blocking the stone.
Total of $8.50 for a two fire bricks after tax.
I had issues and have a bit to learn about this whole home-made thinner crust pizza game, but the method worked.
Here are the results.
Top
Bottom
Does it mean anything if I mention that I ate all but 2 pieces of it myself?
Good:- Great heat transfer top and bottom with flavor to match.
- Super quick cook. 3min, rotate 180, 3min DONE! :grill
- Did I mention great flavor and crispy crust!?? :cool2:
- Less than $10 modification (So far) :2cents:
- YUMMY!
Needs Improvement:
- My pizza making technique. Got 1st one done and the crust was so thin I could not get it onto a pizza peal or even move it 1" on the cutting board we made it on. Adding flour underneath did not help, the crust was to thin and just tore. I ended up rolling it up like strudel to get it off the board and get tinfoil under it. That is why no real border crust.
- Anything better to use than tinfoil? Be nice to not use it, though It did work pretty well and let me rotate the pizza mid cook...
- Need to learn flour management. After rolling it up I over-floured the tinfoil and had pockets of flour when it was done.
- It ate a TON of pellets, at least 1/2 a hopper making 2 pizzas. I let it build up temp a while, 15-20min? But it basically ran full tilt for a long time. I will have to work on what I can do to retain more heat in chamber. (downdraft, blanket..)
- The grease tray was very wobbly. The bricks are only 1" wide and not very stable. not sure how to fix that, the turned down edges also made it more difficult to work with pizza under it. This tells me a baking steel like johnny is doing should work AWESOME.
- Need to even out temps so not have to rotate the pizza. I think I will close up the right side deflector as the flame already goes that way because of the fan. Should help shuttle heat left.
- Maybe a bigger or large square bottom stone would work better to, so pizza not hanging over edges into direct heat.
- OMG I need some heat resistant/insulated gloves/gauntlets for working in the grill not only with pizzas. Only having one oven mit made things interesting..
