tandoor top section

I mentioned earlier that the tandoor terracotta pot stuck out the top of the concrete slab and i would explain why, so here it is.

The tandoor top is important and should be VERY close to the top of its surrounds but not sticking out, BUT with this design its ok to give it a little height eg: @ 5-10ml ( 1.5 inch)

but what i will be doing is putting side metal bars to rest the smoker oven hotplate/fire on so not to put to much heat directly onto the terracotta top.

its going to be an interesting design feature that i have not seen so far on the internet. (yes it might have been done but i haven't seen it)

not only that but the way i intend to do it is sooooo simple, i just CAN'T wait to detail it, so stay tuned.

How the tandoor works with a smoker oven

If you have read any of my pizza oven project http://free-pizza-oven.blogspot.com/ you will know this blog will be an extensive array of information.

The concept is very clear in my mind and as this blog progresses i will come up with problems and then solve them, giving full explaination of how i did everything and with images.

The tandoor heat sorce is going to be a great solution to making both a cold and hot smoker oven as it allows me to easily have the heat/smoke source further away from the food being smoked.

A rough sketch

Heres my rough sketch of my concept, its @ 80cm square, thats @ 3.5 bricks square.

At the bottom is a 100mm concrete slab ,a small layer of sand (not shown), and then a 44gallon oil drum on top (thin dark vertical line 57cm wide) cut down to @ 70cm high, inside laid with "fondue" is a layer of fire bricks with a circle of fire brick circle standing up, set with fondue (yellow). On top of that is an upsidedown terracotta pot 56cm high and 40cm at the bottom (dark green), the whole at the top is 25cm wide, the pot is thus a gentle slop inward.

The combination of the firebricks and the pot height + the cut down drum means the tandoor top sticks out the top (more on that reason in another post)

I will then coat the outside of the pot in fondue and then fill the oil drum with a combo of clay and vermiculite for insulation (cream).

Outside the drum to the brick wall i wil fill with more clay, the main reason for clay is I have HEAPS of it from excuvating the original site so I might as well use it (light green).

Where the tandoor/terracotta pot sticks out the top I will be laying a concrete slab with reinforcing (blue).

The outside wall is single brick but above the tandoor will be double brick up to a height of about 1.9 metres, there will be bricks slightly laid inward so i can put racks on them but easily remove the racks for when i am tandooring (red).

That section will have 2 doors, 1 for the smoke/burn section and 1 for the smoking section. These doors open up fully to give access to the tandoor, i'm thinking of putting removable door hinges on?.

THUS you can either tandoor or smoke.

The bottom of the tandoor can also be used when you want to "cold smoke" cheeses etc, but more on that later.

At the very top will be a chimney with a flow controller.

The top layer will be a horizontal cement slab ( just like multi level carparks method)

SOO, thats the basic idea, lets see what happens

smoker oven - the grand plan

Hi and welcome to this blog, I will detail through this blog how to build a tandoor oven as cheaply as possible.

The blog will contain step by step images and descriptions of what I do and what pitfalls I end up with plus how I solve them.

I'll also be including links to youtube videos that are relevent as well as links to others websites that I have found that you may be interested in.

If you don't belive me then just have a look at my recent wood fired pizza blog: http://free-pizza-oven.blogspot.com/ , as i am writing this I have done 98 posts and countless images.

NOW for the plan, well the pizza oven was a sunday project just like this one will be so that pizza oven took me close to 9 months to complete ! well, i'd never in my life laid a brick before so it was simply no time schedule.

NOW with my new skills this one should happen ALOT quicker.

GRAND PLAN: After much research I have worked out how to combine a Tandoor oven and a Smoker oven !!! YEP, thats what I'm going to attempt. I have limited room and I am a FAN of Indian cooking, far more so then smoking food as I actually dislike it but the oven is at the "inlaws" and they love smoked food.

My design is based on a few webs i have seen, heres the links with my description of them:

http://www.killdawabbit.com/ebay/tandoorOven.htm , this is pretty much what the bottom section will be like for my tandoor and then I'll build a smoker on top. Theres a few different aspects to this design that I will change but more on that as i go.

http://piers.thompson.users.btopenworld.com/insulating.html and this
http://www.villagok.dk/tandoor/ are very similar and all good info

http://oildrumtandoor.blogspot.com/ : VERY informative website on building a oil drum tandoor, but i think the use of clay "sheets" and the problems with joining them so it doesn't crack is a bit risky. It would be interesting to see if its still functioning after a few years?

http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/tandoor.htm , a small website but really making a tandoor basically and quickly.

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/refractories.html , if you are interested in creating your own castable concrete.

NOW for some smoker oven links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59jLWJkD28 , this is a great vid on setting your wood/heat up for smoking, forget about the cooking..pay attention to what he's saying about the burning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwZ5TmKU5FM&feature=channel , same guy, its a long vid but worth it in the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4hrcRNx_i4&feature=channel , same guy , how to build his smoker oven.

SO anyway the end result will be what it will be so stay tuned. Its going to be ALOT of brick laying, some welding, terracotta clay pot, backyard clay, vermiculite, cement and some sort of chimney...sounds like fun.