Now we have the fundamentals/reasons for the front walls there are a million ways to do it.
My MAIN consideration is that I want a door on my oven, hinged, and I want it BEFORE the chimney to maximise the heat retention in the oven. what this means to me is that YES i will get a build up of smoke inside intially but the bricks will reach a good high temperature and its this residual heat will stay long after the smoke is gone. building the heat into the bricks seems to be the most important thing in most things i read/view.
So my design is built around having a door, once I get the door then i will complete my front design.
I got an old cast iron gate yesterday (it's a frame not solid), its about hip high, cost me $5 from the rubbish tip where they have a recyced section. I will be using it as not only the base for the oven door but for the smoker door as well as I will cut it up and put metal across it to close it off.
My plan is to have the front arch the same as the internal arch thus not having to do a different template, you won't see the internal from the outside as it will have layers of insulation over it.
