home made camp ovens or Bedourie

[finga]

Has anybody made their own camp oven or Bedourie or have plans for one??
The cook has taken to making dampers and loves the idea of camp oven cooking.
I thought the next logical step would be to make our own oven instead of buying one (and I'm a tight wod).
Any leads would be great. :D

Cheers then
Scott :)

PS she loves your site Derek and if we don't make something up the Southern Metal Spinners will get another sale...a 15" I reckon ;D

[Pridey]

I've actually been thinking about this too. I have been meaning to hit up a boilermaker mate of mine. Some of the camp ovens out there are a bit xxy if you want one big enough to cook for a few people.

[thephotoguru]

What size camp ovens are we talking?

[Derek Bullock]

Has anybody made their own camp oven or Bedourie or have plans for one??
The cook has taken to making dampers and loves the idea of camp oven cooking.
I thought the next logical step would be to make our own oven instead of buying one (and I'm a tight wod).
Any leads would be great. :D

Cheers then
Scott :)

PS she loves your site Derek and if we don't make something up the Southern Metal Spinners will get another sale...a 15" I reckon ;D


Scott

Seen lots of things you have put together on here at times and I reckon with your talent you could make one. Go and have a look at a new Bedourie and see how they are done. The new ones are spun steel but the originals made by Simpson were rolled, spot welded and riveted.

Would be very interested how it turns out. In fact if you are happy with it and take some good photos of making it and the end product I would be happy to feature it on my website.

At the end of the day a camp oven is just a metal container to hold heat in. Doesn't have to be fancy at all.

Let me know how you go.


Derek

[finga]

The brain is already working.
Some 18" steel pipe with bottom welded in and an old inverted plough disc for a lid and a rolled rim (note to self...bring the metal roller next trip from Brisbane)
Or a big old truck brake drum with a gas bottle cut in half inside it...and an old inverted plough disc for a lid

Bugger you Derek....I'm still trying to figger out a boat mover for Charlieville.
Oh well. I reckon I could think about both. ;)

[Bros]

Yes I have made one and it was quite successful in cooking but if you are any good a 20l drum would do equally well.

The main problem was the bottom. It was impossible to get smooth corners similar to spuns steel or cast. I now have a modified Bedourie and think it is great.

[finga]

How critical is the nice fillet in the bottom?
I can get pretty neat and smooth with the trusty old mig but it isn't baby bum smooth. More like 30-40 year old wrinkles (pending lifestyle).

Is it important to have a bit of thickness in the steel or does a 44 drum type thickness work.
I would have thought you'd need some thickness to even the jumps in temperature out and to hold some heat.
I was thinking 5/32-3/16 for the sides, 1/4-3/8 for the base and an inverted plough disc for the top.
Is it better for good old steel or will stainless work as well??

Old gas bottles have nice rounded corners in their bottoms....so do old kegs.

[Bros]

It is much easier to clean when the bottom is spun. That is the only reason. I think with the large ones it would probably be better to make one if you could and use a trivet and it wouldn't matter about the corners.

I made mine out of 16 burner tube from a power station a mate made one and just folded it and his was square they both worked well for roasting. In fact he was smarter than me as he made 2 with one fitting inside the other something you couldn't do with round unless you got the right size pipe.

They were all made out of 1/4 plate.

I don't know what I was thinking of but they were made entirely out of 1/8 plate.

[Pridey]

I've seen a few cut down kegs used before mate, being under pressure they are thick etc. then you just have to think about the lid

[Heath]

Don't just make one Scott :)

Been watching a few old videos featuring Thomo camp cooking.
My young bloke (9) then wants to make a damper....

Well stuff me, 20mins later out he comes with the best friggin damper I have ever tasted. All nice & golden brown, with cheese & bacon through it!!! :oOnly needed mums help to get into & out of the oven.

So now a camp oven is on the list before our next trip.

How busy are you? Might need your expertise for a set of racks for the trailer.....;D

yak soon

Cheers

[TheRealAndy]

Scott, if you can make something like that, then you can make me a keg crab cooker. I would pay for it, and I can give you plans out of my head.

[Pridey]

I struggle to boil crabs anymore... fresh muddies thrown straight onto low coals .......you thought crabs were good before !!!

[finga]

Well stuff me, 20mins later out he comes with the best friggin damper I have ever tasted. All nice & golden brown, with cheese & bacon through it!!! :oOnly needed mums help to get into & out of the oven.

So now a camp oven is on the list before our next trip.

How busy are you? Might need your expertise for a set of racks for the trailer.....;D
Little bugger. The cook is like that...
She couldn't make a scone to save my life and then has a go at a damper and wooohoo. It's like my taste buds are doing a jig in my mouth...in a good way ;D

When's your next trip?


Scott, if you can make something like that, then you can make me a keg crab cooker. I would pay for it, and I can give you plans out of my head.
No use in your head are they unless you have eyeballs like a projector :D

I better go and have a look at the scrap yard for some more kegs then eh.
I have one in Brisbane but it has Charleville's name painted on it.

I should have just shut my mouth about this whole caper :-[

;D

[murf]

IMO the stainless steel kegs wont transfer the heat :( you will get hot spots and cold spots etc, but would be good for stews and the like where you just have bottom heat

cheers Murf

[GBC]

If you can supply the sand mould I know a bloke who just happens to own a foundry.

They do mining equipment though, so you might have to settle for a camp oven made from ni-hard instead of cast iron......

You do know BCF do a perfectly good one for 60 bucks? Oh sorry Finga it's you we're talking about :P;)

[finga]

IMO the stainless steel kegs wont transfer the heat :( you will get hot spots and cold spots etc, but would be good for stews and the like where you just have bottom heat

cheers Murf
I was wondering about that Murf.
I would have assumed a pretty good body mass would have been needed but after seeing some of the Bedouries they aren't real thick.

GBC...mate, what are you trying to say??
You saying I'm tighter then a bream's @rse??
Well you'd be right ::)

[Derek Bullock]

I have seen camp ovens made of all sorts of things over the years and yes they all work. It doesn't matter what the type or thickness of the metal is, be it cast iron, tin, rolled steel, spun steel or stainless. Heat will transfer through anything. I even watched a demo once of a bloke using a cardboard box lined with foil cooking a chook. Worked just fine.

Only thing I can think of that I know has caused problems for people is not having all the sides bottom and top the same thickness. If that doesn't happen you will get some parts hotter than others and end up with food not cooking properly.

Seen the same thing in some cheap cast iron camp ovens. If the walls aren't the same thickness all round then you will likely end up with food cooked one side and burnt the other.

Still looking forward to the end result Scott

[finga]

Only thing I can think of that I know has caused problems for people is not having all the sides bottom and top the same thickness. If that doesn't happen you will get some parts hotter than others and end up with food not cooking properly.
I'll have to keep this in mind....because I'd be the one having to eat the burnt spot.:)

[oldboot]

what sort of camp oven you have determines your cooking approach.....a heavy unit will retain and distribute heat better than a lighter walled item.

All mine are cast..... but big bro has a bedoure or two as well as cast.

personaly I'd be sticking with cast iron or mild steel.....because ther are no possible bad health effects .

Appararantly there are issues with stanless steel and food.......I know there is plenty of stanless cookwear about.....aparantly when stanless gets real hot there are compounds of chromium and nickle released.....less of a problem with boiling pans and frypans but more of an issue with ovens.


I have to say....I can not achieve the same flavour and texture out of cheese scones in the home oven as I can in a camp oven.

I don't think you would get the same results with a drum as you would from a pan made of heavy steel or iron

If ya want a good book on the subject... get the one by Jack and Reg Absalom........Thommo may have been a shearer...... but REG was a cook for shearing camps and rural work gangs for much of his life.

if you have a heavy set of rolls....I recon you could roll a tube out of some decent plate.....if you could roll an ingoing lip on the bottom of the tube and a bit of a lip on the bottom plate...I recon you could get pretty close to a nice radius on the bottom once you mig it up and make good with a grinder.

If you can weld cast iron.....I recon brake drums would be a goer ( would they be cast iron or steel?).....especially if you machined the plates off a few and stacked them, then welded them.

Oh... I've just had a twisted thaught.......you could make an oven out of big rocker covers.......then you could bake whole fish and long rolls.

Used Gass bottles and compressor tanks would be a good candidates.

how about a couple of plough disks and a truck rim.

This should be a competition at one of the camping or agricultrual shows.

creative camp oven building.;D

cheers

[tunaticer]

Best thing to use is a 15kg alloy forklift gas bottle that has been scrapped. Whack it in half and then make an alloy lid for it as well. Alloy transfers heat very well and it is light enough to pack in the boat and no rust. Being a spun domed bottom they clean very easily and the ring on the bottom settles them nicely into the coals without crushing and extinguishing them.
They also make the best crab cookers too if you lop them just below the top dome and nest them inside a 60 litre drum with a two ring burner underneath.

[Bros]

what sort of camp oven you have determines your cooking approach.....a heavy unit will retain and distribute heat better than a lighter walled item.


I'd have to agree as I use a Bedourie and I now believe I'm not to bad but I would expect if I gave my Bedourie to a cast iron user the first cookup would be burnt.
Bedourie's need a bit of attention to stop hot spots but thick walled cast iron it is largely a set and forget.
I wouldn't swap my Bedourie as it is light and robust and doesn't take up much room.

[oldboot]

I supose ya have to understand the original reason for the Bedourie.

The traditional cast iron oven had a big tub bottom and a more or less flat top..and yeh it was/ is heavy.

The real traditional bedourie had a larger bottom pan and a smaller top pan that had some depth to it.

It was specificaly designed for a horses pack saddle, the top would nest in the bottom ( or it might be vice versa...its been a while) so it was lighter and took less space.....flatter and more durable than a billy and much more versatile that anything available at the time

AND

when not used as an oven it could be used as two seperate pans....the bottom for boiling your vegies and the top for frying your steak.
I seem to remember the top would go on either way up....so it would work like a ban marie.

There would have been a lifter that could be used with both.

the original ( as I have been told) was reasonably small 8 to 10 inches and intended for a couple of blokes out shooting or fencing or whatever on horesback

A very clever thing....... but probaly not as good as an oven as the cast units.

If you have a moddern bedourie...I'd be interested if the above is still the case.....I haven't seen my bro's for years..... mostly Ive seen him with cast iron......I seem to remember him buying the bedourie when he was riding a lot.

cheers

[Bros]

If you have a moddern bedourie...I'd be interested if the above is still the case.....I haven't seen my bro's for years..... mostly Ive seen him with cast iron......I seem to remember him buying the bedourie when he was riding a lot.

cheers

If you have a look at Dereks site under camp ovens you will see the mods I sent in for the lifting gear for my bedourie. Mine is about 8 yrs old I don't know weather this is modern or not.

[finga]

Visited the scrap yard today.
I must be going there too often. The Rotty's came over for a pat. Rambo....fffttt. His name should be Raylene :(

Anyways...pipe was there. About 300-350mm diameter BUT it was either 10mm thick or 1.6-2mm thick.
I reckon the 10mm would take just too bloody long to warm up and the 1.6-2mm too bloody thin.
What do you all reckon??

I found something to make a mother one. The spreader gismo's to keep the dual wheels on trucks apart. One for the base and one for the top.

[Pridey]

I wouldnt be bothered with 10mm. Yeah it would take a while to heat, and you'd need a good set of coals. but if you're cooking a decent feed .....

[gr hilly]

how about a 80 kg gas bottle iv'e got an old one here somewhere,its the old heavy style about 20 yrs old if your interested finga you can have it all i have to do is find it.
cheers Hilly

[Bros]

Visited the scrap yard today.
I must be going there too often.

Aren't you lucky. The nanny state has caught up with us and you can't go into our local scrap yard at all. I have had to resort to a large engineering construction business for my steel scrap.

Personally the 10mm is way to thick and heavy. But 2mm is a bit light even though my bedourie would be 1.6mm but it is spun so that is the difference.

A gas bottle would be the way to go all you have to do is make a lid.

[finga]

Well I buggered all the thinking up.
I went to a junk sale today and brought a 10" cast iron one for $20.
I'm going to keep the idea of making a bigger one in the mind though....unless I find another bigger one at another junk sale. :)

[oldboot]

Ya gota love junk sales........and camp ovens are always a good target.... buecuse who wants a rusty old pot ;D .

If price is your problem.......ya just have to be a bit selective where you buy......I've baught camp ovens and other cast iron cookery packaged in mnimum spec brown cardbord, for considerably less than the same item packaged in a 4 colour print fancy retal package at a diferent store.

What beats me is why the big oval camp ovens are twice the price as the same size in ordinary round.

Don't forget a 10" or even an 8' is a great size for in the oven at home for a meal for 1 or 2.

I've got a little 8 inch that is great for lamb shanks for 1.......brown and seal on the stove and straight to the oven.... great.

cheers

cheers

[finga]

Cost is not a consideration but when you see something that's going to save a day that you can better utilise at the moment then you jump at it.
Time is the problem at the moment with moving and setting up this little old cottage and doing renovations to the Brisbane house, and just for the moment, my spare, spare time is taken up by finishing the 'Touchy Rod' and doing trophies for the River to Mud that's on at the end of the month.... and to do the plaques I need to set up the CNC again (I just got it up here on the week-end) and I need to get power into the shed and that's more time I'm looking for at the moment.

I'm still going to make a camp oven up but getting this little one gives me a bit of grace to find the right stuff to build it with.
I was also wanting to use my big lathe (because of the throw) to machine a lip around the join and to recess the base (and top) of the camp oven and to be able to do that I have to set it up as well...another 2 or 3 days as it's in storage and I need a crane and big forklift to move it. It's near 2 tonnes.
The little oven I got yesterday just buys me another day (or week) I need for the moment :)

[finga]

We tried the oven out last night.
The cook prepared a nice damper.
The dog is now chewing on 1/2 and the other 1/2 fixed the pothole out the front.
I have a suspicion the coals were too hot. :(
We'll have another go today :)

[finga]

Woohoo. Success in a big way.

Lit the fire about 10.30 (set inside a spreader rim off the dual wheels of a truck) and fed and fed and then let the coals come real good and then we set the camp oven (with little damper in it) into the coals and put some of the coals on the lid.
I stayed close this time and I smelt a bit of burning in about 7 minutes so took the lid off and yep...burning smoke came out.
So off I goes to the pile of crap and got a bit of cast grating out and sat it across the rim of the fire surround and sat the camp oven on that. That seemed to be the trick.

Checked the damper a little while later and the top was a lovely golden colour.
I expected the bottom to be really black but only a smidge was black so a scrape with the knife and it was looking all spiffy.

Into the kitchen we went and out came the Golden Syrup and butter.
God life can be good sometimes :)

So tonight for tea we're having some of the 'backup' damper the cook did in the electric oven made into toast with an omelette made from free range eggs and stuff from the garden.
I'm happier then if we went to a 5 star restaurant. :)

[Bros]

Damper yuck why don't you bake a batch of scones takes 20 min and they taste much better than damper.

[oldboot]

Scones...oh hell yeh......cheese and herb/ chive.

And....if you have your fire just right and the scone size just right.......5 to 7 minutes.

But you gota watch em.

getting the oven the right temperatire is a real issue with camp ovens.......you can use Reg Absalom's bust ticket method....or you can cheat..I just baught a key ring non contact digital thermometer.

cheers

[Aunty Jack]

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Two differant styles the one one the left is more like a scone mix less the suggar.
Witch is my preferance the one on the right is traditional the wifes preferance .
I dont get of on hers and she dos'nt get of on mine.
But visitors love them both.
Try useing a rack and tray when cooking less burnning.
Enjoy

[finga]

Oii Swampman...thanks for the tip about the rack and tray.
We were thinking about baking paper but the rack would be much better.
Our damper looked exactly like yours...the one on the left.

I like damper better. I don't look like a greedy guts if I say I ate a bit of damper but if I say I ate 8-10 scones people might get the wrong idea.

Now....where's that little pizza tray gone??

The cook is having a day off work today. I reckon we might have another go if she not too crook. Might even break the billy out this time 'cause the tea does taste different ;)

Oii oldboot...where do you get bus tickets now??
I never remember the think about the thermometer dodad. If I remember I'll see what the temperature is just from curiosity sake.
Gees they're handy for making sinkers to get the lead just the right temperature.
I'm going to have to just make some time to have a better sqwizz at Derek's site to get the tradies secrets about these addictive round black pots I reckon. But getting the time :-[

It was interesting that some people from the caravan park asked what we were doing with the fire and stuff.
I thinking they were just wanting to bludge some hot damper because the smell was good ;D

[Aunty Jack]

No prob's,when it come time to get your wire rack we got one from the opp shop,
and one from the cheap shop [dollars and cents ].had my doubts about the cheap one but its held up fine.
The pizza trays didn't fit ours so i picked up a couple of seving trays and fired and cleand them. They are the perfect fit still able to get the multy grips onto the tray whilst still in the oven if you know what I mean.
This is our little set up for home cooking by fire.
Basic meat and patoto and damper .

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[herman]

I make some good camp ovens out of 9 kg gas bottles . cut up 6 in from bottem ,cut just below roll of top,weld 1in flat on out side of lid to keep out ash .cut off tap, weld handels wear needed ,works well for roasts and stews and damper