pizza peel brain trust

[toolie]

FYI:

https://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/...ie-recipe/

[barryvabeach]

I have made a dozen or so. I don't notice any real difference in use between a taper for 5 or 6 inches, versus taper the whole thing. In choice of wood, for a home I would use weight as a primary factor. A store may need maple, for home, poplar is much lighter and works fine There are two routes, as to handle. On is to do a glue up with half inch stock, except the center piece , which will include the handle, of 3/4. You will need to trim it to thickness in the field of the peel when the glue is dry. The other option is to make all the stock for the peel 1/2 inch thick, and make 1/2 of a scarf joint on the center piece, then make mating scarf joint on the handle, which is 3/4 stock, and glue it on after the panel has dried

[Woodshop]

I made a sled for my planer, sander to make peels . tapered all the way or as far as you want.

here is my plan
3/4 "scrap ply  with ply scraps on top . the right end one 3/4 thick for a stop. the other end 3/8 thick for the taper. slats in between are for support.




Next I lay a ply piece 12-1/2 x 22" on top and move the slats till they touch and support the top ply, they can be brad down, taped or glued.






plane until you have a wedge




the wedge goes under or on top of the pattern jig



 pattern jig 3/4" ply






my layout





I plane flat till 1/2" thick, then place on the wedge and taper as far as I want, usually half way up the handle






make peels easy peasy. they are light weight, strong, no mater what wood you use.

[MstrCarpenter]

I make them for my local pizza shop; I take payment in pizzas! When they ask for a new one, they usually need it like, now. So after many years I figered out the fastest and easiest way for me to get it done with very little set-up. I also use a sled for the planer, but that's where I start. The sled is only a flat piece of 2x10 or 2x12. I screw the poplar blank to it where the handle begins (leaving the center 3" clear) with a 1/4" spacer under the business end. Two or three screws on each side will pull it tight. After planing the taper on one side, I use a 1/2" spacer (1/4"+ 1/4" that I cut off). Cut the two ogee curves on the band saw, then one setting on the T.S. for the 2" handle and I'm ready to finish up with a belt sander and 1/4" round over bit. The first pizza should be almost ready!

[Rob Young]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Went through my stash of material and I really did think I had more maple (hard and soft) on hand.  Nope, found my curly maple boards but those aren't appropriate for this.  So just gonna go with the poplar.  Found a nifty mineral streaked board and got the blank made and rough shaped and first pass at the taper.

I was at the KCWG shop yesterday as hall monitor so brought along my poplar to get started on the peel.

1/2" thick, about 14" wide and long with another about 10" of handle.  

Taper created by just drawing on the end and two sides, clamp down and hog it off with a jack plane.  That was maybe 10 minutes, 15 if you include a touch of smoothing with the grain to even it out.

Handle has a 2nd piece glued on and after I work it back to about 1" thick I'll get out the spoke shave and file and finish shaping it a bit.

For some reason my phone though this should be a very de-saturated image.  Meh.



But this one it decided the color needs to be over red as if I was under incandescent lights.  Not the smartest of smart phones.

[Rob Young]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Went through my stash of material and I really did think I had more maple (hard and soft) on hand.  Nope, found my curly maple boards but those aren't appropriate for this.  So just gonna go with the poplar.  Found a nifty mineral streaked board and got the blank made and rough shaped and first pass at the taper.

I was at the KCWG shop yesterday as hall monitor so brought along my poplar to get started on the peel.

1/2" thick, about 14" wide and long with another about 10" of handle.  

Taper created by just drawing on the end and two sides, clamp down and hog it off with a jack plane.  That was maybe 10 minutes, 15 if you include a touch of smoothing with the grain to even it out.

Handle has a 2nd piece glued on and after I work it back to about 1" thick I'll get out the spoke shave and file and finish shaping it a bit.

For some reason my phone though this should be a very de-saturated image.  Meh.



But this one it decided the color needs to be over red as if I was under incandescent lights.  Not the smartest of smart phones.

Finally had the time last weekend to finish up the pizza peel!  

Works exactly as advertised! Thanks for the suggestions.

Used poplar and it is just fine. Sanded up to p220 after final shaping of handle. Wet it down and re-sanded at p220 a few times, no finish except for flower dust.

Test run last night, home made dough and a "Philly Cheese Steak" pizza.  

Prep the crust:




Par-bake the crust (and tell each other once again, "Yeah, we should clean the oven" then return to sipping a nice beer):


Pull it out, add toppings and cook!


Wait patiently for it to cool a little bit:


Pizza assistants (girlfriend's cats insist on "helping" with EVERYTHING):
Whiskers 
Jake 

[bennybmn]

I learned the hard way to always par-bake the crust. Especially with breakfast pizza. Which I make for dinner a lot


Also, my peel is pine, no finish.

[AgGEM]

A little late but the Wood Whisperer did a video on a pizza peel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ1W8_q3FDk

Where I learned that Mark is a hometown boy, growing up in Trenton NJ just down the road a bit...but a couple of generations apart from AgGEM.

And Trenton is proud of their "Tomato Pies".
Don't call them pizza's....
Ag

[overland]

It was smart to use a lighter wood. Looks nice, too. Pizza looks even better!
We have one in pine and it works well. You don't want it to be too heavy.

[Rob Young]

It was smart to use a lighter wood. Looks nice, too. Pizza looks even better!
We have one in pine and it works well. You don't want it to be too heavy.

I'd still like to make with maple.  Did a quick calculation based on average densities of poplar vs soft and hard maple and it would be not even 1# difference between the materials.

But the point is that it works and pizzas slip in and out a lot easier with this than the clumsy pan-and-spatula method we had been using.  And we still haven't cleaned the oven.