Just in case anyone is still following this, I wanted to provide some more info and some suggestions. We made pizzas again last night and they turned out great!
I intentionally kept the pizzas small - in the 8-10” range. That made a huge difference in the cook, as I could easily move the pizzas around on the stone and monitor the crust much better. This also allowed me to pull the pizzas towards the front, where the stone wasn’t quite as hot but heat from the top was radiating back down, cooking the toppings really well. I’m finding that most pizza dough recipes that say they make 2 pizzas really make enough for 3. This recipe link is super easy and was the best I’ve tried so far:
https://youtu.be/c_DrwsGB7OQ Thanks to the poster of the smashburger pizza thread for sending it to me.
Get a pair of pizza spinners. That way, you can spin pizzas without lifting the door in the front. This retains the heat on top of the pizza and lets you get the toppings piping hot. You can also use them to slightly lift the pizza edges to monitor the crust. I found these spinners on Amazon for around $10:
https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CPS-022-Alfrescamore-Pizza-Spinners/dp/B00N0L5Q6OGet an extra peel if you will be cooking multiple pizzas. That way, you can make a pizza on 1 peel and have it ready to go while using the other one during the cook and to remove the cooked pizza. I use a wooden peel to make the pizza, as the dough seems to slide off of it a little better than the metal one that came with the OnlyFire. I learned that after turning a pizza into a calzone when trying to slide it off the metal peel onto the pizza stone.
Use a healthy dose of corn meal on the wooden pizza peel to get your pizza to slide off onto the pizza stone. I had read that using too much would cause the crust to burn, as the corn meal burns easily, but I haven’t had that problem.
If you have a SnS, I’ve found that it works perfectly with the OnlyFire. Using 3/4 of a chimney seems to be the right amount of charcoal to get the center of the stone to 600°, which I’ve found is the sweet spot.
I’ve now cooked around 10 pizzas on the OnlyFire and absolutely love it! The 1 piece form factor is great and no add-on options are needed. It is really well-built and actually looks good. The low top really keeps the heat down on top of the pizza, which is needed to cook the toppings while the stone cooks the crust. I was about to buy the Kettle Pizza until I found out that a separate attachment is required to get this functionality, which pushes the price point well above what I thought it was worth. The OnlyFire is complete with no add-ons needed. I highly recommend it!