SmokerBuilder.com

Yeah that's what I was afraid of ... guess I was hoping someone would tell me it was OK to just toss a match in and watch her burn . Maybe I'll drain the water down the gutter when I'm done and re-enact the Cleavland river fire and get my pyro juices going that way.

What's up guys! I Just got a couple of 55 Gallon drums I want to make UDSs out of that used to have off-road low sulfur diesel fuel in them ... well ... the problem is that they still have a little fuel left in them. So I I'm wondering how to safely open these bad boys up. I wouldn't have a problem,...

It's all good man. Maybe if I'd spend less time thinking about designs and air flow properties and more time with a torch in hand, I'd have a sweet setup like yours :). And don't sell yourself short ... out in the real world (where it counts), I've seen common sense "redneck math" coming from an exp...

TuscaloosaQ ... I wasn't commenting on how your rig is set up at all ... the picture was just there so I was using your intake as a visual. Didn't think I was attacking your design but if you think I was, I apologize. Yes. I have no idea how big anything is on your cooker so would never comment on y...

Here are some considerations if you want to be able to run your cooker reverse flow and standard offset (tunable plate). First, you are going to need a stack that your can seal really well on both sides. If the heat/smoke is going out the wrong stack, it's not going across your food. If you are goin...

If I understand the pit calc correctly (and someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong), you need 1-5.5" totally open hole to give you .91 intakes. If you do a swivel type, the intake will be partially blocked. Look at the picture above. At full open, there's less than 1/4 of the total circle area open ...

Sounds like your wood to me ... are you 100% sure it's hardwood? You WANT it to all be totally lit when you first put it in so all the nastiness burns off before you put the meat on. If your wood burns really hot and fast initially and doesn't leave a nice bed of coals smoldering after the big flame...

It sounds to me like you may not be putting enough wood in ... if you're going to do wood only, you're gonna need tons of wood. No matter if you're using charcoal or wood, you want to let it burn with the door open for 10-15 minutes to get rid of all that initial nasty smoke. If it's not hot enough ...

I hear ya rick. Just thinking out loud. I just put the cook chamber gasket on and still have to test it but the only place I could see smoke last cook was from the stack and around the cook chamber/lid gap so I think it will (amazingly/finally) be air tight. From the looks of it, I might have to add...

THX Rick ... about $225 total into it (including lots of extra material for the "real build"). Don't think I'd be able to get anything that works this well for even 4x that price from a store. I didn't know what else to do about the basket dcman ... I just used what was laying around. I didn't want ...

My MM 250 is actually an old school green L-tek I bought off a guy for $300 ... he hated it but was using pure CO2 for whatever reason so I kindly took the "terrible" thing off his hands. No idea when ESAB bought L-tec or how old this thing is but I've never used anything better. I laid down some sp...

OK ... one more.

Can only post 3 pics/per post ... here's some more.

Alright guys. Firebox is mostly done and mounted. Did a nice 6 hour 250 Degree minion method lump charcoal burn without refueling (firebox dampers about 1/3 open) so I think I'm about done with the mods and am pretty happy with the improvement. about 35 degrees from side to side and very stable once...

If that includes the first cut and all the smoker advice I can handle, I might just take you up on that 150 Duayne :) I just need to decide if I'm going to keep beating my dead horse or start something new. Just read your 150 build thread and I think something like that would look pretty good on my ...

Where did you get your 80? I've been looking a little but haven't been able to find one for my patio build at the right price. Hoping to find one for $50 or less. Haven't checked any propane suppliers yet.

There were 2 listings on criagslist for 80 gallon propane tanks here in phoenix. If you're in SoCal might be worth the drive. One was $150 and the other $200.

Maybe I have to have more posts? Sometimes forum newbies are limited in what they can do to prevent spammers going crazy.

Well I'm kinda anal so my UDS basket would, of course, have to be round LOL. I'm finding it makes a good, sturdy stool if nothing else ... So could someone tell me how you guys are posting more than 3 pics ... it's telling me I've reached my limit when I try to post a 4th one.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I think that basket is going to end up being a parts bin. I started freaking out because I was looking at my old firebox and was thinking this new one isn't much bigger (when I calculated the total area it is MUCH bigger but the illusion between cylinder and c...

Got the door done, fire basket made, and hinges on! ... Just need a closure mech of some kind, fire rope attached, a way to get the ashes out, a stop for the fire basket, and to un-stick the vents and make the stops for them and it'll be done. I'll post detailed pics later but getting dark so just t...

That might be a good idea ... I could just do a couple of plug welds that I could drill out easily. I'm not even sure the firebox isn't going to tip the whole thing over long-ways when it gets installed. This thing is getting heavy.

Sorry guys. Been busy but I have some updates. I welded in the 1/4" baffle plate, welded 1" angle all around the edge of the bottom cook chamber so the lid is actually sitting on something all the way around (not sealed yet but way less smoke leakage), welded the fire box to the cook chamber so no m...

I was just saying that the stack diameter seems kinda small to me. There is no recommended diameter on the calculator. Is asks for the diameter and then calculates the length you should use. I was using the stock stack and made it longer with an aluminum insert. I will change this later but wanted t...

Well I made the baffle plate and smokestack the size the calculator asked for. The stack is small diameter (2.75") but I made it the length recommended by the calculator ... not sure if the small size is a problem. The new baffle plate gap is a little bigger than the temp one because of the size of ...