SmokerBuilder.com

This is awesome. Close to exactly what I want to build.

I want to be able to get a long tube and long rod and cut all my bushings and hinges from it

The reason I want to find something with a very close fit is because I want to use the same bushing/bar combo to go through my doors for the internal latches. I do see what you're saying rodcrafter. The 2 outer plates would be welded to the smoker cc itself and the middle welded to the door or vice ...

I'm trying hard to find some kind of tube and bar combination that is readily available and cheap enough. DOM seems to thin, pipe too sloppy, bushings expensive, tube stock wrong id's... Maybe it's just 1/2" thats hard to match. I'll look at 5/8. Thanks

Since I'm too broke to buy steel, I just keep drawing my smoker. I'm also not confident enough in my fabricating skills just yet. A few more small projects first

Does 1/2" cold roll in 1/2" sch 40 pipe make a fairly solid hinge? Looking at it from a dimensional standpoint, it looks like it would leave about a 1/16" gap around the bar but I don't know how that will translate to application. Seems kinda sloppy.

So I'm going to go with a 1" tall ash pan on the bottom then have the fire basket on rails at 2.5". (4) 3" x 3.5" intake vents set at 1.5" off the bottom. There will be a 1" lip from the door rail so I think the 1.5" gap will be just enough to get the 1" ash pan out to dump. I'll put 2 vents on the ...

So if I make my fire basket 3" off the bottom, I should put an intake at say 1.5" and at 3.25" then, pretty much touching each other. Or do you mean center the 1 vent with the bottom of the basket? Like having an intake that is 3" tall with 1.5" below and 1.5" above the basket bottom.

Well my thought behind using 2 is to spread the air flow over more of the fire and I like the look of it with 2. Probably irrelevant though. It would definitely be a lot easier to fabricate with only 1 per side since the hole cover plate could be solid rather than having a hole in the middle. http:/...

I hadn't thought of that big t. I will definitely put 2 on each side then. I can close off any that have wind blowing into them. I could probably just put 2 in each side a couple inches up and just work with the ones I need based on the conditions

Thanks a lot. I want to be as learned up as I can before I start so the problems will be at a minimum. Since my fb door will be on the front I can probably put 2 intakes on the left under the cc and 2 on the right on the end at 2" off the bottom.

How high up should I put my air intakes? The calculator says I need 4 at the size I want. If I put 2 at about 2" off the bottom and another 2 at halfway up the fb would that work?

Thanks DC MAn.I will make them identical. 20 X 3

Wife welding and her weld




And yes I did tell her to put some shoes on lol

how do I determine the very accurate measurement? Are you saying the baffle plate to cook chamber opening should be exactly the same as the throat?

Noted and revised. My throat will now be 20 x 3 and the baffle plate opening will be 3.25. I think I read to make the BP opening slightly larger than the throat. My baffle plate will go flush with the top of the throat. Now I just have to figure out how to put it all together with 0 fabrication expe...

Should the throat be made bigger than the calculator recommendation to compensate for the turn in the reverse flow?

Do you usually slope the baffle plate towards the drain by the bp to cc opening to make it drain that way? I was thinking that might cause some restriction with air flow.

Is there a reason why the fb door shouldn't be on the same side as the cc doors? It would work a lot better in my kitchen if the fb door is facing inside.

I read somewhere that the throat size should be 1.5 times the calculator recommended area for a reverse flow because the calculator is based on a traditional offset. Is that true?

SO I got a quote for the steel. About $400 for a sheet of 3/16, a sheet of 1/4, a sheet of expanded metal, 5 sticks of 1x1x1/8 angle iron, and a stick of 1/2" cold roll. Seems pretty decent to me. I got a piece of 12" pipe from work I'll set in the ground to mount the smoker on. All I need is someth...

And the hole going through the doors themselves will be bushinged to fit snug around whatever rod goes through the door

The bottom hole would be through the inner frame inside the cc and the top hole I would cap with a piece of steel like a 1" cube drilled 1/2" deep so it would be all sealed. The taper should allow it to pull the doors tight. I could probably even put some chimney or oven gasket material around the i...

Ok thanks. I might just put that firebox side door about an inch from the end instead and use the hotspot for hotter cooking. I don't really want the grate over the turn either. It might look a little lopsided with a 5" space on that side and 1" on the other but It's only for me at home. This will b...