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She's alight!!! Been burning oak for the seasoning. Going well held at 170c to help season it for a few hours now bringing it to 120c to try and hold it there. The glass window is cool.

Some progress.

Glass observation window fitted in firebox door

Fb door painted and sealed

Exhausts made and fitted finally

Baffle plate in

Need to do more painting, I'm lighting it at the weekend!!!


Oh and I made a pork puller.....

Hi everyone,

Been in Vegas on business for a few weeks, home now so back on the smoker build.
I have reached a very important crossroads, this is a big decision. I need your wisdom.

What's cooler, stacks pointing out or stacks pointing back?!

Hi Everyone, I am nearing the exciting moment where im going to light my smoker for the first time. It is currently unpainted, unseasoned virgin steel. So one question which has been stuck in my mind, and im pretty sure i already know the answer but thought id check. Its a stupid question, get ready...

Also as heat rises, it makes sense from a draft/draw point of view and efficiency, far less heat would get lost as it won't float away into nowhere, heat will float into the cooking chamber. It's a great idea. Hoping to light it this weekend

Yeahhhh more center feed! It just makes so much sense! Your build looks good, I'm very nearly done on my centre feed too. Your throat opening with those curved baffles is interesting....

So in a nutshell gizmo, your saying leave the top hat as it is and have the baffle plate gaps adding up to the requires throat size?

Pete

This is the throat and shadow plate as it is now. I added up the four openings around the shaddow plate, adds up to 96sq inches, so that will act as a bit of a throat too...

Well right now, the throat opening is very oversized (144 sq inch, recommended size is 78) I am going to have sliding adjustable baffle plates, as my design allows for it very easily and I have spare steel of the right size. My thought though, with Centre feed, the baffle plate and the throat openin...

Hi Everyone, Just sorting out the baffle plate on my centre feed smoker. Someone said to make the gap equal the throat opening, which pitcalc says should be 78 sq inches I have done the maths and this works out to a mere four inch gap, which when devided by two is only two inch gap at each end. This...

We have a throat opening!!! It reminds me of the time they were drilling the channel tunnel and the French and English teams met in the middle and shook hands through the hole. This is like that.

Had a good day today. Finished the base and put the cooking chamber on for the first time. Also put it in the truck to see how it will fit. Here's a video of the slide off loading style http://youtu.be/CSLhka84-kA

The sharp ones among you will notice there is still no throat!!

Been busy, but I got the top frame mounted to the firebox. I am using turn buckles to hold the plate down, so it can slip and slide to compensate for heat expansion. Next I need to solidly join the firebox to the wheels.

It's got a big frame on it now to support the cooking chamber :-D it's designed To come apart for transport, the wheel base, the firebox, the top frame and the cc. Still not cut the throat opening....

In light of my recent stuck burning experience, I have decided to make the air intakes bigger than required. I can ways shutter them down.

I got a local metal shop to bend me some steel into the shutter rails.

Hi Clover, I did but as its center feed, im not sure if the numbers directly apply? Also don't remember seeing a number for the baffle plate gap, although I could be missing it. Smoker looks like this so far: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/1536677_10152250951437570_190...

The wood was not wet, its been sitting in a barn for about a year. Its not absolutely bone dry though, but pretty wet.

So I guess the next question is, how big should the gap between the BP and the end of the CC be? I was going to ask this anyway for my centre feed...

Thanks,

Pete.

Hi Everyone, I have been experimenting with stick burning in my small RF offset. I did a 12 hour smoke today,and it went ok but i struggled to keep the temp up all the time. My smoker is converted to RF from a normal direct flow smoker, and the original chimney is still there, but with the damper cl...

You are some kind of hero to commit to that much grinding (unless you have a plasma torch or something). I hate angle grinding

Today was a big,momentous day. I finished off the chassis, which looks like a go jack for a 747. I have dry fitted the parts together to see what it will look like, and it is glorious.

Haha, in that photo its more of an acrid white lol. Had another smoke out today using my little offset as a stick burner, trying to learn as much as I can about stickburning. I did learn a lot. A small hot fire is what you need. All the reading I have done on this subject goes on about this ember be...

Mocked up the smoker today with its new base. No wheels yet so just stood it on blocks. Burnie it's little brother is getting started to do some fast chicken for dinner.

Hi Everyone,

Thinking about doing an adjustable throat opening on my centre feed.

Just wondering, how is it used, and what does it do? Close it off and improve fuel life?

Pete

Half the problem is I want the cooking chamber to be a very specific height - 800mm from the floor. This is the same height as the back of my pickup truck. The idea is we can wheel the whole thing up to the truck then slide the cooking chamber in. I stopped thinking at this point, caus somehow we wi...

Well I've had a busy day. Fitted the door hinges and latch, made the log basket and made one food grill. The log basket is 1x1inch stainless weld mesh, and polished stainless angle that I spotted on the rack at a local metal shop and I bought it off them. I thought making the basket entirely stainle...