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Done a bit more over the last few days. Remember when I said I wished I had a plasma cutter, turns out sometimes dreams do come true, and now I have a plasma cutter. First thing I did with it is cut the opening in the top of the firebox for the chute, but i had the pressure set wrong and the cut is ...

The burner is huge but the cooking chamber isn't THAT big. Im just making the burner a lot bigger than it probably should be because its a relatively unknown thing to put a gravity feed on an uninsulated horizontal chamber. Hopefully the burner will barely even break a sweat, and run more or less at...

Got a few hour hours in today, and burnt up a few more grinder disks cutting out the opening for the firebox. https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18558535_10155215406472570_8218581613948083865_o.jpg?oh=286c6faa73972a5710583b596aa2a2c6&oe=59BE9D00 Using a bit of wood clamped to the metal to guide...

A bit more work today, the steel for the firebox arrived so I tacked that up. Im going to cut the holes for the chute and the door after its all tacked into one piece. Next is to put the door frame on, mount the door and then get the hole cut for the chute. Not going to fix the chute in until the fi...

Just realised, in my excitement for the doors opening, I forgot to take any photos of it with the doors closed. And most of the time its going to be seen with the doors shut, so.... https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18403016_10155189310872570_3376460163367574842_n.jpg?oh=25509dd8a3c408ed...

Well, thing is, the GF burner is so freaking big, I have a feeling its not going to break much of a sweat to keep the smoker running. The firebox itself has 50mm of space on all sides to add a 25mm thick (one inch) insulation board if I need to. If the chute does melt through, it is interchangeable,...

A bit more work today. Got the hinges sorted. Was hoping to get the firebox done but the metal shop didn't have any 6mm sheet in stock, so, next week is the earliest. Had a little issue whilst welding, the gas ran out and so I ended up with one hideous weld. I swapped to pure argon, but it didn't go...

A bit more progress today. The laser cutting I ordered appeared four days early, so I put the hinges together, ready to mount the doors properly tomorrow. Also got the sides of the firebox, which were laser cut as they have a radius in the corner to fit snuggly to the cooking chamber, and im pleased...

Here is what the 3D models currently look like. The firebox is 400x400mm from the back (thats 16 inches) and its a bit deeper to accommodate the tube that will take the heat into the chamber. https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18358596_10155172200352570_2134853455853487230_o.jpg?oh=46181...

Well my grate is round bars, and I suspect yours is a flat plate with holes cut in? I think the ash is less likely to sit on top of the round bars. I can always jab a pokey pole between the bars and give it a good waggle. The whole charcoal chute is removable so it can always be taken off and turned...

Yeah Ive wondered that. I plan on using the correct amount of charcoal so there is none left. If there is any left, I would probably re light it next time using a roofing torch or something. To fill the chute you will need a ladder as it's going to be about 7 feet off the ground, so no chance of rea...

Bit more progress today, made the fire grate. The grate is 316 stainless, 12mm rod. I chose to make this from stainless as I have seen some commercial GF smokers corode their mild steel grates. These parts get so hot, and they have air flowing past, they are more prone to corroding away very quickly...

The firebox is thicker steel, but I think thicker steel is even more likely to distort, as long as the heat goes in evenly, I think it should be ok. I'm gonna bolt some joints too to allow expansion.

Pete

Nahh its fine, in a chute that size, I dont anticipate a problem. There is a company over here making commerical cabinet smokers with sqauare chutes and they did a lot of testing of their design and have never had a problem. I think its more an issue in smaller chutes where one or two lumps are as w...

Ahh, they are not steel. They are PVC antistatic floor tiles. I have a clean electronics assembly lab in the same building and I just laid a floor made of those tiles (you use the mallet to bang the dog bone jigsaw teeth together). The offcuts are turning out to be rather useful...!!

Pete.

Hah, its not clean - its new. Its not been filled up yet.

Hi All, Well I have made a bit of progress. I got the steel for the chute and tacked it up today. The steel for the chute is 5mm thick, and its four strips 250mm wide and 1250mm high. This means the finished chute is 1250mm high and 250mm square (thats about 10 inch square and about four foot high i...

Thing is with that, the firebox is not a traditional firebox at all, its a lot smaller than a normal firebox would be, so the firebox, according to pitcalc, should be about 6000 cu inch, but instead its 1700, because its a gravity feed, so does that mean the stack should the the size that it would b...

Ok, i was toing to go for two stacks and have the ends turned away, as I have in my centre feed, I think it looks cool and I would like to establish a consistency between them, kind of a signature design feature for all my smokers :-D The pipe i use is 75mm stainless steel tube, 3 inches. Maybe i co...

Yes, going to fabtricate some kind of tube thing to duct the heat into the chamber, and will have a shaddow plate above it to stop a hot spot on the baffle. It will be a centre feed, I have a centre feed already that works very well. I don't want to do an offset because of the way the doors open on ...

I have attached some cad models. To give you an idea, the chute is 250mm square (10inches) and 1200mm tall (4 feet). The open area that vents into the firebox where all the hot air will come through is 100x250, thats 4x10 inches. The tank is 500x1500mm, 20x60 inches. What do we think, is that burner...

Well i'm not too worried about it being fuel efficient. If I want to be fuel efficient, I have a UDS here I can use. This smoker is going to be interesting, and weird and unusual, and if it eats more fuel, so what, il just keep feeding it. I won't use it that often anyway. My main worry is that it w...

Hmm, the forum wont allow me to post photos, it just uploads and then puts a little exclamation mark. https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17522559_10155042233672570_7722533928048890447_n.jpg?oh=c1e6673f12a0d0dc9707d94122af429c&oe=5950A7CA Here is one off facebook. If your intrigued, go to ...

Well, I don't want to give too much away right now about my plans, but I will show you what I have done so far... This is not going to be your typical smoker... ;-) Is there a way to get Rodcrafters attention? Id love to see his RF gravity feed. I will go stalking through the member list and see if ...

Hi All, I promised myself that the next smoker I built would be gravity feed. Problem is, I just moved my company into a new building and there was this massive old air compressor from the 60s hidden in a shed out the back, so i have no choice, I HAVE to make it into a smoker, its the law. So now I ...