SmokerBuilder.com

Have you had a chance to run your smoker with the pitmaster iq??
Just wondering how it performed.
Thanks
TIm

Having trouble maintaining temperature. My gut is telling me, that my smoker is so well insulated, and therefore very sensitive to minor adjustments. Once up to temp I can maintain 225 w/out the needle moving. It was neg 6 in Wisconsin yesterday, and the ball valve was only open about 25%, and the n...

Smoker looks good!
I do not have a digital thermometer, but I think the cook chamber is warmer than my dial thermometer is reading.
Are you consistently gettin that much difference in your readings?

Puff, so are you only using lump charcoal in the chute, or do you also use briquettes?

Seasoned the smoker today. Thank you for the advice Rodcrafter. I put a few wood chunks in ash tray, produced decent smoke, but seemed to burn up quickly. For those of you smoking on a gravity feed, does anyone add wood chunks to the charcoal chute. Also do you guys prefer charcoal briquettes or nat...

Here are some updated photos. Still need to add a few final touches, I hope to fire it up this weekend.. For those of you who have not started your gravity feed yet, I would highly recommend installing extra support inside the frames where the slam latch assembly attaches. I had to improvise after t...

So I wanted to share a photo of my smoker after a 15 minute acid wash. The black coating on the metal came off very easy with my power washer. I diluted the acid 50:50 as per the instructions. I used a plastic spray bottle to apply. There were only a few small areas that I needed to reapply the acid...

Thanks Puff, I've learned a lot from this build. Going to use phosphoric acid. Applied it to bottom, this afternoon. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. After it dried, I was able to remove the black coating on the metal using fine sand paper. I'm going to acid wash the rest tomorrow, I'm hoping I can ...

Finished welding today.
I made a wheeled frame that I will attach to smoker with rivnuts.
Welded on all hinges, used pennies for spacers. Set all rivnuts for latches, and hold downs.
I am going to acid wash tomorrow, and hopefully get a coat of primer on..

Scotty K
Attached image of an outside corner.
I held the edges back just a bit. Used .035 wire..
Was able to weld both edges to frame in one pass.
Ground edge flat with grinding wheel, then finished up with abrasive fabric wheel.

Dimensions of the smoker are 32" high, 26" wide and 30.5" deep. This does not include the height of the legs. I am making mine about 12" to accommodate a shelf. I have not weighed it yet, but I am assuming it is near 300#.

Just finished welding all the exterior skins, and ground the outside corners, will post photo's soon. I do have a question in regards to the legs. Do you all feel that welding the base of leg directly to the bottom skin will be strong enough, or should I cut a small section out of the skin and direc...

CS
There is a short threaded nipple welded to the firebox. Coupler is screwed to the nipple. Your right, I thought is would be easier during the assembly process, not to have a long pipe sticking out of the firebox.

CS There is a skin on the firebox side. I framed the opening where the transfer tube goes through with scrap square tubing. It gave the opening more support, and I was able to get a nice tight fit with the transfer tube. I also found that it was a lot easier welding the transfer tube to the opening....

I have made some progress over the past few weeks. The build is taking me a bit longer than anticipated. I was able to finish the cook chamber. I welded the firebox/charcoal chute in place. I am now fitting and tacking some of the exterior skins. I think I finally figured out some of the bugs in my ...

Thanks for the response. Your build is coming along nicely.
That would work. I was hoping to avoid emptying the feed tube after each use. I imagine after a while I will figure out how much charcoal it will take for a given amount of smoking time.

Have not made much progress this past week. Getting kids ready for school.
Just wondering how everyone is lighting the gravity feed smokers?
Suspect a torch would be the easiest way. I was trying to think of some kind of built in igniter.
Thanks in advance.
Tim

Great idea. I will give it a try this week.
Tim

I first tried welding the inside corners in one pass, but the welds did not look great. I also had a lot of popping. I am assuming it has something to do with the sheet metal. I have had no problems welding anything else on this project.

Finished welding the cook chamber sheet metal today. Once I figured out how to weld the sheet metal, it turned out ok. Initially I had an issue with burn through. Not sure if this technique has an official name, but it produced some descent welds. I did the inside corners in two passes. The first pa...

Thanks Puff, that is what I thought.
Things are going together nicely.
Love the plans. I did have to take take off about 1/2 inch from the smoke transfer tub, after a completed the firebox/ charcoal chute assembly.
Also Puff, do use any type of fan on you big GF.
Thanks again?

Making some good progress. Going to try and get the cook chamber completed this weekend. I probably know the answer, but does it really matter if the cook chamber is painted. I'm assuming the smoke and grease will act as a natural preservative for the metal. Also, I'm getting a pretty good feel for ...

Purchased this insulation at Menards. Plan on using it to fill square tubing, and to line the panels and doors. It is rated to 2080 degrees f. I applied a nap gas torch to the insulation. Only dis colored it a bit from 6 " away. Not sure if anyone else has used this material. Quick question to every...

Ordered my plans a few weeks ago, I am excited to get Started. It has been a long time coming.
Just want everyone to know I really enjoy following the builds on this forum, I have learned a lot..
I will post pictures as my build progresses.

Looks good, those are some heavy duty clamps.. Tried to use the 90 degree magnets, had a difficult time keeping everything square. Ended up clamping directly to my welding table.