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So it seems to be a bit hotter on the right - not surprising, and not a big deal. These were about 5 hours in (no foil wrap). I swapped the two outside racks, spritzed them with some apple juice and let them go another hour, then hit them with some sauce and gave them one more hour. They were awesom...

I'm doing three racks of st louis cut spare ribs and a pan of beans. First outing, so I'm still getting familiar with it. At first the door thermometer read about 60 degrees lower than the digital probe, now it reads about 50 degrees hitter. Weird. I'm guessing that it just takes a long time to get ...

ok, NOW it's done. Bring on the Q.

Time out....I’m not saying screws are bad. Just looking thru the project it is fair to say that the builder went to great efforts to keep everything on the interior clean and did more bending of metal to avoid extra welds than any smoker I’ve seen to date. The interior is beautiful, spotless and pe...

OK, drip strip is in, no biggie.

I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for the UPS guy to deliver the paint I want to use for the lettering.

waiting...waiting... Gotta do this last bit so I can start in my my custom studebaker project again.

The ash pan came out very nice. Are you going to put a drip strip on the door? Having run the double pan for a while I think it is very useful to stop the grease etc dribbling down the door and over your door gasket. Ah... shoot. Ok, one more thing to do. *sigh* :) Thanks for mentioning that, I'd f...

Now that it done and out in the sun, I like the color too. When I painted it, the color looked too pinkish/purple, but it dried out to a decent dark red. Should work with the purple/yellow/orange I'm planning for the lettering. So, all the fabrication is done. Shelves are done, ash catcher is done. ...

Closer still... Need shelves and ash tray and lettering, otherwise it's ready to cook. First I need to clean up the giant mess in the shop. I'm SO glad to have it out of there.

Just curious as to Why the temp guage is close to the outer wall and not centered in the middle of cook chamber... Paul I wanted the temp gauge at that height (just above the bottom shelf), but centered on the door would interfere with the slam latch. Higher on the door would interfere with the des...

OK, it's finally off the bench. A few details to do on the main unit and I can paint it. Then shelves and ash tray. Then BBQ.

OK, legs are done and ready to weld to the box. I'm going to hang the door first, then weld the legs on...and then I think I can paint it. Still need to make the shelves and ash pan. Might be BBQ soon. I'm going to use rattle cans to paint it (Rustoleum Hammered Red), but I'm thinking about trying t...

Legs almost done.

Got distracted with other projects for a while, and also hurt my back (probably lifting this thing) and was out of commission for a while. I got back to work on it recently, and it's *almost* finished. Need to make the legs, shelves and attach the main door, I think everything else is pretty much do...

I'm still plodding along fitting the outer skin to the smoker. Hopefully I'll finish that today. Then it's a lot of welding and grinding to get that all finish welded and cleaner up. Drilling the holes for the smokestack was a workout for my hand drill, but drilling through both pieces of sheetmetal...

I worked on some details today, adding in the small bits of tubing on the main frame. I also cut the sheetmetal skins for the cook chamber door and assembled the door. The skins are just tacked in place, but it's fitting dead flush against the smoker frame at this point. Hopefully I can maintain tha...

Agreed, it looks like it's going to be a great smoker!

I'm interested in this too -- I'm going to try my new smoker without a digital control, but if I have trouble hitting my temps I want to know the options are.

I added the insulation around the firebox just now. Bent up some sheetmetal scraps to wrap around some insulation scraps. Mission accomplished. I guess I'll start on skinning the whole thing in sheetmetal now. The hinges and latches came in the mail today so it seems like I should be on the downhill...

My gasket process is as follows . I wiped the frame surface to to stuck to with acetone. Peel of the backing and place it on the door. Once all for side are good, I'd strap or clamp the doo in place, let it lie under clamp for an hour an then recheck alignment. Then tack the hinges in place. Place ...

Thanks for the feedback Puff. I'm definitely going to add backing plates for the latch and striker. I'm thinking of buying the parts kit from BBQ Smoker Supply, which includes D-rings to strap the smoker down on a trailer. So I'll probably add some extra steel there too. That way I can drill and tap...

I welded up the door frame -- after packing the tubing with insulation. Almost forgot that. Even with clamping it in place it still tweaked a little bit, but I got it back flat. I think I need to cut up more sheetmetal tomorrow and weld one face on the door frame to help hold it flat. Time to order ...

I finished welding the sheetmetal to the tubing, finished the drip pan and added the shelf supports. I also cut the parts for the door, need to stuff insulation into those tubes tomorrow and weld them together. I'm trying to decide how to proceed. I could weld the firebox assembly in, but then it's ...

I'm just a little behind you -- I plan to insulate that wall, and wrap the firebox with insulation. From the other builds I've seen I think everyone else insulates that wall too.

Joe

I bought a set of plans for the "mini gravity feed" smoker. There is enough information in them to build the smoker. They are 27 pages long, and show the measurements and materials for all of the parts for the smoker. It's not a step-by-step deal, but the first page lists an sequence of steps to bui...

Hi Guys, There is a rib competition in San Jose on Oct 31. Is anyone from here going? Competing? I'd like to try entering, but I don't have all of the gear I need (tent, tables, coolers, water supply sugs, etc), but mostly I don't have enough space on my current cooker to do enough ribs. They want t...