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This past Friday my son came home from college with his room mate so we decided to configure the cooker for doing pizzas over propane. (Credit goes to Pete Mazz for the idea). I slide in the the insulated ceiling and firebrick tray and preheated for about 30 minutes. Door warped open a bit at the bo...

Phase 2 is now complete! Thanks to all for your encouragement and advice along the way this summer. Phase 3 is electric and electronics. Still need a place to plug in a rotisserie and a blender! Need to upgrade iGrill to Fireboard Extreme. Here are pictures of Santa Maria Grill side complete! No sti...

Here is next batch of pictures.

Hello all. I've made some progress tightening up the door on the smoker as well as major steps on the Santa Maria grill side. Check out pictures below

Another pictorial update. Good progress on the Grill side! 85 grill sides in 1.jpg 85 grill sides in 2.jpg 86 longer Jack legs.jpg 87 elevator for fire.jpg 88 elevator in place.jpg 88 elevator in place2.jpg 89 Fire brick tray complete.jpg 90 Firebrick on tray high.jpg 91 firebrick on tray lowjpg.jpg...

Last night I finished up cutting out the drain top. Fabricating in the inner wood grill body sides is next. Wish I welded! -- Addison 80 starting on grill side.jpg 81 grinding out top plate.jpg 82 drain plate out.jpg 83 collector plate out.jpg 84 grill cutout complete.jpg 84 grill cutout complete2.j...

Welcome! I have found great ideas and advice here. Glad you found us.

Took the smoker side out for its first run this weekend. First did seasoning burn with propane and then loaded up the basket with a snake of Kingsford original and some strips of hickory and a chunk of apple. Smoke went pretty well for the first time out. I still have plenty to learn about controlli...

Problem solved and Pete Mazz called it correctly in advance! Pete's hypothesis was that the pilot was getting blown out by the air flow into the chamber given the high volume combustion from both burners on full. 1. I ran the pilot outside of the chamber. Once I got it shielded well enough from the ...

Good idea on doing a test with the pilot and thermocouple away from the airflow to see if that is blowing out the pilot. If burner stays lit I'll believe pilot is being blown out by air flow. If burner blows out It still has to either do with starved inlet air or overloaded exhaust air. I'll try tha...

Nope. Pilot goes out too. My current hypothesis is that it is not wind blowing it out but the burner is starved for O2. Either all the oxygen is consumed because the inlet is too small or combustion gasses are building up and preventing O2 from entering. To test the hypothesis, my idea is to fire up...

I technically do have 2 lower doors. 1 in the rear of the unit, and one on the end but they both have been insulated over and walled off by the inner back and inner right walls. I can't do it without cutting an access hole / inner door into the back or left wall.

Well it was bound to happen...I hit a snag. I got the burners cut in and mounted. Got all the paint pen removed and gave the inside a nice bath with mineral spirits followed by soap and water. I rolled it out into the drive way, hooked up the propane and prepared for the first burn. Pilot and burner...

Grates and burner cut-in completed last night. Making burner brackets today. Installing burner and drip edges this weekend and then she should be ready for a good clean and burn.

Next batch of pictures! She is coming along! 46staged smoker parts.jpg 41inlet air parts.jpg 48back H20 hookup.jpg 51 Sprayer finished.jpg 45inlet valve trial fit.jpg 42inlet air trial fit inside.jpg 52T-couple access finished.jpg 56 Left side done.jpg 57 water pan mounted.jpg 58 burner bench test.j...

I haven't posted pics in a while. Here are a few to start catching you up. More to come.

Thanks for all of the encouragement! Good progress continues. Ceiling (except for whole hog hook), back and right sides are done. Left side is in progress...Next up is to finish plumbing the air inlet and cutting in thermocouple access tube to the instrumentation cabinet. I'll post more pics soon. I...

Progress update:
1. Back cover cut, drilled and attached.
2. Ceiling cut out for server rails, insulated and attached.
3. Back cut, drilled, insulated and attached.
Here are latest pics. -- Addison

This is a rough sketch of where I hope this project is headed...but the devil is in the details. I borrowed shamelessly, the pizza oven feature idea, from Pete M. Pure genius! The magic will be to find just the right burner. I will want good control of the entire cooking chamber which is 28,643 cu. ...

Hello all, The journey begins! I have a stainless steel hull of a test stand that has been sitting in my garage for far too long. It is essentially a 6 ft server cabinet attached to a drain table. I'm starting the smoker portion this weekend. Pictures document starting condition. Steel is ordered! A...

Hello all: I'm a mechanical engineer in Michigan. I've been smoking with vertical water smokers for about 22 years but now I have a stainless steel test stand hull in my garage that wants to be re-purposed as a smoker grill combo. It is essentially a stainless steel 6 ft tall empty electronic server...