"Po Boy" 80 Gal RF

[Cave Man]

Yes it is the round thing on the bottom door. It doesn't have much of an opening now, but I plan to open it up more. It is the size of a coke can. I plan to make the bottom 2 doors one door with a larger opening. For sure it's not enough flow into the fire box.

[The Czar]

Is that the only opening you have cave man?

[Cave Man]

No got the opening on the stove door.about 1x3 over all.

[The Czar]

Have you considered duplicating that on the other side of the firebox to get a better draft for your fire....

[Cave Man]

Well got it to a point to run it. Got it scrubbed and cleaned out so there is no oil on the inside. Coated it with cooking spray and fired it up. Three hrs and I have used a fire starter full of tree turds and enough oak to fill a 5 gag bucket. Temps running from 200 to 252 depending on the damper position. Now to see how it runs with some meat on it.

[Gizmo]

Pretty good temps - sounds like you got er figured out.

[Smokeone]

Sounds like you are figuring it out.

Lets see some food!

[The Czar]

.....

[Cave Man]

Well this is the second time I have run it andi can't get the light smoke that seems to be the trick with out the temps running near 300 in the cook tank. I want to just use wood and not charcoal to fire the smoker. I'm using oak that's a year old and in the dry for 6 months. I have split it down to about 2x2 and 24 inches long. Lay it on top of the fire box to get it good and hot before it goes in. Fire is small and right by the door so when I add more wood it all lights at once and the temp jumps or I damper it down and it smokes like a fraight train! I have pushed the fire into the middle of the fire Box and added another stick so let's see how that does.

So if you got any ideas on how to get a cleaner burn let me know please.

[Rodcrafter]

[Buck]

It sounds to me like you may not be putting enough wood in ... if you're going to do wood only, you're gonna need tons of wood. No matter if you're using charcoal or wood, you want to let it burn with the door open for 10-15 minutes to get rid of all that initial nasty smoke. If it's not hot enough after you close the door after the initial burn, I'd think you need to put more wood in. If your wood isn't burning down to coals and smoldering for 2-3 hours (or more) after that initial burn, you want to check your air flow and/or wood. I'd dump some charcoal in there and if it doesn't go out and keeps the temp up, you might want to try different wood. Let us know how it goes.

On a separate note, I couldn't see what you're doing with your rf baffle plate in the pics. If they are adjustable or removable so you can use your smoker as an offset as well, you need to make sure the gaps are pretty much non-existent ... especially on the firebox end. If you try to run it reverse flow with a gap there, the heat will go straight from the firebox to the stack and your chamber won't get hot no matter how hot you get your fire (I, unfortunately, know this from a few weeks of very frustrating experience). We'll get you going one way or another ;)

[Cave Man]

The plates are flush against each other and there is a strip that overlaps the one beside it. So you are correct there is no gap at all. I have 1 inch catwalk for the fire grate and there doesn't seem to be a good bed of coals much at all. When I start it up the initial smokeis heavy, and when it starts to clear up is when I drop the meat. The temp seems to be arrondissement 210~225. It drops and then as I start to add more wood it smokes then gets hot. And when I try to damper it the smoke starts again. But at the end of my burn last night I got it to where the smoke was not so thick by moving the fire further into the burn box. The wood would burn from the back to the front and not all at once. I got to cut it shorter and split it a little smaller I think. At least that's what I intend to try next.

[Buck]

Sounds like your wood to me ... are you 100% sure it's hardwood? You WANT it to all be totally lit when you first put it in so all the nastiness burns off before you put the meat on. If your wood burns really hot and fast initially and doesn't leave a nice bed of coals smoldering after the big flames go away, I don't think it will be of much use as smoking wood. If it's just burning (instead of smoldering) from one side to the other, you're not really getting rid of the thick, white, smoke, you're just running it across your meat over a longer period of time. I wouldn't worry about it too much if you can't taste it in the meat but from my experience, that white smoke doesn't have to be in there long to ruin the whole meal. I'd buy a bag of blue Kingsford (or lump if it's available) as an experiment and see if that helps. If it does, it's probably the wood. If it doesn't, you need to look at your cooker. Just FYI, most everybody here uses charcoal in one way or another.

[Cave Man]

Well the wife said the ribs are the best I have ever cooked! Not too much smoke to me either.

The first burn down does give a good bed of coals, but they are gone as I slow down adding wood to keep the temps down. The end of the burn last night I did find a setup for the dampers that allow me to add a stick of wood and keep the temp steady and the smoke to a minimum. I'm looking to cut the fire wood shorter and let it stay bigger when I split it. I think the placement of the coal bed and the way I was loading the wood. Thanks foe the responses. It helps to bounce ideas off someone else to see if it sounds likes good idea or just a waste of time.

[Frank_Cox]

Have you watched this video yet?
In this video I am using my 160 Gallon Reverse Flow smoker. it has a firebox that is around 20x24x24 ish.

[Cave Man]

Ok I have run it two more times for about 6 hrs each. It is hard to try and control the temps and the smoke at the same time with all wood. So I got me some Lump and used it and it seems to burn longer and without the large amounts of smoke at a constant temp. I get about 1 to 2 hrs depending on how much lump I add.

So I'm down to using wood for the smoke, and the Lump for its ability to heat and ease of temp regulation. So what is a good lump that has bigger pieces. What I got at Kroger wasn't dust but wasn't far from it! And it just seems to go away too fast. I'm going to,get a bag of Royal Oak today and try and get in from work a little early today and do am a chicken.

[Cave Man]

last ribs I did with the lump. Not so black and smokey. Still got a great smoke flavor but not too much.

[Gizmo]

I think you'll like Royal Oak ... lots of guys here using it ...

If you want - try adding roughly 2 cups of wood chips every half hour - should be about right ...

[Cave Man]

I got a buddy uaing it in his BGE and he loves it. I also have a friend in the BBQ Buisness that is getting some Wholesale that is put out by Cysco that he said is lagge chunks and not construction waste! he is going to get me a bag of that to try as well. I think it comes in 20 lb bags.

[Frank_Cox]

Royal Oak seems to be preferred and readily available in most parts of the country. If you want to order some on line you could try Ozark Oak.

[Smokeone]

I am a royal oak fan. Does well for me in a UDS.
By the way, good looking grub there!

[Cave Man]

This is what I was getting when I used all wood and had to keep the intake damper closed down to get the temps to stay below 250! They were tender and moist so they are not burned, they just got a little extra smokie!!! My nwife told me they were "good" but she only had 3 bones on her plate at the end of the meal. But using charcoal, and not having the thick rolling white smoke for the entire cook, now she has a good size pile of bones now.

[Smokeone]

Boy, I'd be willing to give em a go with the extra smoke. Them look mighty TASTY!

[Gizmo]

I love it! ... 3-bone, 7-bone, pile-a-bones - new ranking system - good idea!

[Cave Man]

I plan to add a second shelf to this unit in the morning. How much above the bottom one does it need to be. I got it planned to go up about 5 or 6 inches from the top of the bottom shelf to the bottom of the top. I think that chickens and a normal size Boston Butt will clear this.

So how far apart are your cooking racks?