New build input 80 gal

[Tinker]

Ok got the 40 gal cooking but think I should have done some things different so gonna pass these thoughts by everyone and see what y'all think ok the 40 gal build the fire box was right at 100% was like 14x14x16 so I. Thinking it should have been a bit larger seems I read where really would be better at say 120% so was thinking about for the 80 gal build maybe 20" sq which would be 129.87% I was figuring that if the larger fire box works better once I get the 80 up and running I could go back and rework the fire box on the 40 but I don't want to put it out of commission as it does work

[Big T]

I would say about 115% max but that's just me, mine is 112%. I think if you get too far away from the pit calculator's recommendations that you change the efficiency of your cooker. I'm sure others have their own specs that they build their cookers to but I try to stay pretty close to the calculator. JM2CW

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Since you are in a warmer climate, I would shoot for about 105%

[Tinker]

Thanks great info learned a lot first time around hope to make this one even better
Some of the reasons I ask is I have only been able to get the 40 up to about 300 the other thing is recovery it doesn't recover very well seemingly but maybe I need to open up bp too I just hate to mess with anything right now like I mentioned it is working rather try to improve on the new build and get it up and running the modify what I have

[Frank_Cox]

100% should work fine for you but like the guys said shoot a little higher. no more than 115% for sure. I stay just under the 110% mark usually. I think you will find with the box at 100% you are possibly over fueling it. use more coals than wood to find the sweet spot. coals burn more efficiently than wood and you don't need a ton of wood for good flavor. make sure your wood is not too green or rotten. 4 to 6 month old wood that has been split and kept in a dry area is the best.

[Tinker]

40 gal is at 101.8% so I should be good there I did open up the bp from 1" to 1.5" which took the bp opening from around 17" to around 24" seems to have helped some fire box opening is 27sq" so 17 may have been a bit small
Ok so all that aside for the moment where can I find the definition of the sweet spot or could someone explain it to me

[bluecatfish]

I will try to explain what sweet spot means to me. It is when you determine at what point your amount of fuel , what ever you may be using, in conjunction with the settings of your cooker, dampers and other controls, maintains your desired cooking temps without having to continually be making adjustments, and can be repeated from cook to cook with only slight adjustments to compensate for wind and weather conditions. That is the sweet spot of the cooker. jm2cw

[Big T]

[Smokeone]

Yep, that's what I would say.

[Tinker]

Ok don't mean to babble but let me see if I have some of the pieces of the puzzle in place
We should be able to cook at any pre determined temp consistently given the fact that we put the time in and figure out that this particular cooker runs at 200 with the damper in this position and put this amount of wood on at this given time or same cooker at 250 with different damper position and different rate of adding wood or possibly same damper position with an increased volume of wood the same to be said for high temps bigger ( more fuel)fire lower temps smaller fire ( less fuel) thinking about it once we find a good burn spot for the damper could we just increase fuel or decrease fuel I understand that at a set damper opening you should get set amount of oxygen on a certain weather condition or day but as we add fuel we increase het which In turn increase draft flow uh oh gizmo help my head is starting to hurt thinking to much always over complicate stuff but am I learning anything yet or am I way out in left field somewhere if so someone please turn on the homing beacon so I can return home

[Smurf]

Thanks for joining me in left field Tinker

[Gizmo]

I think you've got it now!

[Pete Mazz]

please turn on the homing beacon

Round here you only get homing bacon!!!

[Rodcrafter]

40 gal is at 101.8% so I should be good there I did open up the bp from 1" to 1.5" which took the bp opening from around 17" to around 24" seems to have helped some fire box opening is 27sq" so 17 may have been a bit small
Ok so all that aside for the moment where can I find the definition of the sweet spot or could someone explain it to me

Tinker, it looks to me like some how you have too small of a what you call your "BP opening". The throat opening and BP opening should be the same or even allow the BP opening to be a bit bigger. But 1/3 smaller (17") I'm sure wouldn't work very well.
jm2cw

[Tinker]

I rebuilt the coal box and it's amazing at what that has done burns hotter faster now I have just few coals in the bottom of the basket as I'm tiring to maintain 225 and about 30 to 50 dgree from end to end of cooker cc temp swings 210 ish to 230ish is this all to bigg of a swing and difference do I need to make more mods or is this an ok thing

[Tinker]

Took 15 mins to get over 250 been going 3 hours now have the air inlet closed down to around 1 1/2

Added to above post

[Tinker]

Ok scratch some of this post I was using really dry wood like lumber so it just flamed up got hot so not a realistic run I guess but I guess if we get behind on temp we could add some extra dry wood to get things back up if needed

[Tinker]

Ok so I had an 60 gal air compressor tank that I thought about using and got to looking on it and the tag says shell thickness is .115 which if I'm not mistaken would be right at 1/8 inch if see air tanks used but is that thick enough I know gizmo uses 3/16 so what do I y'all think

[Big T]

I would pass on the 1/8'' it probably wont hold heat very well but I've been wrong before.

[Gizmo]

You might want a packing blanket on a cold day but it'll work fine …. already has on Earl and he was cooking at 14F over Christmas without a blanket ….

[Tinker]

Good to know I can't remember the last time it was 14 here so that shouldn't be an issue