You definitely need to use the calculations recommended by the pit calculator or it will lead to performance problems. I think you could modify the base and get the cooker centered on it instead of to one side and it should work fine. I like to keep my bottom rack between 36''-42'' based on the height of the person using the cooker the majority of the time.
Looks to me like it would work OK. Just DONT push it from the door side, or you may do a back flop. Hate it when that happens. I was helping unload one of Franks cookers and for just a moment I thought it was gonna end up in the lake. Yikes.
Your drawings are looking pretty awesome. For the folks that have never used sketch up just dont appreciate it. I have used it so I can say been there done that.
I'm having trouble with the dimensions is there 2 FB or is only part of the CC what you are running through the calculator? I agree with Big T stay with the calculator numbers.
Current Smokers: Backyard RF Offset and Hybrid RF Offset trailer rig with Cowboy cooker and fish fryer, always room for more........
My cook chamber is going to be 24" D x 30"L. If I enter the actual size of FB which I have already cut at 24" D x 17" L, it is oversized by 70%. A 24"D x 12"L FB would still be 20% over and provide the intake, FB2CB opening and exhaust calculations for the heat and air flow sufficient for the CC. I plan on raising the fire grate 8" from the bottom to provide space for the ash tray and bring it closer to the FB2CB opening. It position is based on the volumes required by the calculator and this tool: http://www.mathopenref.com/cylindervolpartial.html
I am concerned that the actual oversized firebox calculations will consume too much fuel.
I wouldn't raise the FB grate that high for one. I use stick burners only and never needed more than an 2" ash pan for an all day cook. The top of a flame is the hottest part it works for me to allow the heat from the top of the flame to super heat the air in the top of the FB and the draft draws it in and we get a complete combustion burn, which results in a thin blue smoke. You will be surprised how small the fire needs to be once everything gets up to operating temp.
jm2cw
I don't know but I'm missing something on the drawing because it looks to me like the CC is 60" long. Are you using both doors as CC?
Current Smokers: Backyard RF Offset and Hybrid RF Offset trailer rig with Cowboy cooker and fish fryer, always room for more........
OK, I will lower the fire grate. What about placement of the air intake? Should that be below the grate also or level with the fire grate?
The CC will be split between the smoker 30" and the remaining a grill. I find myself wanting or needing to grill the same day I smoke. I was thinking of adding a diverter to pull hot air from the smoker CC, so that I could use the grill chamber as a warming box or cold smoke in. Is that a bad idea? Maybe this is another reason to use the dimensions with the oversized firebox?
It has been a few weeks and have made some visual progress, see below. I have questions how to proceed...
1) I bought a 3in pipe for the smoke stack, the calculator say it needs to be 51" but says most are between 30-40". To move the smoker out of my garage, I can't go longer than 30in. Will this be long enough?
2) The air intake is partially blocked by fire grate. Should I raise the grate, notch out the portion of the fire grate or other ideas?
A great thing I ve done on my 275 trailered smoker was to follow the advice of Gizmo who recommended a stack elbow which can allow the easy removal if the straight 51" pipe. You could also increase the diameter of the stack that would reduce the required length for proper draft.
Look that up if you've not seen one
Last edited by Puff on March 10th, 2015, 10:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Make no mistake, there ain't no powder in this Puff ! And... I'm not really a crazy person but I play one in real life
If you have room, I would raise the grate up a little bit. You should only need them wide open to get up to temp and then a little opening to maintain temp.
Next, I need to cut out the center plate that will separate the smoke chamber from the grill and was thinking of putting in an air/smoke diverter that would allow me to cold smoke in the grill chamber. Is this a bad idea? Would I need to size the opening equal to the external intake diverter?
So, I cut the plate to separate the smoker and grill short by a half inch... I didn't follow the golden rule: measure twice, cut once. All this metal working and welding is new to me and I now have even more appreciation for the smokers produced on this site. This is probably a stupid question, but should I buy another plate or weld the plate back to the scrap and recut? Another plate would cost about $25 for a 2'x2' 3/16 thickness. I am hoping you guys would have some creative ideas or should I just suck it up. Thanks!
Don't feel too bad... I've made these mistakes but when I read so many times that you just weld it and recut, that I finally tried it and it works. Depending on the length, watch for warping by overheating and .... grinding the weld to make it look flat(cosmetically) is a pita...really a pita
Make no mistake, there ain't no powder in this Puff ! And... I'm not really a crazy person but I play one in real life
It has been quite a while since I updated progress on my build. Not long after this last post, spring had sprung and then came summer and little progress was made. Sometime in mid-August, I picked up the grinding wheel and welder to get back at this beast of a project. My wife grew tired of the noise, especially the compressor after I decided to sandblast it with a portable blaster from HF before painting because the propane tank was pretty rusted and pitted. That took forever but I got it done and finished spray painting it just as my compressor died. I found a couple of leaks between the FB and CC which I had to fix, but otherwise it runs really well, holds temp, burns nice and clean. I can also control the temp on the grill side well also and the ability to raise the fire grate is convenient. Plus I can easily clean the ash on the grill side by brush it out the air inlet damper into a bucket. I am going to leave it in the garage till the spring and smoke/grill in the drive when the weather is warm enough because I can't bear to see my little baby get covered in snow just yet. This build was a blast! Now onto my next project.....
I really want to say THANKS to all the real professionals on this site. I was able to find answers, general directions or ideas in many other threads to any questions/problems I had during my build.