Pic of the firebox

[SmokinFF]

You'll have Q in no time.

[Tinker]

looking good

[Rev.Mike]

[Big T]

[Smokeone]

[Rodcrafter]

[Big Steve]

More progress. We literally are carving out about 2.5 hours per day to work on the smoker. Here is what we did today.
Welded cooking grate rails and welded frame for cooking grate. We also did some clean up grinding which you can't see.
The rack rails are 2" above the baffle plate. With the cooling grate frame work that'll put the meat 3.25" above the BP. The gap on the rails is larger than expect and we'll probably fix that and tighten it up some. Next step is the cook chamber door mount it, band it and counter weights, then exhaust stack then it burn out time. After burn out we'll clean it out, oil it down and season it. The outside will get sandblasted and painted. Yahooooo.... Let me know what you think.

[Big Steve]

OK, I have a question for the group. We're talking low and slow so no one should be yanking out the cooking grate which eliminates it falling out or tipping and spilling the meat load. That would never happen to anyone. But just in case have you put stops on your rack so the cooking grate can't be pulled out beyond the point of no return?

[Big T]

I don't put a stop but I put a piece of flat bar on top of my slides so when I pull my racks out they can't tip down.

[Rev.Mike]

[Gizmo]

You will be amazed how important the "tip rails" that bigT mentioned are. Every time you pull them out to do something the tip rail will hold the grate close enough to level you can work - otherwise you will loose a hand to holding the grate then trying to do everything else one-handed.

I think the simplest way to limit the travel on the grate would be a clip-on chain at the center back edge of the grate that anchors it to the back of the CC. Fortunately I've always been so focused on "not dropping supper" that I've never felt the need to add one.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Anti Tip rails are a must

[Big Steve]

OK. Anti Tip rails are in. Question for the group. How much gap do you have with your cook chamber door. We had our plasma cut and there's hardly a gap. We are banding the door so we're thinking that the door itself needs more clearance. 1/8" on side enough?

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

I build all of mine with a 1/8 gap.

[Rodcrafter]

Is a good number 3/16 is fine too since you are going to band it and maybe even gasket it. The main thing is it doesn't become hard to open or close.

[Big Steve]

The Team (me and another guy) got a lot done today. Door mounted with hinges, banding on door. Counter weight on, sort off. We decided that we need a large pipe so we'll be cutting this one off and upsizing. The chunks of square flat plate are just weights for testing. Once it's done it'll all be inside the pipe or square stock.
The issue is the door isn't sitting well. One corner looks like it doesn't have the same exact radius as the cook chamber so we plan to address that. Anyone got brilliant ideas how to get the cook chamber door to seat flush after it's welding on please let me know.
Tomorrow morning after our usual "church" session at Ay Chihuahua (breakfast with the guys) we'll move the smoker outdoors, scrub the inside then light it up. We plan to do a hot burn to see if it holds and to clean any junk out. Then we'll oil it down and season it with a normal burn. That's the plan and if we're off track please let me know.

[Big Steve]

Today was burn out day. Started it off with charcoal, then started stuffing the box with orange wood. We observed it for a few hours, feeding the firebox along the way. We have access to a IF Camera which we took pictures with, which I'll post. Until I have the original files I'll post up pic taken of the IR Camera screen with my iphone camera. The fire box was being run with the air vents wide open and a huge fire ripping along well. After we took the IR pics we then loaded up the cook chamber and burned it out. I'll post the IR pics in a followup post and in new a new post labeled "IR Camera Pics". It was a good day. All welds held up, got hot enough to turn metal blue on the cook chamber! Next step will be to clean it out, oil the inside then fire it up to season it. We still have some minor work to do on the door and counter weight, then we begin to get it mounted on the trailer. I have a feeling we'll be cooking something on it in the correct state. Fun project.

[Big Steve]

Here's the Infra Red Pictures. Note we had built a very large fire in the firebox for the burn out. I expect under normal BBQ conditions the IR Camera will have very different results.
First pic is of the fire box/cook chamber area. Second photo taken from farther back shows the heat signature under the baffle plate, up over the transition zone then it reverses direction due to draft and travels back towards the exhaust stack. Like I've said this was much larger fire than I'd normally cook with but the results, to me anyway, show Frank Cox's design is rock solid. Thanks Frank.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Awesome!!

[Gizmo]

That is SOOOOOO cool!

[Big T]

I wish I had an infra red camera

[Tom_Heath]

Thats a nice looking rig.

[Rodcrafter]

Wow what a fire. I would finish welding, cleaning, bending of the door or welding the rest of it before I season it. That would be just before "Q" time. I would use a port-a-power with at least a 10 ton cylinder jack a small piece of 3/8 chain to bend fit a door after welded in place.

jm2cw

[Big Steve]

No new pictures or thermal images. Minor progress yesterday was seasoning it. I burnt it out on Saturday with a huge fire. Yesterday I oiled it up and lit off normal fire for a few hours to season it up. We're planning on our first cook on it next Wednesday. Probably do a pork butt on it.
Sure it a big smoker just to cook one pork butt but I guess that's part of the learning curve.