First build ,60 gallon center feed, maybe

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 20th, 2013, 8:03 pm

After looking through this web site for a few days, I decided to go ahead and build one. I found a 60 gallon propane tank that had a nice shape to it. Went and picked it up last night.

I found the calculator, I can get pretty close with the suggested sizes with easy to get parts.

I am thinking of doing a center feed or a regular reverse flow. I like the center feed idea slightly better, becuase it looks more balanced than hanging the fire box off one side.

I came up with a quick sketch of my plan. I would probably add some sort of table/handle on the left side.

This tank came with some mounting brackets that I think will make a nice flange around the door, all ready shaped for a tight fit around the tank

I searched a lot of posts, but I still have a few questions.

Does the size of the openings around the baffle matter too much? the calulator says to make a reverse flow baffle opening at least as large as the fire box opening. if i just put in a rectangular plate I will wind up with two large openings on either side.

Should I make some curved pieces to close up some of the opening left by the domed ends?

How high off the bottom does the baffle plate need to be?

I am sure this info is in here some where. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Miketheforester · Post by **Miketheforester** » March 20th, 2013, 8:39 pm

Looks like a cool build. I just got done with a 60 gallon RF with an offset fire box, and I have been wondering if a center feed design would be more efficient at heat transfer. I will be real interested in your results. As far as the 2 openings go, way out of my league. If I were to guess though, I would think you would want the sum of the openings to be the same as the throat opening generated by the pit calculator, and the plate should be located high enough to create the same or larger cross-sectional area as the throat opening.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » March 20th, 2013, 8:44 pm

MTF is correct on that and center feed is a solid design concept - stay the course...
"Edgar is underway" is a thread you could look at if you're considering center-feed...

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 20th, 2013, 8:56 pm

I looked at edgar, that one is pretty cool

I am thinking that the center feed should be efficient and have even temps in the cc. Thinking, hoping, same same...

cross section of the fire box hole. makes sense. that should be easy to figure out with some cardboard templates. at leat the week is half over. i cant wait to get going on this build.

thanks for the info guys.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » March 21st, 2013, 3:38 am

One thing I wish I could have done during some builds was to sketch/scan and share on here so guys could see what I was thinking - if you could do that then you could probably get even better input...

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » March 21st, 2013, 6:14 am

That or our heads would have exploded seeing inside your head...

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Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » March 21st, 2013, 6:26 am

Are you dissin' me DC?

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » March 21st, 2013, 7:12 am

Rick wrote:Are you dissin' me DC?

Yes....wait I mean no....

Grabber70Mach · Post by **Grabber70Mach** » March 21st, 2013, 7:59 am

dcman (The Czar) wrote:That or our heads would have exploded seeing inside your head...

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To go where no one has dared to go. Stay tuned for the next episode of....................,.,...............

Rick's brain and how the thoughts spin.

:mrgreen::D

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 21st, 2013, 9:48 pm

started tear down today. i didn't have time to go to home depot for some of that, eh, phosphate stuff. so i just rinse with soapy water, argon, water, argon... removed all the fittings and found there is still some very stinky goo inside. does the phoshpate stuff get the stink out? i have a jug of simple green laying around, might that work.

anywho, going to cut the door and start the fire box this weekend.

anyone see anything on my not to scale quick sketch i should rethink?

Smokeone · Post by **Smokeone** » March 22nd, 2013, 7:03 am

Bleach will help with the smell.

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The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » March 22nd, 2013, 11:55 am

Once you cut that bad boy open .....it will stop stinking eventually!!!

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mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 22nd, 2013, 1:52 pm

I messed up and left it in my garage like that. That thing is staying outside until its done

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » March 22nd, 2013, 2:03 pm

OMG… I bet the wife is not happy with that!

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SOILhunter · Post by **SOILhunter** » March 22nd, 2013, 2:34 pm

There is just nothing quite like the smell of propane lingering in your house. That. Stuff. Reeks.

Post by **Tom_Heath** » March 22nd, 2013, 11:25 pm

left it inside..... WOW

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 23rd, 2013, 4:43 pm

got the door off. used some of the mounting bracket for the flange. didn't spring out much at all.

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » March 23rd, 2013, 6:21 pm

That is always a huge plus!!!

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » March 24th, 2013, 9:15 am

Keep it up.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » March 24th, 2013, 11:16 am

Looks like you have a good plan there to me. I would have a valve on the drain and the drain large enough to use as an additional air intake to the cook chamber, so that if I wanted to add some air there. I do this sometimes when adding wood to an already burning cook to move the first smoke along not allowing the creosote to accumulate in the cooking chamber.

Just my $.02

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 25th, 2013, 8:17 pm

got the rest of the flange on the door. started on fire box. got the 5 pieces tacked today. going to tig the outside and hit the inside of the seams with some mig.

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 30th, 2013, 4:57 pm

got the fire box welded up, door cut out, door flange tacked on, fb to cc opening cut out.

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » March 31st, 2013, 7:47 am

sorry just getting to your thread!
anyway looks great so far! the BP Gap needs to be NO Larger than the throat opening....
so the window is larger than the total sq in of your smoke stack diameter and smaller than the throat opening. I have ran them as small as a 1/2" gap before and ran fine. do not run it that tight tho! haha

mofomatic · Post by **mofomatic** » March 31st, 2013, 9:13 am

Here are some thoughts on what I am doing and why, everyone feel free to let me know if anything is not correct. Thanks.

I used the fenton calculator for my numbers. Some where I read that the baffle plate opening should be tied to the fb to cc opening, but that was for a regular reverse flow. Since I am building a center feed, I was going to try to make each side of the bafffle plate opening half of the fb opening,

I have not read anywhere yet that on center feeds, the sum of each side should equal the fb opening. It just made sense to me that way.

So, the fb to cc is 42.25 sq in, I was going to aim for each side being as close to 21-22sq in as I can get. Going to need to dig out the fancy math for that, cutting and welding the basic pieces is the easy part... I figured I need to get the baffle plate to follow the end bells' curves as close as possible to allow for the largest possible cook surface. I was thinking of making the cooking grate slightly smaller than baffle plate to keep all the run off going into the drain and not into the fire box.

i have not decided on the smoke stack yet. I can get pieces of truck exhuast from work, it's between these 2 pieces of 3.5 and 4 " with some nice bends. I was going to wait and see how the door hinges came out and where the door wants to be when opened and then pick an exhuast stack.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » March 31st, 2013, 10:20 am

I have not made a center feed RF myself, but I can see that the radiant heat on the BP will be nice and hot this being said the air just above it will act like a fan moving the air right out the stacks as long as they are in the center also. So the size your making the opening on each end of the BP should work fine in my opinion. In my simple mind that is the way I see it.

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