To reverse flow, or not?

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 11th, 2015, 6:29 pm

Mods, please feel free to move this thread if it is not in the right place...

Well, after lurking for quite some time, I have finally begun my build. I am building a cabinet style insulated smoker (2 inch thick insulated outer walls), but am debating on whether or not to make it a reverse flow cabinet smoker. I have plenty of room to build side baffles if I want to go reverse flow. Basically, if I go this route, the side walls will have a 1" gap for smoke to flow up with the smoke exit being at the bottom of the cook chamber. Here are some questions:

1. I plan on building in a water pan (that doesn't necessarily always have to have water in it) out of .25 inch material. It
would basically be the bottom 3.5 inches of the CC. What are the pros/cons of including a heat deflector underneath it?
Do I even want one? In my mind, it would be about a .5 inch piece of plate to act as a big heatsink.

2. Are there any "gotchas" that I need to be careful of in with this type of design?

If anyone has any pics of a similar type build, I would be very interested to see them. This is a fun project for my father and I, with dad suppying the welding skills which I am trying to learn.

Oh, if someone can tell me how to upload pics without using a hosting service, I will update with pics. Hoping to have her done in time to smoke a Thanksgiving turkey.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » July 11th, 2015, 8:14 pm

Well I don't have any experience with that sort of smoker. But as far as the pictures using my I phone 5s and the tapatalk app I can add pics by touching the + symbol to the left of dialog box, then just select the picture for my saved.
Oh and welcome to the crew.

Making memories.

Rev.Mike · Post by **Rev.Mike** » July 11th, 2015, 8:25 pm

Post by **Big T** » July 11th, 2015, 9:01 pm

If I was going to build an insulated cabinet smoker, I'd go with a gravity fed smoker. jm2cw

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 11th, 2015, 9:40 pm

Big T- I thought about doing that, but decided to go this route since I can wrap the entire outer skin with a single sheet of 16 gauge steel, minus the top and bottom. The inside will be 3/16 steel.

Post by **Pete Mazz** » July 12th, 2015, 5:07 am

I would just build a normal vertical cooker. IMO a RF in a vertical is a waste of time and money and overly complicates a simple design that works well. Your water pan is enough of a heat sink/deflector. I don't seeing any reason to add a shadow plate. You may want to add a slanted drip flange around the perimeter of the CC just above the water pan. This serves 2 functions. Any drippings near the outside of your racks will hit this and be redirected into the pan and secondly, the heat from below the pan will be redirected into the center of the CC instead of flowing up the walls.

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 12th, 2015, 10:35 pm

Pete, thanks for your input, it really is appreciated! What size stack did you use? I have about a 48 inch piece of 4 inch square tubing that I would like to use. Thinking of mounting it to the top of the back wall so as to avoid any dripping inside the CC. Thinking the stack will rise about 10 or so inches above the top of the cooker. Thoughts?

Post by **Pete Mazz** » July 13th, 2015, 6:11 am

My smoker is going to be propane. The burner assembly will get mounted below the bottom plate in that picture. The exhaust is just the 6 inch long opening you can just see at the top, back of the cook chamber. Your idea is fine, just remember that you can make the stack any length you want on a vertical cooker.

Here is the link to my build.

http://www.smokerbuilder.com/forums/vie ... =17&t=3031

Pay no attention to the fact I started it 2 years ago and have never finished it.....

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 14th, 2015, 7:03 pm

Here are some pics thus far...

Frame tacked together

Test fitting the back inner wall

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post by **Big T** » July 14th, 2015, 8:32 pm

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 16th, 2015, 7:46 pm

I should be able to get most of the interior skin tacked in, if not finish welded this weekend, which has me thinking about my next challenge. Mounting the doors. I think I am going to flush mount them a la the pitmaker vault smoker. My question is how do a account for the gasket that will seal the doors? As always, pics are worth a thousand words!

Post by **Pete Mazz** » July 16th, 2015, 7:55 pm

http://inventorypictures.dealermade.com ... ess-2d.JPG

Seems like a lot more work on the inside vs a full overlay door.

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 16th, 2015, 8:12 pm

Even with a full overlay door, I still have to account for the thickness of the gasket. How to y'all do that? I assume that you figure some percentage of the uncompressed thickness of the gasket?

Post by **Big T** » July 16th, 2015, 10:17 pm

I got this from Gizmo, I stick the gasket to the door with high temp rtv (let dry) or self adhesive gasket. Then I put the door in place, wrap a couple of ratchet straps around the door and cooker and gently snug the straps. I weld on my hinge and latch and it's good to go. I have tried using shims to achieve the perfect door gap but it doesn't work as well as the method above.

Atama · Post by **Atama** » July 16th, 2015, 10:44 pm

OK, that sounds pretty easy. Next question: If I go with a self adhesive or RTV applied gasket, can I come back later with a tadpole type gasket that is mechanically secured to the smoker? Thanks for all your help!

forty_creek · Post by **forty_creek** » July 25th, 2015, 12:14 am

Or you saying later like if or when the original gasket wears out...I'm sure you could

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