First offset build! Have some questions.

[thejm]

did you have those supports in before or after you made your cuts?

After. I put them in when I welded the d-rings in there and pulled on it with the turnbuckle and left them in there when I went to Plan B.

[dacolson]

Solid. Nice to have it straight.

[thejm]

So as I mentioned in my previous post that I managed to bend the top and bottom of the tank back to square. Now the door fits like a glove.

Before:

After:

I was talking with my dad about how the turnbuckle method failed because the metal sprang right back to its bowed form and he came up with the idea to create a mega-pry bar and to bend the tank back.

Here is a picture of the pry bar that I made this past Friday night. The cuts are a little rough because I had a bad tip in my plasma cutter at the time but it got the job done!

The handle is about 4' long and is made of 1.5" square tubing; 1/4" wall. I cut a 4" by 1/2" slit the one end of the tube. Then I cut 2 identically sized 1/4" thick plates out of some steel. I plug welded the plates together in 4 places (you cant see the plug welds, they are on the bottom side). Next I inserted the plates into the slit i cut into the tubing and welded them in place. Finally, I cut a 3/4 by 3" slit into the other edge of the attached plates. This is where ill be prying from. If i were to do it over, id make the prying slit 3/8" or a 1/2" wide.

I am trying to get more consistent in my movements while welding and I was fairly happy with my welds here. I think I'm improving. Ignore the cap weld at the end though I tried to bugger that up for fun...as you can see I succeeded.

To bend the tank back into square, we inserted the pry bar onto the edge of the tank such that the edge fit into the slit I made into the plates. We bent the tank a little at a time. We would bend in one spot, check with a straight edge, bend a few inches down, check, repeat, etc. We did this until the edge was straight working from the middle out. It really wasn't that hard to do and if you bend too far, bending back is easy. Just be careful, we almost rolled the tank off of the carts it was sitting on when we were prying. After that, 1 person held the tank and the other pried.

[dacolson]

Nice work! I use a big crescent wrench to bend flanges and such. Never tried it on the tank itself. Maybe it would work w a cheater pipe on the end for leverage. Good idea.

[thejm]

I got the supports welded onto the inside of the second door and got it cut out!

This was how I welded the supports onto the inside of the door.

Its starting to look like a smoker!

Next step is to take a wire wheel to the inside of the tank to clean it up and then bend the frame of door 2 back to square.

[dacolson]

Now you know how a whole hog feels!
Looks good.

[Big T]

Nice work!

[towtruck]

Looking good!

[thejm]

So that was fun...I spent the evening on a date with my grinder and a wire wheel grinding the entire inside of the tank.

I put a fan inside the tank to blow the dust butts out and use d a shop vac to catch the dust that settled at the bottom. After i was done, it came out looking really good though!

I had to practically suit up in a bio-hazard suit to avoid getting metal dust in my mouth, eyes, hair, etc. but after I did that it wasn't too bad. Heres a pic of me in my 'suit' for fun. I look ridiculous I know. For those wondering, thats gaf tape around the goggles to seal them from the dust.

The things we do for good BBQ...

[Dirtytires]

Agreed....painful process. On the bright side, everything will weld much easier now and the only thing you have to do to the interior before cooking is oil it.

[SheffSmoker]

I like the oars in the ears for comedy effect...

[thejm]

Agreed....painful process. On the bright side, everything will weld much easier now and the only thing you have to do to the interior before cooking is oil it.

Ya i hope so. The tank has no smell and the inside is clean but i think im still going to burn it out this weekend just to be safe. I just feel weird putting food into a used propane tank without burning all the crap out first.

[dacolson]

Looks great. You really went the extra mile.

[Dirtytires]

Personally, I would NOT burn it out.

Your tank is clean. A burn is going to mean you have to clean the soot out of it yet again to get it back to clean. You are not putting food directly on the tank and it will be sealed with a nice layer of cooling oil and smoke after your initiation burn-in. Obviously, it won’t hurt, but if you don’t have strong odors than I would most definitely skip the burn.

[thejm]

Personally, I would NOT burn it out.

Your tank is clean. A burn is going to mean you have to clean the soot out of it yet again to get it back to clean. You are not putting food directly on the tank and it will be sealed with a nice layer of cooling oil and smoke after your initiation burn-in. Obviously, it won’t hurt, but if you don’t have strong odors than I would most definitely skip the burn.

Thats a good point. The oil will be covering the tank and sealing. You are probably right but i have my whole family coming over tonight to burn it out and watch the fire so i think im just going to go ahead and burn it out and clean up the soot tomorrow. It shouldn't take that long.

BTW speaking of oil, what do most people use for seasoning / coating the inside of their smokers? I have hear a lot of people use beef tallow. Any good places to get that?

[dacolson]

I wouldn’t use an animal fat. The chance it goes rancid and the low smoking temp of the oil are not optimal. I’d use Pam canola or other higher temp vegetable/nut oil. Spray on makes it much easier to season.

[Dargo]

Personally, I would NOT burn it out.

Your tank is clean. A burn is going to mean you have to clean the soot out of it yet again to get it back to clean. You are not putting food directly on the tank and it will be sealed with a nice layer of cooling oil and smoke after your initiation burn-in. Obviously, it won’t hurt, but if you don’t have strong odors than I would most definitely skip the burn.

Thats a good point. The oil will be covering the tank and sealing. You are probably right but i have my whole family coming over tonight to burn it out and watch the fire so i think im just going to go ahead and burn it out and clean up the soot tomorrow. It shouldn't take that long.

BTW speaking of oil, what do most people use for seasoning / coating the inside of their smokers? I have hear a lot of people use beef tallow. Any good places to get that?

Grapeseed oil for me.


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[Dirtytires]

I used PAM as well. Use it on my cast iron too.

[Big T]

I used PAM also but whatever you decide to use just remember to put a very light coat on everything or it tends to get really messy.

[thejm]

I used PAM also but whatever you decide to use just remember to put a very light coat on everything or it tends to get really messy.

Thanks for the tip.

BTW I welded cut the hinge and bent the 1/2" round stock into the shape needed for my hinges. I also cut and mounted the straps to each door but doing so caused the door to not fit right. Before I welded the straps on, the door fit more or less perfectly but after, it became less concave (bigger radius) and so both the top and bottom of the door are sticking out while the middle was flush when I went to attach the hinge to the door.

I am not happy with how this fit so I ripped the straps off 1 door and am going to redo it. Also I wasn't happy with how my welds looked either quite frankly. I know I may be picking at details but to me, it just looks like shoddy work to have the door not fit right. I can handle a 1/16 but any more than that and its all i look at when I see the pit...

I am thinking about either putting tacks on the straps about every 2" all the way around as opposed to the 2.5" welds I was doing to reduce the heat put into the door or finding an excuse to lay a few beads on the inside of the door to fight the pull of the welds on the outside. These doors are going to drive me mad lol.

[dacolson]

If you have the patience, you can drill holes in the straps and weld through them to the door to keep the heat down and to keep your straps from bending up as your welds cool. That's how I am doing my current build. Hogaboomer has also gone that route with success. Here's a pic showing the straps, holes, plug welds and how my hinges are set up. I used a 1/2" drill bit on the holes so I could get good penetration into the door.

[thejm]

If you have the patience, you can drill holes in the straps and weld through them to the door to keep the heat down and to keep your straps from bending up as your welds cool. That's how I am doing my current build. Hogaboomer has also gone that route with success. Here's a pic showing the straps, holes, plug welds and how my hinges are set up. I used a 1/2" drill bit on the holes so I could get good penetration into the door.

4B3A56E1-D09A-4600-8C0E-513DF673B22B_1_105_c.jpeg

That looks really good. Can you send a few more pictures of the doors? Especially of the fit. Also did your doors or tank warp after cutting it?

[dacolson]

If you have the patience, you can drill holes in the straps and weld through them to the door to keep the heat down and to keep your straps from bending up as your welds cool. That's how I am doing my current build. Hogaboomer has also gone that route with success. Here's a pic showing the straps, holes, plug welds and how my hinges are set up. I used a 1/2" drill bit on the holes so I could get good penetration into the door.

4B3A56E1-D09A-4600-8C0E-513DF673B22B_1_105_c.jpeg

That looks really good. Can you send a few more pictures of the doors? Especially of the fit. Also did your doors or tank warp after cutting it?

I followed Frank Cox’s method for cutting these - plasma torch cuts, but leave the corners so the plate stays attached.
- cutoff disc/angle grinder on the cuts again to clean them up
- hack saw blade to finish the corner cuts after the plate cools down
I don’t know if it is Frank’s method or luck that these two didn’t bend. The 3 I did before this all bent. Here are some more pics with some angle shots to show the fit up.






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[thejm]

If you have the patience, you can drill holes in the straps and weld through them to the door to keep the heat down and to keep your straps from bending up as your welds cool. That's how I am doing my current build. Hogaboomer has also gone that route with success. Here's a pic showing the straps, holes, plug welds and how my hinges are set up. I used a 1/2" drill bit on the holes so I could get good penetration into the door.

4B3A56E1-D09A-4600-8C0E-513DF673B22B_1_105_c.jpeg

That looks really good. Can you send a few more pictures of the doors? Especially of the fit. Also did your doors or tank warp after cutting it?

I followed Frank Cox’s method for cutting these - plasma torch cuts, but leave the corners so the plate stays attached.
- cutoff disc/angle grinder on the cuts again to clean them up
- hack saw blade to finish the corner cuts after the plate cools down
I don’t know if it is Frank’s method or luck that these two didn’t bend. The 3 I did before this all bent. Here are some more pics with some angle shots to show the fit up.






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Wow that looks great! Your welds are top notch. I actually didn't see the video Frank did on how to cut the doors until after mine were cut but i did almost the same thing. I cut mine with the angle grinder from the start and finished up the corners with a hack-saw blade. Funny how similar mine was to his and the only reason I didn't use my plasma cutter was because I wasn't confident in my plasma cutting skills to cut a clean edge.

My tank obviously bowed a lot and i have heard of other tanks that didn't bow at all. I think I got one of the worst tanks.

Is your tank a 250? Also, since this is your 4th build and assuming your tank is a 250, how tall is that smoke stack assembly? 6"? I am modeling mine and was trying to decide between 6" or 9".

[dacolson]

Thx Thejm. I still struggle with fit up and surface prep. I’ll get one good bead and the next one looks like garbage. Still a lot to learn.
It’s actually a 120 gallon tank. I think the pictures a little bit deceiving. The Stack is 27 inches from the top of the tank, 37 inches from the smoke collector. It’s a 5 inch outside diameter, 4.75 inch inside diameter pipe. I got a pile of it for cheap. Got to keep your eye out for good finds like that.