First offset build! Have some questions.

[Big T]

Looks great! I use metal lock nuts and tack them to the inside of the door. They look like they have been squeezed in a vise and are slightly obround. You could make the catch for your latch upside down so that you push down on the horseshoe to latch the door and it wouldn't matter if it was just a little bit loose.

[hogaboomer]

I use a coupling nut and threaded rod, weld my handle to the rod, weld the nut in the door. The extra length of the coupling nut cuts down on the wiggle. Might have to look into the lock nut thing.

[dacolson]

Big T - ditto on the lock nut. Great call. I’ve been welding a washer to the rod on the outside of the door and welding a bolt to the rod on the inside of the door. Latch on the outside, opening facing up so the handle lowers into it. I angle the opening inward a bit so it sucks the door inward to tighten it up. A little wiggle in the handle goes away when it’s shut tight.


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[thejm]

Hey thanks for the advice. I have a clever idea that im going to try. Ill let yall know when i get it done and how well it works.

Question for yall: I bought a few Teltru thermometers with 4" stems and am about to mount them to my smoker. How close do I want the stem to the grates as far as hight is concerned?

[Dirtytires]

I like to mount so that the stems are bout 1 inch above the grate. I figure this is about center of a rack of ribs and a good indicator of the temp my meat is going to be at. Only problem is that the stems, if long enough, sometimes get stuck in a piece of meat. I was loaded with pork shoulders first time this happened and took me a while to figure out why one of my temps was reading 40F when the others were at 230F.

[dacolson]

I like to mount so that the stems are bout 1 inch above the grate. I figure this is about center of a rack of ribs and a good indicator of the temp my meat is going to be at. Only problem is that the stems, if long enough, sometimes get stuck in a piece of meat. I was loaded with pork shoulders first time this happened and took me a while to figure out why one of my temps was reading 40F when the others were at 230F.

Lol. Classic. Thejm - can’t wait to see your plan. You gotta show it either way - works or doesn’t.


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[thejm]

Hey guys,

This is my second time writing this post. I had it fully drafted and then previewed one of the images. When I hit the back button to go back to the post, my draft had been deleted. Very frustrating.

Anyway here we go again…I made some progress today. I finished the firebox door latch, fixed the arm tension issue, and started making the rolling metal frame that the smoker will sit on.

Firebox Door Latch
I started off by measuring and cutting the catch out with my plasma cutter. Then I cleaned it up with my grinder and welded it in place. Next I used my grinder to lightly adjust how much friction there was between the arm and the catch. It was pretty simple to get enough tension where it locked into place but not so much that it is hard to open.

Arm Tension
As noted in previous posts, I was having an issue where I cannot get consistent tension on the arm that locks the door closed. The bolt would rotate with the arm and leave it either very loose or so tight that you could not rotate it.

My first idea to fix this was to weld the bolt and the nut together. I had issues with this though. I could never get the tension right…it was too permanent. Also the bolt sheared off near the weld…I’m guessing because of thermal stress.

My next idea was to drill the bolt and use a cotter pin to lock the nut and the bolt together in a non-permanent way. It worked really well! Once I locked the 2 together, they are free to rotate with the handle if they need to and the tension doesn’t change because the nut (thats now locked to the bolt) sets the tension.

I couldn’t get a drill to the bolt when it was mounted on the door so I put a castle nut on the bolt and tightened it to the right amount of tension. Then I used a center punch to mark the bolt and the side of the nut so I could drill it on the bench.

I put a regular nut on the other end of the bolt to hold it level as I was drilling. I found out that it’s important that you drill perpendicular to the bolt face to make sure it comes out at the right point on the other side of the castle nut. Else it will not hit in the opposite notch of the castle structure.

I also ran a 3/8”-16 die over the bolt to clear the threads from what the drilling left behind. The final step was to insert and bend the cotter pin. In my case I drilled a 7/64” hole and used a 1/8” by 1 1/4” cotter pin from home depot.

Here is the finished product from the inside:

The next steps are to finish the frame, mount the thermometers and do some cleanup work!

[dacolson]

Great solution. Simple and effective.

[thejm]

Btw my new hat came in...

[Big T]

Nice work!

[Cole Leffert]

I like the hat!!!

[thejm]

Hey question for those of you that have built an insulated firebox here.

The outside wall of the firebox is fully welded to both end plates and the inside is fully welded on the door side but not on the CC side. You can see the only part of the only seam on the firebox that isn't welded in the picture below.

This seam is the only place for air to vent and I really can't get my grinder/welder to it to seal it up. I spent an hour or so trying and it came out hideous so I ground all of it off.

Do I need any kind of a drain or vent hole on the bottom to vent this enclosed space? EDIT: To be clear, I meant a hole on the bottom of the outside wall to vent to the ground.

One other question: I have heard that the firebox door can warp due to the high heat so I installed these cross members and did stitch welds all around. There are 4 in the center and 2 more as you go out on 1 side of each member. I am trying to strike a balance of strengthening this door but not welding on it so much that the welds warp it. Should I fully weld this?

[Dirtytires]

No vent needed, obviously better if you can weld the seam tho.

Door is fine as is. No need for a full weld.

[thejm]

No vent needed, obviously better if you can weld the seam tho.

Door is fine as is. No need for a full weld.

Thanks. I was also afraid that if its fully welded, I would have made a bomb lol

[dacolson]

Lol. Yes. better to pop a weld than blow the door off it's hinges!

[thejm]

After thinking about it, I didn’t want the heat and fumes from the insulation to vent into the CC and affect the flavor of the meat so I ended up welding that seam up fully. I knew it was going to be a true pain (and it was) but now it’s done.

I am going to cut a small hole in the bottom of the outside of the firebox relieve pressure and to allow any condensation to drain.

When I previously tried to weld this seam, there was no place for the weld to go because the 2 metal pieces were flush with each other. As a result, the weld drooped down and looked terrible so I ground it off. I guessed that would happen but knew grinding a channel was going to be a PITA so I thought it was worth a try.

To do it properly, I had to get all suited up in PPE (goggles with tape to seal them, respirator, face shield, ear muffs, etc) and lay in the bottom of the firebox with my grinder overhead to grind a channel where the weld needed to go. Then I welded the channel.

This is my first time welding overhead and think I did fairly well considering. I kept my stick out very short and kept the torch vertical and it went on fairly flat.

[hogaboomer]

That sounds like a good time!!!

[dacolson]

Heck yes. You killed it. Looks great. Nice work.

[Big T]

[Dirtytires]

I think you will appreciate having it sealed up properly. That weld just has to prevent smoke and moisture from getting between the pieces and did not need all the efforts of a properly dressed weld. Your original crappy weld would have been enough. Nice job tho.

I’m not thinking that anyone has ever drilled a pressure hole in a firebox. Mine is double walled and I’ve never had an issue. Definitely won’t hurt but may not be necessary either.

[thejm]

Hey guys, I have another build update!

I got some time this past week to cut the holes for the 3 Teltru 3” thermometers that I planned for this build.

The packaging says that the threading on the back is 1/2” NPT but its actually 3/4” NPT. Beware if you buy the same ones that I have. Link below.

Also, I thought the face of the thermometer twisted independently from the back threads and stem but I don’t think the ones I ordered did. If you are planning on threading the hole that the thermometer goes in, you’ll need to twist the face to be oriented upright while leaving the threads screwed in tight. Because of this I decided to drill a hole big enough for the threads to fit through and use the provided locking washer to hold them on.

I went with the 4” stems because I wanted to get an accurate CC temperature thats wasn’t as influenced by the radiant heat of the CC walls.

https://www.atbbq.com/accessories/grill ... meter.html

I have always planned on having 3 thermometers on my smoker: 2 on either side of the CC doors and one between them. This is my first offset build and so I wanted a few of them so that I could learn how my smoker cooks and how the temperature varies from end to end. If the temps are higher at the firebox side, I plan to do sides there like smoked Mac and cheese, smoked beans, etc.

Anyway, I got really lucky with their placement though because the whole time I was designing my smoker in Fusion 360, I forgot to account for the width the straps add to the CC doors and how that would impact putting a thermometer between them!. I couldn’t believe that that never occurred to me until now…Well by shear luck I had enough room. Protip: make sure you plan for thermometer placement when cutting your doors and adding your straps. Don’t rely on luck like me even though it worked out this time!

Thermometer fitting between CC doors (barely!).

Tip: As mentioned in previous posts, I set my smoker up on some temporary supports such that its perfectly level with the earth (not the ground). This made all of my cuts throughout this process easier because I could take a level or laser to them to verify accuracy. When I mount it on its permanent cart, I’ll make sure its level with the cart which is level with the ground.

I wanted the tip of my thermometers to be 1” above grate height. Math told me that I needed to make the center of my hole 1.5” above grate height to achieve this. In this case, I used my laser level to shoot a line 1.5” above the bottom cut-out of the CC doors (grate height). From here I measured out enough room so the door wouldn’t hit the outer edge of the thermometer and then added a 1/2” safety factor. I center punched those 3 points on the laser line and started drilling.

1" above grate height.

Even with using oil on my bits, I did manage to break a couple of my tungsten ones throughout the process but I attribute that to my lack of knowledge in drilling through metal. That and the center of the 2 outer holes landed on the weld seam that holds the tank together, which was no fun to drill through.

Holes on weld seams.

A few tips:
1. I was worried about my bit walking on me as I stepped up sizes so I marked a long vertical and horizontal line from the center punch hole outward to form a crosshair that I could check the hole against. Obviously make this longer than the hole is wide.
2. The weld seams are slightly elevated which was causing my bit to walk inward. To prevent this, I took my grinder and ground it down to form a flat spot to drill. This solved my problem.
3. My 3/4” bit was barely too small for the thermometers to fit through and I couldn’t get a grinder or file in there so I got my Dremel and, after about 30 minutes, was able to widen the holes just enough to work.

Success! Here is the final product!

I hope this was informative to those of you just starting this process.


My next steps are to build the frame and do a little cleanup work

[Cole Leffert]

Looking good!!

[Big T]

[thejm]

Thanks guys!

How do y'all typically prepare your smoker for the first cook? How do you season it?

I have kept the metal shavings vacuumed out of the CC and firebox but don't know if any pressure washing or cleaning is necessary to remove any remnant oil or other stuff before I do the first burn.
After its clean, I plan on coating it with a light layer of pam and doing some kind of break in burn where I get it up to temp for several hours and maybe add a small amount of chicken thighs or sausage at the end to make sure it tastes right. After that, I think it'll be ready for its first real cook.

This will be my first time seasoning a smoker so your input is appreciated.

[Dirtytires]

I did a hose out and used a scrub bucket of dawn dish soap toget the majority of oil out. Nothing worse than serving up a dish with a metal filing in it.