Raise the exhaust (better airflow), eliminate the firebox grill (hard to seal/control fire), and consider not using a grease drain (looks pretty but completely unnecessary). The round inside square firebox seems overly complicated but no reason it won’t work. I like my air intakes on the sides and that design pretty much forces you to cut them into the door.
My experience with low mounted exaust is that it tends to trap the air in the top of the smoker. This disrupts airflow, causing the smoke to drop more creosote and particles on the meat which alters its taste. I’ve had both and my overall taste and pit operation improved greatly when I moved to a top mounted exaust.
There is something to be said about a good hand sketch. I have done field sketches at work to work through field problems at work for our (3) in house mechanical engineers and a couple of full time draftsmen, and a few of them couldn't do a legible hand sketch if their life depended on it. Something to be said about a decent hand drawing. Not sure if schools even teach drafting anymore. It was part of apprenticeships years ago. Now it has all shifted to CADD. Both definitely have their place, but a good, legible hand sketch seems to be a dying art.
Last edited by tinspark on March 14th, 2021, 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
I like the tapering log rack. Dave makes a really nice one. It self feeds itself into a channel.
Also, You might think about raising it and your door a few inches though. That way you can get air under your log rack, which will support combustion better. Also place your FB inlets at or a little below your log rack that way air drafts through your inferno..
Nice work. Big T preaches this and I am a believer!!! haah ha!..
Yeah that’s on my mind as well.
Thinking of a solution, any ideas?
Or maybe as simple as putting a hinge on it so you can open the bottom part. Should leave room to get a rod and sweep it out.
Yeah that’s on my mind as well.
Thinking of a solution, any ideas?
Or maybe as simple as putting a hinge on it so you can open the bottom part. Should leave room to get a rod and sweep it out.
Some guys put an ash pan underneath that slides or lifts out. Also Instead of a hinge, you could set up a pan/ drawer pull type setup.
It may lock up if stuff falls through the expanded metal tho. I like using a simple log rack and an ash pan underneath the rack. Pull out the rack, then pull the pan after it cools and dump in the trash can... easy-peasy..Best setup ever...IMO!
I put a full width ash drawer under my wood basket. I can empty by just pulling it out and don’t need to open the main firebox door or remove the basket. I just bump the basket a few times to knock the remains ash thru, then pull out the drawer and dump it.
However, this type of an ash pan will not work with a round bottom firebox.
With the round FB, the ash pan isn’t that big of a deal. It the bottom of your door is flush with the bottom of the FB, you just scoop the ash out. Isolating airflow below the wood grate will be tricky though. And venting with an insulated FB makes it even harder. I’ve got an idea about doing my usual side vents and using rectangular tubing to go through the insulation from the outer box to the pipe on the inside. Then framing out some plate like the bottom of LuoAnne across the bottom of the pipe. Then leave the front open with the door opening down to the bottom of the pipe, exposing the ash below. If I could draw as nice as Tinspark I’d sketch it out.
Note sure it this illustrates it well but here goes:
The rectangular tubing would go from the vents to the pipe. Then drop a plate in on either side of the pipe horizontally at the height of the bottom of the log rack to direct air through the bottom of the fire.