Custom Offset Ideas

[Ultimo]

Hi, im brand new in here and just about to look around for ideas.

Im from Australia and been dabbling in this style of cooking for about 18 months now and love it.

My smoking buddy and I want to upgrade and make a pair of 20inch standard flow offsets for ourselves.

We have a pair of bought 16inch offsets at the moment.
1 is a standard flow and the other is a reverse flow.

Lucky for us the builds will be done in my buddies stainless fabrication workshop so there may be some stainless bling on them as well.

So my question is if you have built or bought your own offset, what feature do you wish you had added in with hindsight.

Also any ideas on something to stand out from the crowd, like custom wheels, air intakes, handles, exhaust stacks and caps and any other cool touches.

We want to make them right the first time so all ideas are welcome.

Thanks,
Ultimo.

[Big T]

Welcome! Take a look around and you'll see that the options are endless. You are only limited by your imagination and funding. I try to make sure that I have some hooks for my utensils, a paper towel holder and a decent size shelf to set stuff on. It's tuff to get everything that you need the first time around because you always realize that you need something else.

[temurf]

[ajfoxy]

Mate with a buddy in a stainless fabrication biz you can go the whole hog ... well literally.

A couple of well insulated stubbie holders are a must.
Paper towel holder, rack for tools etc are sort of standard as well. If you are going to watch an offset you might as well be comfortable.

[Smurf]

Welcome. A shelf is definitely handy. I like chrome stacks and wheels, they add some bling to your smoker. Good luck.

[Squiggle]

Welcome to the forum, a shelf is a must & a stubbie holder is just as important, just gotta make sure it stays away from the heat of the smoker.

[Pete Mazz]

Welcome!

[The Czar]

Welcome aboard!!


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[Rodcrafter]

Welcome to the crew!

[Ultimo]

Thanks everyone.

So we look as though we are going bigger.

We are looking at some 600mm (roughly 24 inch) diameter pipe.

I have tried to convert our metric measurements and put it all in Feldons calculator.

How does it look?

http://feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator. ... 1.85,55.12

[Pete Mazz]

Looks good. May want 2 intakes to deal with wind. You'll find some of my calcs in my sig useful for the throat layout.

[Ultimo]

Throat layout?
Excuse me for being so green.
Do you mean the cooking chamber to firebox opening?
Ours will be both cylinders intersecting with an inch lip (I'm thinking this will be sufficient) at the bottom of the cooking chamber.

[Rodcrafter]

Throat layout?
Excuse me for being so green.
Do you mean the cooking chamber to firebox opening?
Ours will be both cylinders intersecting with an inch lip (I'm thinking this will be sufficient) at the bottom of the cooking chamber.

Ultimo,

Pete has made this nice list of terms that will be helpful to you. he keeps this sorta cool stuff in his signature.

http://www.smokerbuilder.com/forums/vie ... =87&t=4955

But Yes to your question.

[Ultimo]

Thanks for the reference to the anatomy and terminology of these beasts.

Just some more thoughts going through my mind.
I have so many ideas but not sure if they are just me over thinking something that should be just left simple.

I am hoping to have the 2 intakes (1 on each side of the firebox thanks Pete).

Im also hoping to trial a V shaped fire grate so that the V runs from the front of the firebox to the cook chamber and the top rails of this grate start above both the side intakes.

This will hopefully draw the incoming air underneath the fire and once all the wood starts to fully burn, the coals will naturally slide down to the bottom point along this V.

Not sure of how aggressive of an angle to make this V shape yet though.

The bottom of these side intakes will be level with the bottom of the V in the fire grate, with enough of a gap for ash to drop away to a ash drawer in the bottom of the firebox.

Thoughts?

[temurf]

I think the V shaped fire basket is a good idea. There are quite a few of the folks on this forum who have built them. The next smoker that I build will have one.

[Big T]

[Rodcrafter]

I tried to reply to this earlier but it didn't happen. Oh well I was just saying that I like to set the rails as high as I can without getting against the top of the FB. Then remember to leave opening gap for the throat opening at the end plate on the front on the COOK chamber side and the same type of opening on the door side so that you can feed sticks without having to pull that hot basket out each time. I say that because this type of smoker burns sticks not charcoal and so you have to feed it every 45 minutes to an hour. This is a pic of my trailer FB.


Making memories!

[Tom_Heath]

Man, that's an awesome design. Who ever came up with it.


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[Rodcrafter]

It was Gizmo


Making memories!

[alesmoker]

Welcome! I've only had my offset finished for about 2 months now but I already have a list of woulda, coulda, shoulda's. Aside from the obvious (WISH I HAD GONE BIGGER!!) I do wish I had designed my FB to be more user friendly. I do not have a top door. Only a side door. This was a double edge sword. Pros: Less work. Less smoke escaping the firebox. Cons: Tough to load charcoal/wood. Can't use my FB as a grill. My only other gripe is that I wish I'd taken the time and effort to build reverse flow. 1 chimney of coals and one split of wood will get my smoker up to almost 400 on the FB side and there's about a 75-100 degree difference to my exhaust side. This in turn forces me to do most of my smoking on only 1/2 of my CC. Considering tuning plates but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Best of luck! Can't wait to see some pics!


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[Ultimo]

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Some important materials have arrived.

[ajfoxy]

Well there's a start...

[Rodcrafter]

Welcome! I've only had my offset finished for about 2 months now but I already have a list of woulda, coulda, shoulda's. Aside from the obvious (WISH I HAD GONE BIGGER!!) I do wish I had designed my FB to be more user friendly. I do not have a top door. Only a side door. This was a double edge sword. Pros: Less work. Less smoke escaping the firebox. Cons: Tough to load charcoal/wood. Can't use my FB as a grill. My only other gripe is that I wish I'd taken the time and effort to build reverse flow. 1 chimney of coals and one split of wood will get my smoker up to almost 400 on the FB side and there's about a 75-100 degree difference to my exhaust side. This in turn forces me to do most of my smoking on only 1/2 of my CC. Considering tuning plates but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Best of luck! Can't wait to see some pics!


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You should cut some plates and even just lay them in there to tune that bad boy you will be glad you did.

jm2cw

[alesmoker]

Welcome! I've only had my offset finished for about 2 months now but I already have a list of woulda, coulda, shoulda's. Aside from the obvious (WISH I HAD GONE BIGGER!!) I do wish I had designed my FB to be more user friendly. I do not have a top door. Only a side door. This was a double edge sword. Pros: Less work. Less smoke escaping the firebox. Cons: Tough to load charcoal/wood. Can't use my FB as a grill. My only other gripe is that I wish I'd taken the time and effort to build reverse flow. 1 chimney of coals and one split of wood will get my smoker up to almost 400 on the FB side and there's about a 75-100 degree difference to my exhaust side. This in turn forces me to do most of my smoking on only 1/2 of my CC. Considering tuning plates but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Best of luck! Can't wait to see some pics!


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You should cut some plates and even just lay them in there to tune that bad boy you will be glad you did.

jm2cw

That's pretty much where I'm headed. We stock TONS of 6"x 1/4" plate stock. I'm gonna get a few cut before my next Smoke and see how it goes. Thanks Rodcrafter!


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[Ultimo]

Ok, we changed our minds and are making a trailer smoker first for our brand new teams first comp in early August.

As you can see we are well underway.

The offset has been finished since these pics (only chimney to be finished there).

There will also be a wood basket with a stainless work/prep bench as a lid on the other side.

A sink with a 12v pump and a stainless water tank on the end of the wood basket as well.

And that is pretty much everything.