TexasBowhunters MINI Plus Build

[Texasbowhunter]

TexasBowhunter MINI Build
I thought I would start showing my progress on my MINI I had started a few months back…
Little bit about myself 1st…I consider myself a city boy who was raised in the city all my life but have always felt I would have been better suited for the country life…I have never done any welding to speak of in my life but have had the desire to weld given the opportunity…I enjoy wood working and have created some very nice work for the house and around the house for family and friends…By trade I build Aircraft for a living and have done this for the last 30 years…So being a perfectionist has been instilled in my ways of life is a natural thing…Personally I’m very proud of the fact I take pride in what I do, when I do it, but there are times it can become excessive when not needed…Some family and friends including myself refer this to being anal…Perhaps this will become clearer in this topic as I’m showing/explaining the progress…
I had decided to build a MINI slightly bit bigger (25%) than the plans called for…Math not being my stronger suit and proceeded to play with various sizes as far as what I wanted to see…I had read that the firebox would accommodate a 25% increase in Cook Chamber Size and was considering leaving well enough alone but my inner part said increase it as well so the fight was on…increasing the Fire Box size won out…The additional size I added was not that big of a swing to be overly concerned with at this time so I rocked on…
I have accumulated allot of tools thru ought my careers so I did not need allot however there were a few I felt acquiring would help make the job easier…Building this out of a small portion of a 2 car garage while sharing the rest of the garage with wood working tools and motorcycles doesn’t leave much room to move around in…Looking forward to having a shop in the near future to grow into rather than grow out of…
I had read many of the posts and took reference to them and would like to THANK those who posted their journey and If It seemed I took your idea and acted on it, it was done with the greatest respect to that idea believing that would really look cool on my smoker…So a Huge Cudos to you...There were a couple things when I build another I will change from what I have now to improve the oval product the next time…Now as stated earlier I am not a welder but believed in time with plenty of practice I will get better but until then I just rock on, with each opportunity I make to continue my welding I get a bit stronger with understanding what needs to be achieved to get to the level I’m desiring…So with this said I made one change to the drawings cook chamber where my welding skills would show weakness and decided to re-think this and come up with something different…This will be shown later in the attached pics and hopefully explained better…

[Texasbowhunter]

In the first picture I started with the Fire Box…I figured since this was the thickest portion of the project it would be the most forgiving to begin with since my skills were weak in the welding category…Here you can see the ½” plate in which I had HD Plasma cut from M&M Manufacturing here in Garland Texas do the plasma cutting and some of the breaking as well as the purchase of the ¼” sheet of steel…

[Texasbowhunter]

Having trouble posting pictures
Please bare with me until I figure out how to use this windows 10

[Texasbowhunter]

[Texasbowhunter]

I think we figured out how to post pictures
It seemed I had to reduce the size of the pictures before they would upload...
had to do some searching on the forum on how this was done...
Got Er Done Though as I'm so computer illiterate...

[Texasbowhunter]

In these pictures I show the diffusor with the 3/8” rods drilled into the ¼” plate prior to welding…You’ll notice that the diffusor I have which is 6” long, was not of the dimensions called out for…I felt that at my age it would be too heavy and awkward to handle by myself so I made it shorter than requested per the drawings…Now before anyone starts beating me up I am planning on fabricating a piece that will continue across the entire Cook Chamber which will mimic the drawing but kind of be removable and open all the way across the bottom with the exception where the fabricated diffusor is now…Hope this makes sense now but if not hopefully will become clear as mudd later as the build progresses…
What I did here was lay the pieces on top of each other and tack welded them together so when I drilled the holes the 2 pieces would line up accurately with each other…Then with the rods dropped down into the holes and the sides used as a spacer for the depth I rosetta’ed the rods into the plates and then ground smooth…

[Texasbowhunter]

After I got the Fire Box welded up and was satisfied with it I proceeded to attach the lower portion of the clean out area to the Fire Box as well as the diffuser to create the assembly…After the lower section of the box was framed up and tacked I had realized it was off by ¼”…This was unacceptable for the fear it would oval create a chain reaction to other portions of the build plus me being so anal it just plain out wasn’t going to work…
So I Radiac’ed the tack welds and ground down those areas and started all over again until I was assured everything was square…Got it all squared up and off I went to weld it completely…

Then came the diffuser…I had the upper and lower portion welded to the rods only, along with the Rosetta’s being ground flush…Fitted it and located the sides into the Fire Box and began tack welding this portion…after I got the sides tack welded in place and I thought all was square I welded completely…
Well as one would have it I had one side off from being straight with the Fire Box, all was square with the exception of the outer wall of the fire box and side of the diffuser in which wasn’t straight…So out with the radiac grinder and off with the welds I go and got it straight and tacked and welded…Now I was comfortable with what I had created…
Not looking to bad for someone inexperienced as I was, I thought to myself…
In the picture you can see the Fire Box with the Cook Chamber in the back ground
With the Cook Chamber I choose to Rosetta the sliders, to achieve a look of not seeing any welds since again I was an amateur welder…Plus it seemed it cleaned up the oval appearance of the finished look I was to achieve

[Texasbowhunter]

In the above picture you can see that I choose to fabricate my Cook Chamber in basically 1 piece with the exception of the top and bottom…
My goal here was to not have any welds showing in the cook chamber…
If you look close you will see I had a 1” flange turned out of the walls at the top and bottom for weld purposes to be concealed in the inner portion of the frame where the insulation was to go…So Imagine if you will when you look into the inner chamber all you see is a break along the perimeter of the 3 sides on the top and bottom…for me this was more aesthetically pleasing to the eye then my welding would ever be…yes to Have this formed by M & M Manufacturing was going to cost me but it was worth the cost…Later I will post a cost of all the materials and plasma cut cost along with the actual cost of materials I have in the smoker along with how much material I had used…
Enclosed is a diagram of what I wanted the Manufacture to fabricate for me…

[Texasbowhunter]

For the foundation of the Cook Chamber walls to sit upon I had to have a foundation…The upper and lower surfaces were tacked in before the Cook Chamber was installed as seen in the one picture seen…
I had asked for a 1” flange when fabricated which was fine and probably would have worked, however I choose to cut the flange down to ½”…Personally I feel this was a good choice to ensure I had a good weld inside the walls and to have what seemed to be a bit tighter interior gap…

[Rodcrafter]

Ok well that’s looking good! Keep up the good work!


Making memories!

[Big T]

[ajfoxy]

Definitely taking attention to detail to a whole new level

But a very nice build and detailed commentry.

[Dirtytires]

Maybe Frank should incorporate that change....you could get a royalty!

[Texasbowhunter]

Well as the frame was coming together I knew it was going to get heavy and since I was limited to room in the garage I would need to basically build from the casters up
So the plan was to fabricate the top frame and the bottom frame and have the verticals cut to size…
For the legs I used 4 x 4 x ¼” thick angle iron In which I got from the drop rack at quite a savings…I wanted to mount the legs with the base of the legs a bit wider than the body so what I had to do was to find out the angle in which I had to cut the top and bottom of the legs so the legs would have a 1.5” wider base…I also wanted to tapper the legs so I incorporated the standard width of 4” and tapered them vertically to 2” where the base for the casters were to mount…I liked the look of this on the Weldums build...I set up a jig in which Each corner would be able to support the leg at a 1.5” angle along with a given height to achieve a level base for the plated in which to mount the casters…This worked out pretty good…Minor trimming on 2 legs to ensure the 4 corners were flat and all was golden…

[Texasbowhunter]

I had to figure out real quick on how to get the insulation into the tubing after to no avail would the insulation slide into the tubing trying to stuff it from one end…So I came with a method where I used a piece of vinyl siding and cut it down to the interior width which helped take all the fuss/cursing out of the equation…I knew it would work I just had no idea as to how well it would work…
Enclosed are 2 photos on aid and how it would work

All the tubing is insulated
Seeing how there were a couple times I had the senior citizen moment where after getting the tube welded in place I had to go back and cut the weld and add the insulation...So nothing like doing the job twice...LOL

[Weldun]

Looking good bud!

[Texasbowhunter]

Here you can see the vertical sides in along with the fire box for fit...I chose to use some of my old training in Duct Layout and build a transition for the charcoal chute…so I center lined the front and back while making the back straight…You might be able to see the transition in which I’m attempting to describe in the pictures

[Texasbowhunter]

Thanks Guys for the kind words
I'm enjoying this build very much
Looking forward to building another one or more in the future
Of course there will be a couple changes I would incorporate from what I have done but nothing major...very minor changes...

[Texasbowhunter]

The next pictures shows the C/C installed along with the F/B installed and the top frame in place…Had the vertical frames in and held in place and secured temporarily to the upper frame with clamps…
You can see the ply wood which held the frame square at the bottom and the top so all the racks would be uniform in distance…
The wood stayed in until the C/C and the upper frame was all secured to the verticals or the Upper and Lower surfaces of the C/C…

[Texasbowhunter]

More Progress has been made just don't have any pictures to show at this time...
I'll get the pictures taken soon and continue my memories...

[Rodcrafter]

Very nice work!


Making memories!

[Dirtytires]

Not trying to be picky but I might suggest a couple of welds on the inside of the legs where they attach to the frame. Those legs are long and will get a lot of stress from moving and weight. I’m not an expert welder but I don’t see much heat penetration in the metal and the strength of the outside weld was ground off.

Just my 2cents...and 10 minutes do welding could save a toe!

[Big T]

[Cole]

Really nice, I like how you did the diffuser and the one piece inside sheet metal.

[Texasbowhunter]

Not trying to be picky but I might suggest a couple of welds on the inside of the legs where they attach to the frame. Those legs are long and will get a lot of stress from moving and weight. I’m not an expert welder but I don’t see much heat penetration in the metal and the strength of the outside weld was ground off.

Just my 2cents...and 10 minutes do welding could save a toe!

Dirty Tires
Yes I understand what you are trying to describe
However the pictures don't show the welds behind the legs...I had welded both the front and back...Dressed up the front with grinding and left the inside gently treated to dress up a more uniform appearence...The edges of the legs are beveled significantly on the outside as well as the inside...
I hope that I got good heat penetration but only time will tell
I am new to the welding seen and hope that all the welds will hold up but I have not real hands on experience as to know what I'm looking for as far as a great weld vs a pretty weld or for that mater what the wire speed is vs the temp control and how they work in harmany without blowing a hole thru the material I'm trying to weld...
Thank You for the tip and the heads up...