DIY Reverse Flow Smoker + Vertical Smoker

[sfarbic]

Hey everyone, I have been dreaming about building my own smoker for years now. I recently acquired (3) 30" diameter diesel tanks. One tank is 48" long and the other two are 36" long. I've read many threads online about all sorts of considerations like offset vs reverse flow, firebox size, flue size, etc. I think I have a solid idea of how I want to use the tanks so I've built a 3D model in Sketchup. The 4'-0" tank will be my main horizontal reverse flow cook chamber. One of the 3'-0" tanks will be my vertical smoker/warming box. The final 3'-0" tank will be cut in half and used as the firebox and transitional piece between the horizontal and vertical smokers. I wanted flexibility with this smoker so I can cook with just the horizontal or just the vertical or both. I will install a damper between the horizontal and vertical chambers which when open, will let smoke travel from the horizontal chamber directly into the vertical chamber. I will also build a damper between the firebox and vertical chamber so I can let smoke/heat directly into the vertical chamber without having it go through the horizontal chamber. My hope is that I will be able to use this smoker with both chambers going for large parties and use one chamber for smaller gatherings. I've included several pictures below to illustrate my plan. I wanted to post my plan and get some feed back from BBQ enthusiasts before proceeding with the build. Please let me know what you think.

[Dirtytires]

That is going to be a massive and heavy pit...I hope all these events are at your house cause moving it is going to be a chore. With that said, I had the same idea and ended up marking a pit too big for my back yard. It's too heavy with my big warmer box and that same warming box/vertical is never used since I don't cook for 300 in my backyard. It's got a lot of great ideas but make sure it fits your needs.

My only other comment is that you are going to spend more hours boxing in that pipe and fighting with shelf placement that you might be money ahead building a square box from sheet metal. Easier, faster and more compact. But yes, it means a full sheet of plate.

[sfarbic]

After reading your comments about the pit being massive and heavy, I was questioning my design a bit. I went outside and put the vertical tank along side the horizontal tank to mock up the size and it seems perfect for my needs. I also did a weight calcs and I estimate the whole smoker coming in at around 1000 lbs. I figured out that, with the 10" tires, it will take about 250 lbs of force to push the cart around. I think that's doable but if I can increase the wheel diameter, I can lower the pushing effort needed too cart it around. I might increase the tires to 14" which would reduce the pushing effort to 175 lbs. I might even consider mounting it to a trailer and using a dolly to move it around my yard. Thanks for helping me focus on portability. I am sure it is an easily overlooked consideration.

Regarding the boxing in of the vertical smoker, I'll admit that I prefer the look of a rectangular warming box/vertical smoker, but I can't justify the cost of plate steel to build it entirely out of plate. I got the 3 tanks for next to nothing and want to use them for a bulk of the build to save cost. I know I will spend more time fabricating the boxed in cylinder but I'm doing this for the experience so I'm not in a rush.

Thanks again for comments. I appreciate you sharing your expertise with me.

[Big T]

My current RF pit is set up like this with dampers between the FB/WC and CC/WC and it works great. I would recommend using a simple sliding damper over the swing door style that you've drawn up. There have been several builds on the forum over the years that used that style damper and the builders said that it was very hard to control the temperature no matter how they adjusted the door.

[sfarbic]

Thanks for the advice about the swing door. How does your sliding damper work? Could you send me a pic?

[Big T]

I insulated the ceiling of the FB with 2” roxul but I didn’t insulate anything else. The only thing that I would do differently is make the opening from the CC to WC smaller and as low as possible on the CC. It works fine but it only has to be opened a little bit so I wouldn’t make it so big. The opening from FB to WC is 5''x5'' and it is plenty big enough.


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[sfarbic]

Thanks for sharing your build. How hot does your warmer get when the FB/WC vent is closed? Do you ever have too much heat in the warmer when smoking in you horizontal chamber? Have you run both horizontal and vertical at the same time? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Big T]

The WC stays around 160 degrees with both vents and the stack closed, I can open the stack damper on the WC if I need to let some heat out. I have cooked in every combination imaginable and it works great. I can run the CC and WC the same temps at one time or adjust the dampers and cook at different temps. I added a grease drip pan in the WC that sits right above the damper and I have put charcoal in the drip pan and grilled burgers and steaks on the bottom rack of the WC while we were smoking butts and briskets in the CC. We cooked 21 spatchcocked chickens in the CC running at 350 degrees while cooking ribs in the WC at 250 degrees. It takes some extra time when you're designing it, trying to get everything to fit in the allotted space and then a little longer to build it but it is absolutely worth it.

[sfarbic]

That is exactly what I aim to do. Thanks for sharing your experience with me Big T.