Big project....take your time and do it right. Interested to see what you come up with.
As far as the “safe to cut” it sounds like you are ready. Most will either leave it full of water or co2/nitrogen purge it for the first cut. The water or inert gas will displace any propane vapors still in it.
Welcome.... a brewery and a BBQ restaurant... sounds like my kind of heaven.
Learning generally boils down to "Repetition or the avoidance of pain", some people learn by doing, some by watching and some just have to pee on the electric fence.
Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. Henry Ford
Thanks Big T and DT. I have lots of CO2 tanks around since I have a brewery so I will purge the tank with those for my first cuts. I made my first cuts today on the firebox metal. I am using 1/4” steel plate for the box so it took a few grinding wheels to get the pieces cut out. Gonna be a good time making this beast, very therapeutic. Cheers everyone!
That looks like a great project, like others noted take your time and enjoy the process!
I will be watching your build and would love to swing by and try it out when you are up and running.
I have 5 sides done on the fire box now. Have a couple of questions, when building the door how big should I make it? Should it be as big as the side of the box(34”x34”) or should I make it smaller like 24x24 ish? I plan in making the door go to the bottom of the box so ash can be raked out easy. Next question is how high up from the bottom should I put the intake openings. They will be 16”x4” on both sides. I was thinking 4” up. So far everything is all from the scrap yard so it’s been easy on the wallet. That’s all I have for now, Cheers!
I would recommend an ash pan, it makes clean up a lot easier. The vents need to be at the same level as the bottom of your fire basket or lower so that the air has to be drawn through the coal bed. You should start a build thread over in the design and build section so that others can find your build later on.