Cal Smoke's Mini Gravity Fed Build

[CaliforniaSmoke]

OK, trigger pulled. I drove down to Salinas today and bought every bit of steel I need to build this (except for the 1/2" plate that I already had). 80' of tubing, angle, 1/4" plate, etc, etc. I got three 4' x 10' sheets of 16 gauge. This thing is going to weigh a lot.

I'm thinking about stretching it by 3" vertically, spacing the shelves at 6" instead of 5", and adding one extra set of shelf slots between two of the others so I could fit three shelves of butts, or if I'm doing ribs I could slide in a 4th shelf. I want to compare the dimensions to the stumps baby and baby xl and see what makes sense. (Frank, if you're reading this I'd appreciate a sanity check so I don't get the CC too big for the firebox).

I also ordered insulation. It seems like it will take just over one 24" x 48" bat to fill the tubes. Hopefully the insulation will come next week. This weekend I'll start in on the ash box and firebox grill. We'll see how far I get.

I'm also going to smoke some pork belly, which I've never done. I'm going to substitute maple sugar for brown sugar in my "smoky" rub recipe, that should be good.

[SmokinDTown]

Cal Smoke. Did you get the metal at Valley Fab in Salinas?

[CaliforniaSmoke]

No, at El Camino Machine & Welding. Really nice place, nice guys. Looks like they have a huge stock of metal.
http://www.elcaminomachine.net/index.html

[4-Barrel]

Wow, just when I thought steel was expensive here in Arkansas! Ouch! I feel your pain, Cal Smoke.

I got some quotes locally about 3 weeks ago (sales tax included, and rounded up to the nearest dollar), and I thought the prices were absolutely insane:

3/4" x #9 Expanded Metal, 4'x 8' - $58
1/4” Plate, 4'x 8' - $195
14g. Sheet, 5'x 10' - $87

I guess that's a side benefit of living in one of the poorest states; everything's a bit cheaper. Now, if we just had some money to buy it with.

[Pete Mazz]

I would opt for a 4" spacing between the racks. It's enough for ribs and sausage, etc. and 8" is enough for bigger cuts. If you use 6" and need a little more room to cook something, you'll wind up using 12" of height which will waste space.

[Puff]

Pete, I like the logic you use in that comment. Always thinkin' ?

[Pete Mazz]

Thinkin? Did you smell the smoke from Joisey?

[SmokinDTown]

Ah, didn't think about them. They're just south of town. How are you going to cut the sheetmetal?

[CaliforniaSmoke]

I was thinking that 6" was enough for a pork butt, maybe I need to go measure more meat.

For reference, these are the two most comparable Stumps smokers. Some of the bigger ones have larger rack spacing.
Baby, 3 shelves spaced at 3.5" (look wider in the photos though?)
XL Baby, 4 racks spaced 5" apart

I'm going to think on size and rack spacing more. Putting in runners at 3" or 3.5" makes a certain amount of sense. Except for having to go buy more metal for the runners, which makes no sense after dragging home 800 pounds of stock yesterday!

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Ah, didn't think about them. They're just south of town. How are you going to cut the sheetmetal?

First time I've bought there. They were super nice and the cheapest of the quotes I got (which is not to say it was cheap!). They actually gave me the 16 gauge CR sheet for the same price as HR. I need to start building a floor for my Studebaker one of these days, so any extra metal will go to a good home.

On cutting, I have a 36" jump shear. I'll rough cut it to manageable pieces with either a plasma cutter of an electric hand shear, then final trim on the jump shear. Kind of the same thing on the 1/4" x 10" flat bar. Rough cut it to lengths I can manage and then bandsaw them to size.

I have to go to the meat market and get some beef ribs for tomorrow, and some other stuff for the rest of the week. Grocery store to get stuff for beans and slaw for tonight to go with the Pork Belly. Then get onto making the ash box.

[Rodcrafter]

It is funny how we come up with the things we do for ideas. I have never used a stumps myself, however I have smoked many pork shoulders and briskets. It does take 7" of space for many pieces of meat. I wouldn't go tighter than 3.5" then even with that to cook whole turkeys you need a full 10". Gizmo used to say go to the market with an tape measure and put it on the types of meat you want to cook to know for sure. But most of all this is the time to decide not after its all done and you wish you had done it different.


Making memories.

[CaliforniaSmoke]

It is funny how we come up with the things we do for ideas.

"Engineering by Emulating"

[Puff]

Pete, that's Noth Joisey ...

Now that I'm a southerner, you know like, yo...I talk different
When I was a kid in Hollywood Fl in 1962, they wanted me to take speech therapy because I didn't say lilac and lily with that southern drawl. My parents went nuts!

[CaliforniaSmoke]

I spent the morning running to the meat market (got some nice looking beef plate "short" ribs), getting groceries, and getting the beans and pork belly on the Traeger. It died last week and I had to replace the auger motor. It's working again, although it seems to be running a little cooler than it used to. Loads of nice smoke though.

Both the beans and belly need a lot more time, looks like a late dinner tonight.



I got a couple of hours in the shop and got the parts for the ash box cut out of 1/4". All squared up, I'll bead blast the mill scale off around the edges and bevel it for welding tomorrow. Probably tack it up, and start on the charcoal grate since that needs supports welded inside the ash box.

I don't think the plans have anything specified for a tray to go inside of the ash box (like a removable tray). That's easy enough to sort out, just need to think about what to make it out of. I think I may have some 1/8" plate or flat bar around that would work. I hope.

I'm not going to start on the charcoal chute until I figure out the height. I'm waiting to hear back from Frank as to how much taller I can make it without compromising how it works.

[SmokinDTown]

Cal Smoke, the food looks delicious! Where did you buy the pork belly?

[CaliforniaSmoke]

el salchichero on the west side of Santa Cruz
http://www.elsalchichero.com/

Nice place, but a bit spendy sometimes.

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Opps!

I was fitting up the plates for the ash box and noticed something was not right. I have the joints the wrong way on the firebox. The long sides should be _inside_ the short sides. I guess that's why I only tack welded them, right? I'll cut the tacks and correct this, other than that I'm ready to assemble the ash box.

My drill press, on it's lowest speed, is a little too fast for a 2.5" hole saw in steel. I went slowly and used plenty of cutting oil, and it did the job just fine. BUT, it makes a horrible squealing noise like I'm torturing a small child in the shop.

This is the wrong orientation of the firebox parts. Don't do this!

[Pete Mazz]

Sh*t happens!

[SmokinDTown]

Cal Smoke, one of the reasons I bought the plasma cutter was for its "gouge feature"! Comes in handy for me a lot! You're zooming along!

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Sh*t happens!

Yeah, it's no biggie. It's a 10 minute fix, just ran out of time yesterday. Mostly just wanted to save others from making the same mistake.

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Meanwhile, I'm cooking beef short ribs on the Traeger for dinner. The last time I did english cut chuck short ribs. Those are chuck short ribs cut into individual bones, then cut in half lengthwise. This time I picked up some Certified Angus Choice Beef Plate ribs -- these are from next to the Rib Eye as I understand it.

Two 3-bone racks, slathered with a mustard/molasses/Worcestershire mix, and rubbed with a new rub mix I'm trying out.


I'll let them smoke for 4 or 5 hours and then wrap them to get them tender.

This is the rub mix, right out of a book I was browsing at the bookstore on Friday. It was the only thing in the book that caught my eye, but it smells and tastes *really* great. We'll see how it does on the beef ribs.

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Damn, these were tasty. About 8.5 hours on the smoker, the last two and a half hours in foil. I served them with 12 Bones Corn Pudding and fresh green beans. Need to have brown rice and steamed veggies for penance I think... I really recommend that rub -- I made half of the quantity shown, and it was still way more than I needed for two racks of beef ribs. Probably enough left to do a brisket. (hmmm...)

[Pete Mazz]

Mmmmmmmmm!!!

[Puff]

Wow, now Ive really gotta move to California. By the way, like you woodworking inlay. Took a 3 month Internet course on it for my guitars and mandolins. They come out beautifully almost as good as those ribs look!

[CaliforniaSmoke]

Thanks Puff. That table was my first attempt, and I was trying to re-create the an antique Greene & Greene table that I'd seen pictures of. Funny thing, I was in Chicago this summer with my son and we went to the Chicago Art Institute and they had the original table I was copying on display. My version is really close, the differences are things I knew and did intentionally.