Cal Smoke's Mini Gravity Fed Build

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » March 7th, 2018, 8:57 pm

Dirtytires said:

Are those screws....???

So what's wrong with screws?
If one puts a tadpole gasket on the door you are definitely going to use screws to keep it in place.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » March 7th, 2018, 10:13 pm

Time out....I’m not saying screws are bad.

Just looking thru the project it is fair to say that the builder went to great efforts to keep everything on the interior clean and did more bending of metal to avoid extra welds than any smoker I’ve seen to date. The interior is beautiful, spotless and perfect.

Then, on the last day of the build he runs 8 perfectly centered screws to hold on a drip rail?? I just wondered what the reasoning was, not that it was wrong or inappropriate in any way. I’m guessing that the drip is stainless.....which would make sense not to weld it.

Heatermeter builder · Post by **Heatermeter builder** » March 7th, 2018, 11:15 pm

Dirtytires wrote:Are those screws....???

They are not screws, look closer

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » March 8th, 2018, 11:06 am

I can’t see the detail....if not screws I can only guess rivets.

CaliforniaSmoke · Post by **CaliforniaSmoke** » March 8th, 2018, 1:57 pm

Dirtytires wrote:Time out....I’m not saying screws are bad.

Just looking thru the project it is fair to say that the builder went to great efforts to keep everything on the interior clean and did more bending of metal to avoid extra welds than any smoker I’ve seen to date. The interior is beautiful, spotless and perfect.

Then, on the last day of the build he runs 8 perfectly centered screws to hold on a drip rail?? I just wondered what the reasoning was, not that it was wrong or inappropriate in any way. I’m guessing that the drip is stainless.....which would make sense not to weld it.

Wow, late breaking controversy!

They are "pop" rivets.

I drilled holes in the drip guard, then used clecos to hold the part in place. That's really handy -- drill the first hole in the door, cleco the guard in place, square it, mark the second hole, drill and cleco it. Then mark and drill the rest.

I'd thought to pull the clecos out one at a time and plug weld each hole. But then I thought, why not use blind rivets? The compression from setting the rivet seals the hole reasonably well, they are more than strong enough, and if I want to remove the drip guard it's easy enough to cut the rivet heads off. For that matter, if it causes some misalignment in the bbq universe when I use it it's easy enough to replace them with plug welds still.

I'm going to do the lettering this afternoon, and maybe light a fire in it and cook something.

CaliforniaSmoke · Post by **CaliforniaSmoke** » March 8th, 2018, 9:51 pm

ok, NOW it's done. Bring on the Q.

Post by **Big T** » March 8th, 2018, 11:20 pm

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » March 9th, 2018, 12:04 am

That is one sweet unit. Nicely done.

DT I was not attacking your comment on screws, just wanted to find out if there was a structural or other reason not to use them...

richy20 · Post by **richy20** » March 9th, 2018, 12:17 pm

That is a Beaut! Awesome machine. Now time for some Q.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » March 9th, 2018, 12:25 pm

Ajfoxy—- no offense taken. I love to learn the reason behind a persons decision. It often allows me to learn something that I can apply down the road.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » March 10th, 2018, 12:31 pm

That looks so good I want 1 or 2. Don’t tell my wife.

Making memories!

Cole · Post by **Cole** » March 10th, 2018, 1:39 pm

Very nice and great job on the graphics! :biggrillin:

Heatermeter builder · Post by **Heatermeter builder** » March 10th, 2018, 2:35 pm

I'll trade ya my double pan for that. Custom warping, still paintless,vseems like a fair trade, lol.

I really like your build

Squiggle · Post by **Squiggle** » March 10th, 2018, 7:41 pm

Looks awesome dude, well done!

CaliforniaSmoke · Post by **CaliforniaSmoke** » March 11th, 2018, 4:57 pm

I'm doing three racks of st louis cut spare ribs and a pan of beans. First outing, so I'm still getting familiar with it.

At first the door thermometer read about 60 degrees lower than the digital probe, now it reads about 50 degrees hitter. Weird. I'm guessing that it just takes a long time to get the whole thing up to temperature. I had it wide open for a while during the warm up, it got of to 275. I would have thought it would have been a bit hotter. I throttled it down about 1/3, looking to hold 250 on the digital probe. The temperature shifts slowly, which is generally a great thing except when I'm trying to get to a specific temp.

I put a mix of charcoal and wood chunks in the chute. Layer of charcoal, two or three chunks of wood, repeat. If it doesn't seem smokey enough I'll throw a chunk in the ash pan.

The beans are my tweaked version of a recipe I saw somewhere else, they totally rock. Better than any I've had anywhere else. Not bragging - but if you need a solid bean recipe this is worth trying out (PDF attached)

Post by **Big T** » March 11th, 2018, 6:35 pm

Most smokers take a little time to get all of the metal hot and the temps leveled off. Be sure to post some pictures of the finished product so those other guys will believe you.

CaliforniaSmoke · Post by **CaliforniaSmoke** » March 11th, 2018, 11:59 pm

So it seems to be a bit hotter on the right - not surprising, and not a big deal. These were about 5 hours in (no foil wrap). I swapped the two outside racks, spritzed them with some apple juice and let them go another hour, then hit them with some sauce and gave them one more hour. They were awesome. Tender, lots of flavor.

I usually foil them with butter, apple juice, brown sugar and honey at about 3 or 4 hours, for an hour or an hour and a half. They always come out tender but lately I think I like the texture and flavor better without the foil. They were plenty tender and not dry at all.

I had some left over brisket in the freezer I cut up for the beans, they were killer.

I'm gonna call this a success.

Weldun · Post by **Weldun** » March 12th, 2018, 3:51 pm

Very nice, looks like you succeeded!

Squiggle · Post by **Squiggle** » March 12th, 2018, 4:04 pm

Yum!

Post by **Big T** » March 12th, 2018, 4:05 pm

Texasbowhunter · Post by **Texasbowhunter** » March 13th, 2018, 8:08 pm

Oh Yea
Looking Good

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » March 13th, 2018, 9:27 pm

Agree on the no-wrap. I don’t use foil any longer. Once in a while I use butcher paper as I also like better without.

Nice cook.

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Cal Smoke's Mini Gravity Fed Build

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