This probably sums what I'm looking at perfectly.pr0wlunwoof wrote: ↑August 16th, 2018, 2:52 pm
What I would focus on is the rest of your cooking life. Which one is going to bring the most happiness to your life with the least amount of effort. I believe that to be my mini GF as I can go low and slow better than any equipment my friends can buy.
Haha... I don't fancy your chances that there would be a metric version of the mini plans. I think Frank has to slaughter a goat and sacrifice it to appease the Imperial Measurement gods every time he makes something metric available...Hopefully the new Mini GF plans will be available soon, and that they will come in metric too ;) (just for you AJ)
I would be flattening out thin sheet, I think it's 1.6-2mm. My father in law may have something to bend thin sheet. He's on his winter migration to your part of the country for a couple of months, so I'll have to call him to check.ajfoxy wrote: ↑August 20th, 2018, 2:33 amIf you have access to lots of 2" tube, don't get hung up on the plans that say you should use 1.5". With the GF you can make the cook chamber a tad bigger if you need. So use whatever you can get the most of. I think bending 6 mm stainless without some heavy machinery is going to be interesting if you need to. I'd be cutting and welding as opposed to bending 6mm stainless.
Clever man, your father-on-law.He's on his winter migration to your part of the country for a couple of months, so I'll have to call him to check.
That is exactly what I did, and I had to fight the you already have a smoker why do you need another smoker argument.Dirtytires wrote: ↑August 20th, 2018, 7:02 pmReality check....everybody needs one once in a while (especially me!)
You want a new smoker. You want to use stainless (which is difficult to work with) yet you don’t have a lot of welding experience. Funding is tight yet you have this mountain of scrap “behind the house.” And lastly, your wife is not convinced that the best use of your time and money is to build a smoker.
We have all been there. On every point.
Why not scale it back a bit. The mini is great but will require a lot of hours, someone else to weld it and a lot of scrounging. Might i suggest you do a small simple build like a traditional or reverse flow offset? The build will be easier, take less time and you can do it yourself for less money. (And that is how you ‘sell’ it to your better half.) Then, you spend the next year or two cooking great food on it and impressing your friends.
About that time, your wife will want you to cook for a huge summer party for 30 people and THAT is when you bring up the bigger gravity smoker project.
I used my store bought offset for 8 years before I was able to get support for a big build. And now she loves it.
I think you've hit the nail on the head.Dirtytires wrote: ↑August 20th, 2018, 7:02 pmReality check....everybody needs one once in a while (especially me!)
You want a new smoker. You want to use stainless (which is difficult to work with) yet you don’t have a lot of welding experience. Funding is tight yet you have this mountain of scrap “behind the house.” And lastly, your wife is not convinced that the best use of your time and money is to build a smoker.
We have all been there. On every point.
Why not scale it back a bit. The mini is great but will require a lot of hours, someone else to weld it and a lot of scrounging. Might i suggest you do a small simple build like a traditional or reverse flow offset? The build will be easier, take less time and you can do it yourself for less money. (And that is how you ‘sell’ it to your better half.) Then, you spend the next year or two cooking great food on it and impressing your friends.
About that time, your wife will want you to cook for a huge summer party for 30 people and THAT is when you bring up the bigger gravity smoker project.
I used my store bought offset for 8 years before I was able to get support for a big build. And now she loves it.
ajfoxy wrote: ↑August 16th, 2018, 10:36 pmHaha... I don't fancy your chances that there would be a metric version of the mini plans. I think Frank has to slaughter a goat and sacrifice it to appease the Imperial Measurement gods every time he makes something metric available...Hopefully the new Mini GF plans will be available soon, and that they will come in metric too ;) (just for you AJ)