1200x660mm First time Build

[highlucks]

I have forgotten to clean once or twice but most have been wire buffed back to bare metal.

Turns out the welder has had the dick and is not providing the volts. It will be changed out for another one soon, We have a couple of spares here.

[highlucks]

So we have set up a new welder and I began working on this again last week.

Friday I set about finishing off the door. It has sprung a bit so seal material will be needed.
Saturday I spent the day sourcing some more materials 25 x 25mm angle for the racks and 125 x 125mm Square tube for the chimney. I got to the workshop around 1030 and started on the rack mounts in the CC. I also had enough time left to do the fire basket mounts in the FB. There is an upper and lower set of mounts for smoking (lower) and Grilling on the burger grill (upper) which will be cut into the top of the fire box,
Monday and tuesday saw me making the cooking racks, which took a lot longer than I was anticipating. 3 hours on the first one cause I was cutting single lengths of rod at a time. This was shortened the next day when I used the band saw to cut three lengths at a time, I also had much more accurate rod lengths to work with.

Onto the photos of my progress

Fridays effort. I had to use a turn buckle to push the door back out, so that it would flush up with the flange.

[highlucks]

Saturdays rack mounts and finished with drawing the frame work

[highlucks]

Racks, man this took for ages. These are made from 16mm rio and 10mm solid rod. There is 47 lengths of rod per rack.
Plus my best weld yet, wouldn't you know it, its the one joining the bottom of the CC to the FB so it will never be seen.

[ajfoxy]

Looking good. Nice weld. Would have been a bugger of a job with the racks. Did you use a jig to space the 10mm round? Or did you just eyball it. Jigs do make repetiive things a tad faster.

[Dirtytires]

Nice progress. I hate repetitive cuts myself.

[Chromeski]

Looks great... those racks came out looking good, but so labor intensive building them. Maybe no one will see that weld, but it's an important weld so don't feel bad. All of the welds look decent.... what is done in that shop when not building smokers? Lots of heavy duty equipment in there.

[Big T]

[highlucks]

@AJFoxy, I used 6mm rod to space the rack bars up and then M12 nuts between each rack rod for the spacing, doing about a dozen at a time.

@Chromeski, I work for a mining technology company. In the workshop they assemble pinion drives which can weigh up to 15t when assembled, the pinion its self can be 8t at times. The grey rig you can see in the corner of some of the photos is a plate straightener. It is 4 x 2m with a rolling bridge on top which carries an 8t hydraulic jack to press down and straighten the plates. They also do other fab work and assemblies.

[highlucks]

More progress from yesterday, I got the chimney mounted and installed the fat dam and drain. I tried to get the spring out of the CC door by pulling it closed with a couple of turn buckles and welding in an additional strip of 5mm plate on the inside but it has returned to its previous shape. My goal was to not have to run seal but it looks like I will have to use it now.

With the chimney, I was inspired by one of the other builders on here who mounted their square chimney at 45*. I thought this looked quite cool and different. Another builder had the chimney open all the way to the BP which I thought was interesting. I took this idea a step further and added three ports to the chimney and then made removable doors. This way I can have all three open, a combination of two or only one. The chimney is also always half open at the top of the CC because of the tube orientation. The ports ar 4x 5.5" so combined with the top opening exceed that which is required in the calculator.

Thanks for the kind words gents this has been a great experience. My goal is to have this finished by next Monday as my Xmas holidays begin on Tuesday and we fly to the other side of the country on Wednseday.

Still on the list of things to do.

• Make the frame
  Mount the CC door
  Make the counter weight
  Make the Fire Basket
  Mount the end plate
  Cut out and make the burger grill in the FB
  make the axles for the wheels

[mp4]

I like your chimney port/door plan - great idea!

[Big T]

[Chromeski]

Looks great so far... yea I thought it looked like some sort of fab shop. Perfect place to build a smoker. I wish my work would let me use the shop for my projects.

[highlucks]

Well the goal to have it finished before Christmas came and went and I fell short by a few steps.
But I did manage to get close to the end.

The Firebox door is now done, even though it took 3 tries and is still very tight, pretty certain it will lock closed when the FB expands cause of the heat. But I can still put wood and coal in through the top access/burger grill which is also mostly completed. Just the grill portion to make there.

The door is mounted but the spring has proved to be worse than initially though so it will need to come off so that it can be straightened.

The Fire basket is also done and its mounts are in place. Two different heights one for smoking and one for grilling.

I also got the frame made and mounted to the CC.

I have decided to also add a sausage hanging bar to the top of the rig so that has been added to the list below.

So things left to do are.

Chimney adjuster cap.
Chimney rain cap
Mount the wheels
make the grill rack
make the last smoking rack
sort the door out
Make the hanging bar

[Big T]

You'll be smoking in no time

[towtruck]

Lookin good!

[ajfoxy]

looking good indeed.

[mp4]

I think your trap door for the grill turnout fantastic- nice job!

[highlucks]

Thanks gents, I am nearly finished with this project and hope to have it home by the week end. I have a question about seasoning. I understand to clean and season the inside of the cc and FB with some oil spray and fatty meat. But was wondering if I can also oil the outside of the smoker as I have no intention of painting the unit.
Btw I will have some more photos up soon. The only things left to do are the hangin rack, thermometer holes in the door and redo to CC door handle.

[Pete Mazz]

Yes. Oil often.

[towtruck]

Love the top loader on the fire box! That will be handy for both loading wood and the grilling feature. Oiling the outside will create both hard and soft seasoning spots that will go from burnt through to just right to not quite dry. Fuzz and dirt will stick to the soft areas. I did this with my little offset and really liked it even though some places get dirty. I would just spray oil or wipe the outside down while I was cooking on it to keep the oil coat going.

[Buffalo]

If you dont mind my asking length and width of your grates? Nice looking build..

[highlucks]

They vary. the largest is 1000 x 640mm

[Dirtytires]

Sounds like a a well used cast iron pan kind of patina. As long as you keep it oiled it should be fine.

The inside just needs done once. Spray it then lightly wipe the inside to leave a THIN coat of oil then just heat it up and let it heavysmoke for 4 hours. I personally don’t put any meat on mine for the seasoning session. I run a super heavy smoke and, along with the oil, tends to ruin whatever you try to cook.

[highlucks]

Well she is finally done and at home. but first to the update of the build.

I made these steering castors from some old fixed castors that I pulled from a recycling bin, M36 hardware was used to turn them into steerers. They also offer ~1.5" of height adjustment. I purchased some cheap meat cleavers from a local Asian market to use as handles but they were a bit week and did not look as goods as I had hoped so it was back to a conventional handle set up with some thick wall high pressure stainless piping that we had in the workshop. The counter weight was also workshop steel with two full lengths of 32mm solid rod inserted to make the weight, it is mounted to some recycled swimming pool ladders which had very nice bends making that job very easy.