Gravity Feed Build - Care Of My Father

[ajfoxy]

Yep, looks pretty good to me too. Only time you might need stainless shelves is if it is going to be a commercial cooker. For everything else, bog standard mild steel is fine.

[Rodcrafter]

Nice


Making memories!

[JKalchik]

Sharp looking build.

I built my double pan GF out of all mild steel, cooking racks included. After a seasoning run, you shouldn't have any corrosion issues as the racks should have a pretty decent polymerized oil/fat covering all of them.

Having said that..... stainless grates for a grill (high heat) are a different story. I made a set out of 1/4" 304 stainless that work awfully well.

[Moosefire66]

You get her finished up and seasoned?

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[Dirtytires]

Stainless are overrated. Bought a grill will stainless rod grates and was super excited. Then I used them. Every meat stuck to them and they were impossible to keep looking nice. Ended up replacing them for cast iron.

On the smoker tho, I won’t use anything bur expanded metal grates.

[JKalchik]

And I just love the stainless grates I welded up for my charcoal grill. A couple of quick swipes with vegetable oil on a [paper] towel just before I put the food on, and they're seasoning almost as good as a cast iron skillet, and zero corrosion after 2+ years. They'll easily outlast the rest of the grill.

[Freejack]

Whoot! I got to use the smoker for the first time this past weekend to make spare ribs for Xmas dinner for the extended family. All-in-all the beast worked very well. After 5 hours of cooking we had some tender, but not quite fall off the bone ribs (just the way I like em), with good smoke flavor and an excellent brown-sugar based rub (thanks to my lovely wife). Of course some observations:

A. Seems like the only real challenge is the time it takes to get the chamber up to temp so that you get a good consistent draft going. I was using the method of starting charcoal in a chimney then once good and hot dumping it down the chute. I then used a hand-held blower to kick it up a notch in terms of getting heat. Have seen some people use grass burners to both add heat and light the coals, so I may try that next time but any suggestions are welcome.

B. Will be a learning curve to getting the ball valve and the stack damper set to control heat. The at first the valve was nearly full open, to get the temp up, but then overshot my target reaching close to 300°F, pulled the ball closed and slowly it dropped, then backed it off again to stabilize. All in all much of the cook ran in the 230-250 range.

C. Will need to cycle the rack positions some during the course of a cook as the ribs on the lower middle rack were just slightly more done then the upper middle rack. On a longer cook, that could become more of an issue.

I am planning to build a temp controller assembly for the unit and have ordered the PID, power supply and project box. I have a small BLDC blower I got from work that was originally a combustion blower for a tankless waterheater. Has a 0-5V input for the speed.

Finally - I committed a huge cardinal sin...I did not get pics! Kept thinking about it at the wrong time, but whenever I was right at the cooker, I'd get distracted...likely due to the yummy wood smoke scents.

Jake

[pr0wlunwoof]

Once you get the controller your setup time and temperature maintenance will be much easier. If you went the heater meter route you could incorporate multiple pit thermometers to make sure your staying consistent in the chamber.

[Chromeski]

Look forward to your first cook because obviously this never happened. Just gotta give yourself time to get it going. I'm sure the controller will help

[Freejack]

Look forward to your first cook because obviously this never happened.

LOL Pics or it didn't happen right!?!

Jake

[ajfoxy]

You got it...

[Freejack]

Realized I never actually got pics of the smoker while in use! The pics below are from a couple weeks ago when we did some pork butts overnight, started about 10 pm, pulled them off at about 12 hours or so. After the butts were done threw in some baked beans with polish sausage for another couple hours before dinner. Unfortunately don't have any good finish product photos, everyone was too excited to eat!

Smoker in use by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr

Smoker in use by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr

We did end up adding a small blower to help manage the fire. I still have a controller to put together with either a variable speed blower or a servo operated damper for the existing blower (not sure which yet).

Jake

[Dirtytires]

The “set it and forget it” is really nice on those.

Looks like a good cook!

[Smokerbuild]

I had trouble maintaining temperature and getting back to temperature after I open the door in my GF Mini. Is the Guru worth it’s cost for the GF?


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[JKalchik]

An ATC would be a great addition. I can't speak to the Guru, but I can attest to a HeaterMeter (love mine to death.)

[mp4]

I had trouble maintaining temperature and getting back to temperature after I open the door in my GF Mini. Is the Guru worth it’s cost for the GF?


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Yes - not specifically one model of fan over another, but they are worth the investment. I'm amazed at how well the work.

[Freejack]

July 4th weekend smoke with a new DIY temp controller. Fixing two butts and 5 racks of spareribs. Butts went on at about 11 pm last night and finished at around noon. On and went the ribs and will cook for another couple hours yet. Just getting ready to put on some beans.

Control is a small MyPin temp contoller with a 0-10V output, mated to a small radial fan and fan speed controller. This was the first time using it, been running around 0 to +5 set from the set point for 16 hrs now. Here are the pics:

Untitled by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr
Here is the setup with the new temp controller unit. The box houses the temp control module, power supply, fan speed controller and the radial fan. Its connected to the smoker using an 1 1/2" sump pump hose kit.

Untitled by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr
Pork Butt a hour or so into the cook, just before I went to bed around midnight. At 8 am the next morning, temps were still nice and consistent.

Untitled by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr
Pics of the spareribs about 2 1/5 hours into a 5 hour cook.

Untitled by Jacob Schnarre, on Flickr
Close-up of the temp controller. The only thing I am not real happy with is the manifold on the back to which the hose is connected. The fan has a retangular 1 1/4" x 2 1/2" opening which I routed out the rear of the box. I ended up making a small metal box out of thin c-channels onto which we mounted the fitting for the but I think I would prefer a something with a more gradual transition. I may work on that in the future.

Was too busy prepping for dinner to remember pics of the finished product, but one thing I have been impressed with on this smoker is the depth of the smoke ring on both the ribs and pulled pork, yummy!

Jake

[Big T]

[pr0wlunwoof]

Very cool. Take some more pictures of the controller when you get a chance.

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