Yeah, she likes it. I tore the door apart this morning and will start over with it. I can save the pipe section but I have to get some new steel for the flange and hinges. Going to stop by my steel supplier and get a fresh piece for fire box door as well. I have to go see my arthritis doc in the morning so I may not make the steel run tomorrow.
The trailer rig made some brats today and is headed to work Friday for bbq'd salmon and smoked mushrooms....the new build will have to wait a bit.
I got the cc door back on with good flanges and good hinges. I have to pull it off and do some grinder work on it next. My wire feed is choking up a bit. I need to get an new roll of wire and see if that is the issue as I'm getting to the end of the roll. I have to make a new wood handle and get that mounted as well. I may have to put a little special touch on the door face for looks and functionality...it's coming together....
edit.... I did a quick test burn yesterday to see if I liked the fire box.....it did not go as planned so it's getting cut off and a square fb will be made with a top loader.
I got the little bugger done enough to try it out and make some Q. Now that I know it works I need to make a set of wheels for the back, a leg in the front, and make a lid stopper for the fire box to hold it open without it going all the way over.
Two brats are a max load for this smoker It's a monster for sure......I mounted it onto a scrap of diamond plate for the testing.
The warm up fire..
In go the brats..
And the Q.....
A little smoke rolling for the camera....
A little size comparison...
Last edited by towtruck on February 2nd, 2019, 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I had to make the second fire box a little bigger than 1/3 the cc size. The original fb held two briquettes and that is just not enough to make any heat. This fb holds seven+ briquettes. I am going to add a temp gauge to the cold end of the smoker just to see what the temps are as I have the gauge I just need to drill and tap the hole. I burned some small lump charcoal to season it then started dropping oak twigs into the fire and it handles small sticks pretty well. I dropped a few briquettes on the coals and tossed the brats on...they cooked pretty even end to end. I turned them over and swapped ends once during the cook.
I just threw some scraps together on this one and did not take much time cleaning it up but it came out pretty slick. It works and that is all I wanted it to do.
I got the wheels on it today and I don't like the front one. It is too wobbly with it on there. I am going to get a carriage bolt to make a single peg leg with instead.
I have had it smoking for a few hours now just letting it burn. 11 briquettes can be stacked inside but that gets a little crowded. I'm playing with it to see where it burns hottest.
Learning generally boils down to "Repetition or the avoidance of pain", some people learn by doing, some by watching and some just have to pee on the electric fence.
Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. Henry Ford
I cooked a single brat for lunch today and then switched over to small pieces of lump charcoal and that burns much better and hotter than briquettes. I am now cooking a pair of brats for dinner.
As the fire burns down I poke it down with a screwdriver and add more lump on top. It works pretty well and cooks low and slow like it should. The temp gauge is on the far end and past the stack opening and it has been running 125-150* on that end. I have had it burning for 6 hours and so far have used 11 briquettes and about two and half cups of lump pieces.
edit...on this second cook I got the coal bed to really perform by dropping the coal level a bit and only placing a little bit of fresh coal on top. Doing that made the cold end of the smoker get up to 200*.....I do believe I have got it down how to make and maintain the fire on it.
Smoked a couple more brats this morning for my lunch and dinner. What a fun little smoker. I bust up some lump charcoal into 3/4"-1"pieces, place them in the fire box and put a wax fire starter on the bottom. Light it up and let it get going with the lid open. Once warmed up with a good hot coal bed I add a few more pieces of lump and close the lid. Let the smoker warm up a tad and add the brats. Takes about two hours to smoke them low and slow and they come out perfect.
Do you have any measurements on it? I built my own tiny smoker over the past week, however mines a RF. Followed all of the calcs and it can’t seem to build heat. I’m considering cutting off the FB And building it similar to yours. A little taller and top fed.