First offset build! Have some questions.

[dacolson]

[Big T]

[thejm]

Okay, I have another build update!

In short, I installed the smoke collector and smoke stack. Just need to do some finishing work on it.

Designing the smoke collector

I had some trouble deciding on the exact shape of the collector. Specifically I couldn't figure out how to tie the vertical walls of the collector into the curved tank dome. I started off by using some simple geometry to determine the shape of the top and bottom portions of the collector. Please comment below if you want me to go into this but this math allowed me to model it out perfectly. I cut the top and bottom out of a sheet of paper and then traced them onto some poster board. You can see the finished product in previous posts.

6B1BE426-1A11-41C9-A21A-CA945E5316F4.jpg (48.04 KiB) Viewed 411 times

I was happy with how that looked, especially the curved edges of the vertical walls so I traced all 4 pieces out on a piece of 1/4" plate. I then used my circle cutting guide also mentioned in previous posts and some straight edge guides to cut the pieces out with my plasma cutter. Next I ground the edges down and removed the dross.

Installing the smoke collector and stack

When using the circle cutting guide, it obviously required a center point of both the stack cut out and the tank cut out. Before cutting it out of the metal plate, I used a marker to connect the center points. This gave me the centerline of the top and bottom of the collector.

I also positioned my laser level to shine a beam right down the chalk line at the top centerline of the tank. This laser ran down the dome and I simply aligned the laser with the marker line on bottom of the collector. This ensured my pieces were centered on the tank.

I am using my poster board cut out here just to see the laser in the daylight.

You'll see a couple perpendicular levels I used to check for level and squareness in the other 2 dimensions. I used a floor jack from below to hold it in place.

Next I needed to make a plan to cut the dome of the tank so smoke can get to the collector. I decided to do this 1 piece at a time as I was worried about cutting to much off with all the odd angles that this collector creates against the tank. Also wanted to make sure that I left myself a good place to put a weld so I left the corners of the pieces open (barely touching as opposed to overlapping the thickness of the piece). With the bottom held in place, I marked the top edge of the bottom piece.

I removed the piece from the tank, cut the bottom edge with my plasma cutter, realigned the piece, and tacked it in place. I repeated those steps with the sides and the top of the collector, cutting and tacking as I went along.

Then, once all 4 were tacked and still supported by the jack, I placed the smoke stack into position (it was not cut at this point). I made sure it was level in 2 directions and also made sure it was centered before I fully welded everything. The pieces fit like a glove!

To center the stack, I moved my laser to the other side of the tank shining back at the stack and aligned it to shine along the top centerline of the tank (just as before but from the other direction). Next I placed a square on the top of the stack to see if the laser shined in the center of the stack. It was within a 1/16th so I let that slide.

Finally made a mark on the stack to cut it to fit the collector and made the cut and I (almost) fully welded everything out on the collector and stack.

I was having some trouble with my welder spitting and sputtering some so I'm not completely happy with the welds but they are acceptable. Its just frustrating because I know I can weld better than those welds look. I still need to make a few more welds and clean everything up. I also might do another pass in some areas to hide the poor looking welds...maybe I am being picky.

Thanks for reading along! Next steps are to do some cleanup on this and a few odd jobs like installing the gasket, putting CC door stops in place, and then moving along to connecting the firebox!

[Big T]

There's a lot more work that goes into building one of these smokers than meets the untrained eye. It looks great!

[dacolson]

Great looking stack setup. Love that fat stack! On the sputtering welder, it looks like you welded over the tank paint. That will definitely cause a lot of spatter and potential porosity. Good news is this isn’t structural welding. I understand the frustration though. I get impatient and weld over crap too much myself. I need to focus more on prep and fit up for sure.

[thejm]

Great looking stack setup. Love that fat stack! On the sputtering welder, it looks like you welded over the tank paint. That will definitely cause a lot of spatter and potential porosity. Good news is this isn’t structural welding. I understand the frustration though. I get impatient and weld over crap too much myself. I need to focus more on prep and fit up for sure.

Thanks for the compliment! I am definitely guilty of not doing as much preparation as I should. I do need to get better about taking my time and doing the appropriate prep.

In this case though, I did grind the paint off of the tank in this case. I have practiced welding on bare metal scraps and am still experiencing the sputtering. I think it has something to do with my wire feed system. There was some dust build up in there that I cleared out after doing this welding. I also replaced the wire roller wheel thing with a knurled one after doing some googling. Hoping that helps the issue but haven't welded since to test it out.

[hogaboomer]

You may need a new liner in your gun. An old tip can give problems, too.

[dacolson]

Great looking stack setup. Love that fat stack! On the sputtering welder, it looks like you welded over the tank paint. That will definitely cause a lot of spatter and potential porosity. Good news is this isn’t structural welding. I understand the frustration though. I get impatient and weld over crap too much myself. I need to focus more on prep and fit up for sure.

Thanks for the compliment! I am definitely guilty of not doing as much preparation as I should. I do need to get better about taking my time and doing the appropriate prep.

In this case though, I did grind the paint off of the tank in this case. I have practiced welding on bare metal scraps and am still experiencing the sputtering. I think it has something to do with my wire feed system. There was some dust build up in there that I cleared out after doing this welding. I also replaced the wire roller wheel thing with a knurled one after doing some googling. Hoping that helps the issue but haven't welded since to test it out.

It may also be how much stick out you have. If you have long stuck out, you can get machine-gunning. Lots of factors. I’m learning too.


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[thejm]

Great looking stack setup. Love that fat stack! On the sputtering welder, it looks like you welded over the tank paint. That will definitely cause a lot of spatter and potential porosity. Good news is this isn’t structural welding. I understand the frustration though. I get impatient and weld over crap too much myself. I need to focus more on prep and fit up for sure.

Thanks for the compliment! I am definitely guilty of not doing as much preparation as I should. I do need to get better about taking my time and doing the appropriate prep.

In this case though, I did grind the paint off of the tank in this case. I have practiced welding on bare metal scraps and am still experiencing the sputtering. I think it has something to do with my wire feed system. There was some dust build up in there that I cleared out after doing this welding. I also replaced the wire roller wheel thing with a knurled one after doing some googling. Hoping that helps the issue but haven't welded since to test it out.

It may also be how much stick out you have. If you have long stuck out, you can get machine-gunning. Lots of factors. I’m learning too.


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So I figured out what was wrong with my welder. I had a 10 pound wire spool in there and it was a little too narrow for the holder so as the spool got lighter, and the wire was being pulled out, it was jittering back and forth, causing the torch to spit and sputter. I went and bought a Lincoln 12 pound .035 spool and it seemed to fix the issue.

[thejm]

Hey guys,

I made a lot of progress this weekend! In short, I cleaned up the smoke stack assembly, got the firebox attached, and got the throat cut.

The smoke stack assembly came out looking good after it was cleaned up.

Attaching the firebox was actually quite a simple and painless process. I can say now after having done it, that all the time and effort and craziness I went though to make sure the CC/firebox cut was accurate, square, etc. really paid off. Turns out, it was perfect and made aligning the firebox easy.

Having the firebox and CC on furniture rollers is really nice and helps during times like these. I started off by pushing the firebox near the CC, bringing it to the correct height and leveling it. Then I struck a top center chalkline on the firebox. At this point I used my grinder to clean the paint off the CC near the cut area to prepare for welding. Next I pushed the firebox into position against the CC and needed to align the top CL chalkline of the CC (from the previous post) with my new top CL chalkline of the firebox. I used my laser level to do this. It was easy to align the laser with the CC CL and then nudge the firebox to match.

You can see the posterboard sitting on the CC in the below picture that I was using to see the laser beam better similar to what I did in the last post.

Finally I welded it up all the way around.

I am a beginner welding so my welds aren't the prettiest but these are better than the ones on the stack assembly now that that issue with my welder is fixed. Also these welds aren't cleaned like the ones in the above picture of the stack are.

Finally it was onto cutting the throat. This was quite easy as well. My plasma cutter made quick work on this and the dimensions of the throat line up exactly with my model and with what the calculator recommended!

So here we are! The smoker is finally in one piece! I am super happy with how its coming together. I have a lot left to do but I love the old fashioned/hommade look that it has.

There have been several times during this build where I felt like I was moving very slow not making a ton of progress but I felt like I have made miles of progress this weekend. Everything just seemed to work and I think that is partly because I spent so much time fabricating the firebox and cutting the CC/firebox opening accurately.

Next step is to cut and hang the firebox door! I can see the end in sight!

[Dargo]

Looking real nice there my friend. She looks like a beast in that last pic.


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[Cole Leffert]

[dacolson]

Looks really good thejm. I know exactly what you mean about slow progress then leaping ahead. I spent the weekend working on my fire box and it barely looks any different from when I started! Glad you figured out the wire feed issue. It’s super satisfying when you can troubleshoot something and it works out.
Did you cut the throat opening in the FB after you had it attached? Nice way to get built in guides for your plasma torch.
The furniture rollers are great. I’m a garage builder as well. I’ve hung a couple old 1 ton chain hoisted from the rafters I use a lot to move/hold things in place. I also use a large furniture dolly turned upside down and put the tank on the wheels so I can roll it while I do the initial markup and cutting. Love to hear any other hacks you or others use in confined places.

[thejm]

Looks really good thejm. I know exactly what you mean about slow progress then leaping ahead. I spent the weekend working on my fire box and it barely looks any different from when I started! Glad you figured out the wire feed issue. It’s super satisfying when you can troubleshoot something and it works out.
Did you cut the throat opening in the FB after you had it attached? Nice way to get built in guides for your plasma torch.
The furniture rollers are great. I’m a garage builder as well. I’ve hung a couple old 1 ton chain hoisted from the rafters I use a lot to move/hold things in place. I also use a large furniture dolly turned upside down and put the tank on the wheels so I can roll it while I do the initial markup and cutting. Love to hear any other hacks you or others use in confined places.

Hey thanks!

I did cut the throat after my firebox was attached. I welded it in place and then used the tank as my bottom guide. My firebox is insulated and the inside wall is 2" from the outer wall so I measured and marked a line 2" from the edge for my top guide. Then I cleaned it up with my grinder.

I also still need to weld the inside wall to the plate that the throat is cut into. Its welded on the firebox door end but not on the other end. Not sure how im going to do that yet but i think i need to completely seal the insulation off from the fire/smoke. Maybe I can fit partially through the firebox door and lay in there.

[Dirtytires]

Great progress....

[dacolson]

Hey thanks!

I did cut the throat after my firebox was attached. I welded it in place and then used the tank as my bottom guide. My firebox is insulated and the inside wall is 2" from the outer wall so I measured and marked a line 2" from the edge for my top guide. Then I cleaned it up with my grinder.

I also still need to weld the inside wall to the plate that the throat is cut into. Its welded on the firebox door end but not on the other end. Not sure how im going to do that yet but i think i need to completely seal the insulation off from the fire/smoke. Maybe I can fit partially through the firebox door and lay in there.

Been there. Nothing like cramming your head and shoulders in the FB and welding 6" from your hood! Great way to trash a lens shield on your hood. Try pointing a work light through the throat from the CC side to help see where to start.

[thejm]

Hey guys,

I have another build update! This weekend was a productive one. I did a good bit of work on the firebox and the firebox door.

To start out with, I marked out the firebox door with some soapstone. I used my model in Fusion 360 to get the approximate dimensions and then adjusted them accordingly in the field. Then I cut the door out with my plasma torch. I am finding that I am getting better and better at metal fabrication. I am still very much an amateur, this is my first project of this size, but when I check my measurements and cuts, they are getting more and more accurate.

After cutting it out, I cleaned the door and firebox edges up with my grinder and started working on my straps.

These went on pretty easily and I welded and ground the seams to be invisible.

Next I measured and put tacks about every 1.5" all the way around the door to hold the straps on. I also put a small stitch weld at each of the corners. Then I ground the straps down so they were nice and shiny.

Just one note for those of you doing this: Don't forget to grind the inner side of the straps so they fit snuggly against the firebox. Also if you find you have a small gap between 2 pieces of strap and you need to fill it with a weld, put a piece of aluminum underneath and weld the gap full. The weld won't stick to the AL and will allow you to fill it without it blobbing up and falling through.

The next step was to move onto the hinge. I used the same hinge material for this as I used for the CC doors. I centered my tube 2" to the right of the door cutout. Then I used my bender and a little trial and error to find the right shape for the rod. It was a little tricky to get it up and around the strap and to still have it sit flat against the door but I got it done. Looks pretty good!

When mounting the door, dont forget to put your spacers in! I put 1/16 spacers that I made out of some 3/8 washers on the outside of the door frame to help with the gasket fit and also put 2 spacers to hold the door up so it wouldnt drag on the bottom edge of the frame. In the end it looks pretty good! I am very happy with how it came out.

To keep the door from warping from the high heat of the firebox I cut and welded pieces of 2" tall, 1/4" thick plate in an X pattern. I did this while the door was on the bench well before it was hinged and secured to the firebox. Here is a picture where you can see them.

The next step for the firebox is to install the gasket, make sure it fits tightly and then install the latch mechanism.

Question for those of you that have worked with metal a good bit. My latch mechanism involves a metal bar that rotates about a pin (or bolt) and locks behind a slanted catch mechanism. What is the best way to get this to rotate smoothly? I was going to sand the faces smooth and use a threaded bolt but I have never done this before so I would appreciate any input.

[thejm]

While I was working on the firebox door, I also worked on installing the door stops. I am using horseshoes in my case, I think they fit the theme of the build. This was pretty easy once I got my guide lines marked with soapstone. A tip for those of you doing this: Weld 1 stop in place and open the first door against it. Then open the second door and use its alignment in relation to the first door to place the second stop. If you use measurements from the tank your doors will not be exactly in line with each other and it will look a little off.

Here is mine once I was done:

I also welded the inside wall of the firebox to the back end of the firebox. This actually wasn't quite as bad as I thought its was going to be. Wirewheeling the inside of the CC was far worse. After I cut my forebox door, I laid inside there, cleaned the weld area, and then welded away.

I thought this was a really cool picture looking through the smoker all the way to the stack

I need to work on my consistency but much like my fabrication skills, I am seeing my welding skills improve as I move through this build. For 1 my welds are a lot flatter.

Here is a closer picture of the cleaned welds that connect the firebox to the CC.

I put a double pass on the top middle.

This build is really coming along and my list of things left to do is shrinking! Still need to install the firebox door latch, install gaskets, make and install the grates, and some cleanup but I can see the end coming soon!

[Big T]

It looks great! I use a steel lock nut and bolt for the pivot on my intakes and it works great. I get my holes drilled in everything, put it all together with the nut on the inside, tighten it down, tack the nut to the door and then adjust the bolt until I get the feel that I want. Be sure that you use a solid steel lock nut and not one with the teflon insert or it won't last very long.

[dacolson]

Coming along great. I use steel rod and peen over then ends for pins in handles. Heat them up with the torch and wack them to round over the ends. Bolts/lock nuts may be a more forgiving approach.

[SheffSmoker]

Looking great!

For keeping things free I always use a nice shiny stainless washer between anything rotating, and double up between sections too - eg bolt, washer, plate, washer, nut.

In the absence of all steel locking nuts I use a pair of normal nuts then nip them tight to each other. You can also fire a tiny blob of weld on the end between the thread and last nut to keep it from coming loose or binding up.

[Bulldogbacchus]

Thanks for your comments

[thejm]

Another build update!

I was traveling last weekend but got some time during the Thanksgiving holiday to work on the smoker.

First, the firebox door:
I cut a "T" shaped piece of metal out with my plasma cutter and welded a horseshoe onto it to form the handle to the door. Then I drilled a 3/8 hole in the T handle and in the door.

It turned out looking pretty good. You can see I have a bolt through the hole and used some washers to move the handle outward to avoid it hitting the strap. I welded the nut onto the back of the firebox door but am still having an issue with the bolt turning when I turn the handle. If the bolt turns, the handle either falls down (too little tension) or won't turn (too much tension). I am debating on welding the bolt onto the nut on the inside to stop this but that would prevent me from making any adjustments to the tension later on. If any of you have a less permanent solution please post it below. I forgot to mention that I also tried using a lock washer but that didn't seem to help.

I haven't made the catch that interacts with this new bar and holds the door closed but that will come soon. You can see this catch pictured in my previous post.

I also installed the gasket as you can see below. I used 1/16" spacers when mounting the door since I am using a 1/8" gasket but after installing it, the door wouldn't shut. This required me to grind my tacks off, make some slight adjustments to the hinge rod that I previously bent, and then re-weld the door back on.

I had to do the same thing with the CC doors which was a little frustrating even though I used spacers here too. A few other thoughts I have:
-I worked a lot on making sure my doors sit at the exact same height when closed so before I took them off again, I marked the exact positions of the tops of the door with a scriber. Then when I reattached them, I matched those marks. Saved me a lot of time not having to realign them with each other to account for the slight variation in cuts/dimensions.
-I purposely waited till close to the very end to install my gaskets because I didn't want them to get black with the dirt and metal shavings that come with fabrication. As stated above, I used spacers that are 50% as thick as my gasket. Next time, i'll use spacers that are 75% or 100% as thick as my gasket in an attempt to not have to mount the doors twice.
-I would wait to install my door stops until after I have my gasket installed. Through the process of remounting the doors and adjusting the hinge rods, one door now opens about 1/8" more than the other. Its not really noticeable by anyone but me but just thought I'd mention it since I previously posted about the doors opening the exact same amount.

In the end, all came out looking good though. I am really digging the aesthetic of this smoker! In my next post, ill detail making the grates and grate holders in the CC!

[dacolson]

Coming along great. Every build is a challenge in a new way. Thanks for all the detail. It will help the next guy (and me too)


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[thejm]

Next task was to work on making the grate holders. For this I am using 1" angle iron thats 1/8" thick. This is the same material im using for my grates.

I measured and cut the pieces to 29.5" long since my tank is a 30 OD tank with 1/4" walls. Next was time to decide where exactly my grates would go and in what shape they would be in. I decided to have the grates exactly level with the bottom of the CC door cut, have them stretch from 1 weld seam to the other, and to make them In 3 pieces so I could fit them through the CC door cutout to get them in and out. If I had done 2 pieces, they wouldn't be able to get in or out of the CC.

I measured a 1/4" below the CC door cut out in a few places and struck a chalk line. This helped me place my first piece of angle iron in closest to the firebox. I would get it close to final position, then mark the contact areas on the inside of the tank with some soapstone and grind them down so that they would accept welds. I used several magnets and a level to get it in the final position and welded one side, then the other.

Next I moved onto the opposite side closest to the smokestack. I used the same methods as above to get this in position. One note is that I was very particular about making sure these 2 pieces were both level with each other. This will be important below in making sure the grates sit at the same level and aren't cockeyed.

Then I took some string line and ran it from 1 piece to the other. I did 2 of these, one on each end of the angle iron.

This gave me 2 lines that I used to mount the interior pieces of angle iron. For these I sandwiched 2 together to form a big upside down T and welded them together from the bottom. Then I used the string line to level them and a tape to adjust the spacing and welded them in place. Now I have a place to hold my three racks. My string method worked really well as you'll see in the pics below. I used a 48" level to check for any weeble-wobble (to make sure they are on the same plane) and I found little to none in there!

Making the grates wasn't too bad either. All 3 grates will be identical in size. I made these 1/2" smaller than their respective rack dimensions which made mine 20" wide by 29" deep. I cut the same angle iron at 90 degree angles and used a grinder to cut a notch in each end of some of the pieces so they would fit together. Then I cut and welded some 3/4" by 9 expanded metal onto the frame.

I want to share a few tips that I picked up from Fireball tool that I used to make these grate frames. I will link to the video the goes over it below. Its well worth the watch. I will also give a quick summary of what I did here too though. I am working out of a 2 car garage and my wife parks in 1 side of it so im a little cramped for space. Because of space (and time frankly) I haven't made myself a flat workbench that I can use to build stuff off of. I imagine that some of you reading this are in a similar position as I am in and might benefit from using this method.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDeIq3SZNRs&t=1070s

When building these grates (and other larger, more important items) I want to make sure they were flat. To do this I got 3 pieces of scrap 1/2" rod. 3 points make a perfect plane. I places 2 pieced of angle iron oriented in a right angle so that they only contact these 3 points. Then I tacked these together. Next I got the 2 other pieces of the grate and did the same. Now I have 2 right angle pieces that are flat and have their own planes. Next, I put them together to form the finished grate and placed a 1/2" rod at the 2 closest corners and the 3rd in the back middle. Use some clamps and magnets to secure this together and tack away. Now you have a flat rectangle!

All came out looking great!

Next steps are to finish the firebox door catch, cut the grease drain hole, build a temporary frame to roll the smoker around on, and do some cleanup. I can smell the BBQ already!!