150 Gallon Reverse Flow Patio Smoker

[lecheminant]

I would be pretty nervous about fitup when building the cart first, then setting the tank on. How did it work out, fit up pretty tight? The two legs on the front look like it came together perfect.

You would be right to be nervous. It wasnt too bad, but we did need to make some adjustments to make it fit right. Had to pull out a rachet strap to help on the front. Do you usually attach the legs first then build the cart?

[hogaboomer]

That doesn't sound too bad, little bit of ratchet strapping ain't nothing. I did put the legs on first, then just stuck some square tube in between them, then put the wheels on. I don't guess it really matters, as long as you get your measurements right and get everything plumb. I guess I just worry about getting the copes on first, so I don't have to fill in any giant gaps. I'm just a worry wart.
Yours turned out great!

[lecheminant]

That’s quite a transformation! Great looking wheels. It’s hard to tell from the pic, but is your tank warped at the FB end? It looks a little squashed but that may be just the picture.

Good eye. The end is a little warped on the end where the door is cut out. That section is only 7" wide from the lid cutout to the end. I can move it if I put a lot of weight on it. I figured we would put some weight on it while spot welding the end on to get it back into shape. Any other thoughts on how to fix it.

[dacolson]

I’d try and get it as close to true as you can before you tack it up. Otherwise you’re adding stress into the shape. Might work out okay or you could end up with a warp in the opening still. I would put a bottle jack over the wide part and run a chain or strap around the tank and over the jack. Use the jack to squeeze the shape of the tank past true till it relaxes back to true.

[lecheminant]

I've had a couple of Saturday's working on the smoker since my last post. As a follow up to the comment on the end being out of round, we were able to make it a bit better by jack and chain, but it's still not perfect. We did the best we could, and the door looks like it will fit pretty well in the opening, so we decided to move forward with the build. Pictures of the progress are below:

We installed the shadow plate and baffle plate

We added the grease drain. I ended up using some of the scrap 2x2 from the legs, and welded the threaded end of a 1 1/2" nipple to the end of it, with a 1 1/2" ball valve.

We attached the end plate and fire box.

Here is a picture of the FB to CC opening from inside the firebox.

The baffle plate was 4.5" longer than the steel plate that we had, so we had to do it in two sections. Then ground the weld smooth.

Also added a 2" flat bar at the end of the baffle plate.

[lecheminant]

We cut out the end plate for the fire box, and cut out the door.

My intent was to weld the smoke stack directly onto the end of the cooking chamber, but I realized that the total height of the smoker was going to be 7' 1". Too tall to fit through my brother-in-law's garage door, and my garage door for that matter. We came up with a plan to add some angle to the smoke stack and bolt it directly onto the side of the smoker. Luckily I plan on keeping it on my patio where the height won't be an issue, but I will have the option to remove it if needed for storage or travel.

Here are a few pictures of everything put together.

Next week I will be working on getting the doors attached.

[dacolson]

That’s great progress. I like the work around on your stack. I’d throw some high temp gasket material between the stack and CC where you bolt it up. You’ll be smoking in no time


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dirtytires]

Coming together nicely.

[Big T]

[lecheminant]

Thanks. I am planning on adding a gasket on the smokestack

[lecheminant]

I originally planned on the chimney opening being at the very to of the cook chamber. But now that I am bolting it on I had to add a little flat bar to the top of the cook chamber and chimney openings in order to seal the top of the opening.

But now I have a question. My calcs (feldon) showed that the chimney should be 37 inches long. Is that from the top of the smoker, or is it the length from the opening. The flat bar added 1 inch to the length from the opening. Should I cut the chimney 1 inch shorter, or does it matter. Am I overthinking it.

[dacolson]

It should be measured from the top of the cook chamber.

[Pete Mazz]

Don't sweat an inch here or there.

[Cole Leffert]

It is looking real nice!!

[lecheminant]

Sounds like I am good leaving it as is. Thanks for the help.

[lecheminant]

I haven't posted in awhile. I have done a lot in that time. This was done over several weeks. I just haven't had time to post it.

Here is the progress:
We installed the cooking chamber door. This was more difficult than I thought it would be. I wanted to use plug welds to hide the welds on the trim. I ran into a couple of problems with this. First I don't think we made the holes big enough to create a strong weld. Second, my hinges are attached to the trim which exaggerated the concern of a strong weld. So after attaching the trim with plug welds, we decided to fillet weld the trim. The other issue was that we decided attached the trim with the door in place. In hind site, it may have been easier to attach the trim and then attached the cooking chamber door. We also added a handle.

The start with the plug welds.

Finished with the fillet weld

Then we started the firebox door. Again we ran into some issues. We had the idea of cutting out a larger opening and welding in flat bar. The issue came when welding in the bar that holds in the vent plate. It put a slight warp in the door, just enough to keep the vent from sliding. In an attempt to help the door open using a hammer multiple time, I broke the weld on the handle. We flattened the door out and welded in some reinforcement to take out the warp. And I cut out a section of the bar holding the plat in place so that we could weld the handle back on. With a little lubrication the vent now opens pretty easily.

We attached the fire box door.

And added a handle to the end of the smoker to make it easier to move.

Next we worked on the grates. I have an upper and lower grate. And on the lower grate I have a small grate so I can maximize the space.

[hogaboomer]

You can use that small grate to hold a water pan, if you so choose.

[lecheminant]

There is more. We continued to finish the smoker.

Next we worked on the remaining details: front table, counter weight, fire basket, thermometers, and thermometer probe access ports.

I wanted a folding table. It's a pretty standard hinged table. We had to think of how to brace the table, and came up with this idea.

We created a bit of a U shape with 1/2" round bar. Found a couple of nuts that the bar can slip in and out of. welded one of those nuts to the leg and the other into the table. It works pretty good. I just put the bracket out and it releases the table, and push it back in to lock it in place.

We added the counter weight. That helps quite a bit on opening the door.

I made a fire basket. I mimicked some of the ideas that I've seen on this forum. I put the basket on rails so that I could pull in in and out easily.

I added thermometer ports. The bung is for a 3" thermometer. I used 1/4" black iron nipple and caps for probe ports.

Here is the finished project up to this point.

Finally this weekend I removed the rest of the paint and cleaned the smoker. I decided to go for a linseed oil finish. Following some things I've seen online, I heated up sections of the smoker, with a weed burner, then I wiped it down with oil. This was easy to to on the fire box and cooking chamber, but was a bit harder to around the expanded metal. At one location I noticed the metal expanded metal starting warp. Luckily I was able to push it back into shape. I was much more careful around the expanded metal after that.

I sprayed down the inside with canola oil and started the smoker to season it.

[lecheminant]

I am pretty excited. For the first 1/2 hour you could smell the oil smoking off the smoker. The combination of pecan, canola oil, and linseed oil was not the smell I was hoping for on its maiden voyage, but once the oil finished burning off, I had nice clear pecan smoke coming out. The smoker did a pretty good job siting right around 250. There was only a 5-10 degree difference from side to side. I figured that there would be more of a temp difference, but I was excited to see it so close from side to side. The initial burn did cause the linseed oil to darken. I like the look. The firebox is almost black, while the rest of the smoker has a tinted clear coat look. After the seasoning the smoker, I added gaskets, and now I am officially done. I will post pictures of my first cook. Hopefully next week.

[lecheminant]

You can use that small grate to hold a water pan, if you so choose.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[dacolson]

That is a great looking pit Lecheminant. You’re going to get some great smoking done on that thing! She’s a beaut.

[hogaboomer]

That looks good, nice job. Do you have a digital thermometer with probes? Don't try to use the door thermometers to cook by, you need probes on the grate to get a true reading.

[lecheminant]

That is a great looking pit Lecheminant. You’re going to get some great smoking done on that thing! She’s a beaut.

Thanks. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect, but it is better than I thought we could do.

[lecheminant]

That looks good, nice job. Do you have a digital thermometer with probes? Don't try to use the door thermometers to cook by, you need probes on the grate to get a true reading.

I put in a couple of probe ports so that I can fish a thermometers in there. In one of the previous posts where I talked about a temperature difference from one side to the other, that was based on the door thermometers. When I do my first cook, I'll check how close the door thermometers are and also check the difference between the top rack and the bottom rack.

[Big T]

Sweet looking cooker!