First build + vlog

[ThinBlue]

Hey guys, so, I've started filming my journey of my first build. I just posted the first video of the series in which I share my motivation for this build. I will be sharing the links to the videos here as well as asking questions that come up along the way. Please don't razz me to much as this is actually pretty awkward for me being the introvert that I am, but I really wanted to have something that would help me look back and remember this process as well as possibly being helpful to someone else out there. I actually have some more footage to share but I haven't gotten around to editing it yet. I should be dropping the next video within the next couple of days but please don't hold me to that.

I Hope you all enjoy and feel free to comment here with guidance if you see me heading in a direction that is ill advised!

Here's a link to the first video: https://youtu.be/idV2NkDGG3M

[ThinBlue]

Now that have some materials I can begin to narrow the design a little bit. Despite attempting this build by the seat of my pants and having zero previous experience it still occurred to me fairly quickly that there is no end to what you can build a smoker out of and how it can be configured. Being that it is a little tough to find any materials in my area I figured it would be more helpful to find whatever I can to make this thing without holding hard and fast to any particular idea. From there use those acquired materials to narrow down some of the aspects of design. The materials that I ended up finding are:

1 - 6'3" steel pipe w/ 3/8" wall thickness - $200
4 - 25x25" or larger 1/4" thick plate steel - $96
1 - 25x25" 3/8" thick plate steel - $24
12 - 2x3x44" steel tubing - $72
1 - 4x6' woven steel mesh sheet - $60

All in all we rounded up to $460 shook hands and called it a day.

I realize that I will still need flat bar for a flange around the door, angle iron for the grates and the grate supports and a pipe or square tubing for the smoke stack. Aside from those things am I missing any major costly components?

For those that wish to view, here is the link to my vlog as I hunted for materials: https://youtu.be/EFGmIJVehwk

[Back9Q]

Thats a hell of a deal on material


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ThinBlue]

That's what I thought, especially during a time in which steel prices have been so inflated. I'm not sure what it was like before the COVID inflation but I would assume this would still be a good deal.

Truth be told, I'm thrilled I could even find this material at any cost. It was a tough hunt and I had exhausted about all of my resources. I did end up finding a 150gal tank about 2 hours north of me after I had bought all of this as well as a few tanks that were 250+ gallon. If I had a bigger space the search would have actually been a lot easier apparently. There was a large air tank where I bought what I got but it was something like 34-36" in diameter and that was just a little too big for my space.

[ThinBlue]

In the design phase here is what the plan is so far.

I am going to clean up that 75" pipe and cut it down so that I have a 55" cook chamber and a 20" firebox with an inner diameter of 23.25 on both.

I am still on the lookout for a 5-6" pipe or square tube for the smoke stack. My understanding is that I can go higher than the calculator recommendation provided that I have a damper on the stack to reduce the the size as needed. The calculator puts a 6" pipe at 15". I would like the top of the stack to be sitting between 6-7' so that it is elevating the heat and smoke out above the head. I'm figuring midline on the cc will sit at 38" + 12" to the top of the cc + the 15" calc recommendation and that puts my right around 5'5". Would it be terrible to extend that up another foot?

For the cooking grates and their supports is there a standard size for that angle iron? I've been looking for stuff around 1" and 1/8" thick. Is this adequate or is that on the small or thin side of things?

Similar question for the flat bar. I've been looking for 1.5-2" around 1/8" thick. Is that sufficient without having any issues with warping from the heat. One of the ideas I'm tossing around is to put some flat bar around the end of the firebox and have it hang over the edge 3/8" so that I can recess the entire circle and put a hinge on that instead up welding a plate on the end of the firebox and then cutting a smaller door. Is this a dumb idea? I can't seem to find anyone else doing this and I'm worried there is a legit reason.

[ThinBlue]

This just in. My buddy just sent me a picture of progress. He took 4 pieces of the plate steel to his shop and laser cut perfect 24" diameter circles in them. I suppose that is a heck of a lot easier and faster than using an angle grinder or even a plasma cutter.

[dacolson]

Nice to have a buddy w a laser cutter. Very cool. Looks like you’re on the right track. Great pickup on the steel. Going to make a nice pit.

[ThinBlue]

I rough marked up the pipe today just to get a good idea of how its going to feel as far as cook chamber size as a last ditch effort to get my wife to sign off on letting me use the entire pipe as the cook chamber instead of cutting it down to make both CC and FB out of it .

We're going to score the FB and CC door with a wheel tomorrow and then transfer it to my friend who is going to plasma cut it for me. Again, sounds better than cutting through it with a grinder.

I marked it with the plan to allow for the CC door to be inset 4" from the ends. I'm not sure what "normal" is but it seemed like plenty aesthetically speaking. This gives me a 55" CC and a 47" wide door.

[ThinBlue]

Can I get some opinions on wheels? I'm guessing this will end up weighing 800+lbs in the end. Most of the time, like 98.9%, this smoker will be parked on concrete. When it's not, for those few times, I will need to traverse rock landscaping.

I was looking at getting something like https://mappcaster.com/collections/bbq- ... l-capacity.

I can't think of a better and cheaper alternative. Thoughts?

[ThinBlue]

Things are moving along quickly. Here is my first draft of plans. Any input or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

It would be awesome if someone could verify that I have understood and planned out the throat cutout properly. In the calculator picture it puts the cutout at the bottom, but as I understand it it is now somewhat standard practice to put this cutout at or near great level. I choose no dam for the calculator and have the top of the FB mounted 2" below the centerline of the CC.

The Firebox door is what I think I am most sketchy on. I'm not sure how I'm going to be hinging this thing and how much space I need to allocate for that and making sure I have enough oxygen getting into the firebox. I know a lot of guys will just crack the door open but I rather not go down that path unless I have to. I know I had mentioned before having the entire 24" of the door open but I did not communicate this idea with my friend who laser cut the circles for me and he slightly under cut them to facilitate a better weld without needing the full 3/8" penetration. So, that idea is out the window HAHAHA.

I suppose where I am at with things is not 100% on the FB door, FB hinges, and FB inlets, needing to design CC door handle, CC hinges, and CC counterweight (or some sort of lift assist).

[Pete Mazz]

It would help if you posted all the info from the PitCalc.

[Dirtytires]

You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to roll an 800pound pit with little steel casters on gravel. Sorry....just not gonna happen.

Steel wheels are fine but know that they tend to get stopped easily with small debris lying on the ground and have a higher tendency to mark the cement.

[ThinBlue]

You are ABSOLUTELY NOT going to roll an 800pound pit with little steel casters on gravel. Sorry....just not gonna happen.

Steel wheels are fine but know that they tend to get stopped easily with small debris lying on the ground and have a higher tendency to mark the cement.

Recommendation?

[ThinBlue]

It would help if you posted all the info from the PitCalc.

Ask and you shall receive

[hogaboomer]

For rocks, you're going to need something like golf cart tires.

[Pete Mazz]

[dacolson]

If you’re trying to get the top of your throat up to the center of the CC, is the throat calc Pete shows above but add some inches in the Dam Height section until it gets you closer to 12” cutout height.

[ThinBlue]

Thanks for thorough response Dave. It's much appreciated. Also, I think I am going steal a page from your book and run with a similar baffle design as I have seen you use to get that air moving upward right away.

Pete, thank you for pointing out that I had mistakenly used the wrong calculator. Also I think what you are showing above is that using this calculator you can enter 0 (zero) for the dam an avoid having to do the curved + the straight cut of the dam. I think that is what I will end up doing as it seems like less work. Woot woot

So this is what the new design would look like -

[Dirtytires]

Yep...wheels for gravel need to be big diameter, wide and a softer material like rubber. I run a 2"x 6" cast wheel with a hard rubber tread. It works great on hard surfaces and easily runs over pavement expansion joints, small rocks, debris and such. I tried to load it on a trailer once and rolled it over an area of hard-pack/smooth dirt. Epic fail and ended up having to break out the winch to recover it. For dirt/grass/gravel you would need a much wider tire...think wheelbarrow or golf cart.

[ThinBlue]

One of the ideas I'm tossing around is to put some flat bar around the end of the firebox and have it hang over the edge 3/8" so that I can recess the entire circle and put a hinge on that instead up welding a plate on the end of the firebox and then cutting a smaller door. Is this a dumb idea? I can't seem to find anyone else doing this and I'm worried there is a legit reason.

I'm surprised no one was willing to comment on this. I found the answer for myself so this post this is really for anyone who comes across this thread in the future. Because sharing is caring.

Yes, people have done this or something similar.
Yes, this is dumb.

Reasons not to do this:
1) That would make a very large door which would cause quite a bit of heat loss every time you open the door. It would likely recover fairly quickly but I think we can all agree that we want to keep that heat in there as much as practicable.

2) If cracking the door is your method of air intake not only are you the letting heat out but you also have the propensity of losing delicious smoke flavor as some of your whispy blues will be exiting the door opening rather than traveling through the cook chamber.

[ThinBlue]

Dismemberment is complete.
On Sunday we ghetto marked up the measurements and then scored the cut lines so we wouldn't lose the markings during transport.

Today Loren sent me a few photos from his shop. He said the plasma cutter was actin' a fool so he ended up torching all of the cuts. He left a couple tabs on the door so we can weld the hinges on back at the house.

I've got the new stick welder coming in tomorrow according UPS so perhaps this weekend we will start to hot the throttle on things.

[Big T]

And so it begins I personally wouldn't weld the hinges on before cutting the door out completely for a couple of reasons. 1) It'll be much harder if you need to straighten the door with it mounted. 2) If you plan on using a gasket you'll need to shim the door before you weld on the hinges or it will bind and not close correctly.

[ThinBlue]

Thanks for the save on that Big T!

[ThinBlue]

Things kind of came to a temporary halt due to close contact with some friends who contracted COVID. Luckily everyone seems to be recovering rather quickly and it missed my family and myself. Silver lining is that I got a little extra time to spend with my 2-year-old who can also be heard occasionally in this latest video. I'm probably going to take another weekend off and then get back at it on the build.

Latest video: https://youtu.be/7R87BtHWlzk

[ThinBlue]

For those of you have have utilized an upward angled baffle, have you noticed that it requires a stack with an increased draft potential in order to have the same amount of pull as you would have without a baffle at all?

I was experimenting with some things using forced air through a simulated throat opening, which I understand is different from what happens with a stack and a fire, but I noticed an obvious increase in back pressure when using a baffle. Obviously the back pressure also increased as the baffle was positioned to become more parallel with the simulated throat opening while maintaining the same maximum distance with it.

The goal of the experiment was to see if I could place an obstacle in front of the throat that would yeild similar results to what the Franklin smoker claims it achieves with the bimetal shelf above the throat. If you not familiar with the claim, they basically say the bimetallic shelf bends from the heat and creates a swirling of air in the cook chamber; Scattering the smoke and aiding in convection.