Hello from the new guy

[alive226]

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to introduce myself. I am new to the forum, but not new to smoking or building a smoker. It has been a few years since I built one. 20 plus years. The first time was in high school, using an old oil tank from the basement of a house. I think it was one of those 250 gal oil tanks. I built it for my dad who had a pig roast every year since the late 70's. He started out doing it over an old open pit, going through 20+ bags of charcoal and cooking it through the night. He realized he lost too much heat, so we set out to fix that. In my welding class in high school, I designed and built a smoker/ pig roaster. The pig was roasted on a rotisserie. That smoker is long since gone, as the weather took its toll ( northern Illinois) after it was neglected after my dad passed in 2005.

Four years ago my dad's good friend offered me the use of his smoker/ roaster to continue with my family's tradition of an annual pig roast. I have used his smoker since, but it is a pain borrowing a trailer, going to pickup the smoker, returing the trailer, cleaning the smoker the next day, going to get the borrowed trailer, returning the smoker, then returning the trailer. It adds too much work to the already labor intensive 100+ people party. Just for info, I do a small 40-50lb pig, 4 pork shoulders and 4 briskets. I smoke the shoulders and briskets the day before, the heat them during the final pig roasting time.

I guess I am just giving my reasons for building my own smoker. Not that I really need to give any of you a valid reason. Although I get good results smoking in my Weber kettle, it is labor intensive trying to keep the temp stable.

A few weeks ago, I came across an old Culligan 200 gal water tank. I will post a pic later in a build thread. I am just trying to finalize my plans for this build. Anyway, I look forward to ideas and suggestions from all of you, as I am by no means an expert. Thanks in advance,

Rick

[The Czar]

...Rick..... ...take plenty of pics!!!

[maccas66]

Welcome aboard Rick, thats a great story and I`m sure your Dad would be pleased!

[SoloQue]

[Gizmo]

Welcome alive226!
Sounds like you'll really enjoy having your own rig around - and for lots more than just the annual event...

[Smokeone]

Can't wait to see this come together!

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[Frank_Cox]

Welcome!!!