New builder question

[Gizmo]

BigT is right - the leak on such a small hole is negligible so about any method will do.

[Smokeone]

Nice looking rig there!

[Tanner01]

Fired up my smoker today trying to burn off every thing before I do a final sanding and paint on it.
Seemed to take a long time to get it up too temperature. 2 hours to get it to 250 degrees. Firebox was 700 degrees. Is there any reason not to build a big fire to get it up and going then let it burn back down?

[Big T]

That seems way too long to get up to 250. Did you make your throat and BP gap the size that the pit calculator recommended ?

[Tanner01]

Matched the pit calculator exactly.
Would the snow melting on the smoker make a big difference, and or did I just not make the fire big enough?

[Big T]

If you was melting snow off of your CC then that's definitely robbing heat. I think from what I've read on here that a normal fire runs around 700-800 degrees, I don't monitor my FB temp so I can't confirm this for sure. I'd try it again without the snow before I started worrying about it or build a raging fire.

[Rodcrafter]

I don't have much experience with placing the exhaust that low on the CC without a second one at the top. But I would say this is causing a delay on pulling a good draft. The air inside the CC is trying to go out the top but can't until the draft pulls it out in the stack. So the temp of the CC must get to temp really, before it will begin to work the way you want it to. So I would start with a pretty hot fire, maybe 2 chimneys of coals first.

jm2cw

[dwwantasmoker]

Did you have the doors open on the CC ? If not try doors open and all drafts wide open on fire box until your fire box reaches 700 to 750 then close CC doors and it should pull a good draft.

[Tanner01]

We have a lot of snow falling today so I am going to try again on Saturday. I used ten hardwood charcoals to start and added some split oak to that. I have a temperature gauge on the fire box and it was around 500 degrees most of the time. Temperature difference across the CC was about 5 degrees until I reached 200 then it stayed pretty even. The draft didn't seem to be a problem, I think I just had to small of a fire. I was worried I might warp something, I only used 3/16" steel.
I am going to do a chimney like in the video and get a real good bed of coals started then add in the wood. I will let you know how the second burn goes.

[Tanner01]

On a good note I was showing the pictures of my smoker to a guy who is cutting down several apple trees and he told me he will save all of the wood for me, plus he has some seasoned already I can have. Once I figure out the fire and heating issue I am ready to go!

[Rodcrafter]

I recommended charcoal because it burns hotter than wood. So if you start up with that then add wood after reaching the temps you are looking for it will be easy to maintain.

[Gizmo]

What's that old saying? … "Takes 400 horse to get to 75MPH but only 4 to hold it there…..