I am picking the steel up for the firebox tomorrow. The firebox is 500x500mm square and 650mm high, 5mm thick walls. The steel is £110, and to have it welded entirely is 40 pounds.
with what you've described it's gonna weigh a lot more than 40 pounds… just sayin'
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
I also have a bundle of angle steel and box section that arrived ready for the fire basket rails, and I hope to install those and start on the dampers this weekend. I need some advice regarding the position and size of the damper holes, pitcalc is nt really setup for centre flow.
Can you explain what you mean by damper holes?
I think I know but …..
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Had a good day today, cut intakes and made and installed fire basket rails, and stood the cabinet on the top to see how it will look.
Tig welding in the wind is crap so I've been hiding under a tarpaulin to keep the wind away. Next up is the front door, damper shutters and the cabinet handle....
That last pic looks like you're taking apart your rabbit hutch to make your smoker!
NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT!
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
That's just how the mesh arrived. Just welded the front door frame on and tried the door for size. Looks good. Gonna do another pass tomorrow to thicken the bead up and grind it smooth. The latch for the door is coming tomorrow.
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Well I've had a busy day. Fitted the door hinges and latch, made the log basket and made one food grill.
The log basket is 1x1inch stainless weld mesh, and polished stainless angle that I spotted on the rack at a local metal shop and I bought it off them. I thought making the basket entirely stainless was a good idea, hot things rust quick.
Tomorrow I have to do the second food grate, and maybe the handles. I'm now thinking about the base, I have the wheels but I need to arrange it so it does not obstruct the air intakes.
I usually design the base from the top down. First decide what maximum height you want the top grate at then do the math for that height of base including wheels. You might discover they don't interfere with the draft at all and you may be able to lower it a little on paper before you start cutting. Also spreading your wheels for a broader more stable base should pull the rubber away from the FB…. just thinking out-loud here…..
Either way today will be great fun seeing it up on it's own wheels for the first time - they're so cute at this age!
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Half the problem is I want the cooking chamber to be a very specific height - 800mm from the floor. This is the same height as the back of my pickup truck. The idea is we can wheel the whole thing up to the truck then slide the cooking chamber in.
I stopped thinking at this point, caus somehow we will have to heave the 300kg firebox assembly into the back too, but we will work out how to do that when we get there.
Did the second food rack today. Looking good inside, just the baffle and shaddow plate and exhaust now and its done.
Mocked up the smoker today with its new base. No wheels yet so just stood it on blocks. Burnie it's little brother is getting started to do some fast chicken for dinner.
Haha, in that photo its more of an acrid white lol.
Had another smoke out today using my little offset as a stick burner, trying to learn as much as I can about stickburning.
I did learn a lot. A small hot fire is what you need. All the reading I have done on this subject goes on about this ember bed. I had embers, but they were in the ash pan. I think the grill was too big and let the embers fall through. Im going to line the basket in the offset with some other mesh to close the gaps up to hold more in. I cut the logs down to smaller chunks, about 8 inches long and about 1-2inch round roughly.
The problem I have as when you add a new log, it smokes like a bastard with horrible white smoke for a few mins. I know people set up burn barrels, but ive found that the hotter the embers (charcoal in my experiments) the faster the wood goes from nasty white smoke to proper blue, sometimes invisible smoke. Also on my offset ive noticed that its hard to get it out enough. I think i need more logs going.