Update: lets get back to building!

[JollyGuard]

Hello to you smoker builders !

I have been reading around this forum for a little while now and have already come across heaps of helpful and interesting information (starting with that great calculator).

However I'd like to start this dedicated thread in which I'll post all the questions I have at the moment and the ones that are likely to come still.

So lets begin:

My first question is related to the diameter of the steel pipes I have. I have two pieces one of which is 60 inch the other 39 inch long. Both pieces have a diameter of 16 inch, is this large enough to build a reverse flow smoker? I would be happy with a small smoker to start since it would only be used to feed the family and a few friends never a large crowd so it's not the capacity of the engine that preoccupies me but the functionality of the smoker. Can I fit in the the plates in there with a gap large enough for the air circulation and still have room enough for the grill and the meat on top?

The pipe walls are 7 millimetres thick (wich would be something between gauge 1 and 2 or 0.27559 inch) so I believe it would be quite good regarding durability and heat storage.

I intend to put fireproof tiles in the firebox to increase efficiency and eventually protect the wall of the firebox from deformation due to heat (has anyone experienced this with 1/4 inch strong steel?) Moreover I wanted to make the firebox out of a vertical pipe, if the volume is appropriate in proportion to the cooking chamber do you think the surface area of the pipe gives enough room for a proper fire?

At the moment I don't have any further question ready to be asked

I hope someone can help me somewhat I can't wait to get started with the


Regards.

[The Czar]

You absolutely can build a reverse flow smoker out of that… The only disadvantage is the smaller the smoker the more often you'll have to feed the fuel…

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Frank_Cox]

sounds like a great build! you could build the FB and the warmer from the vertical pipe. you just need to match the required volumes. you won't have any burn out or warping issue with the 1/4"

[Smokeone]

[JollyGuard]

All right thank you guys for the info so far.

(Now how do I know where to fix the baffle plate? How wide as the gap between the meat and the BP to be? How do I calculate the ideal volume of the channel created by the BP? From an other post I found out that the opening gap left by the BP for the actual reverse flow of the smoker has to be se same size that the cc/fb opening but I have no idea about the hight the BP should be at... ) <== EDIT: FOUND THE ANSWER TO ALL THAT.

thx for any advice.

Pics will be coming as soon as the cutting and starts !!


EDIT: and an other question would be: how do you use a warmer? If I understood it right no air flow/smoke goes through it and its only heated up through radiation from the FB located right below...

[Rodcrafter]

You are correct in that, it isn't required to have a flow going through it. However, if you make a way for an opening between the FB and WC you can have a much more versatile cooker. If you look at some of the cookers that TQ has posted you will see the opening he uses, it is adjustable and very easy to work with. It also gives you the option to cook only in the WC, so you don't have to heat up the whole cooker if you're just doing a small cook.

jm2cw

[JollyGuard]

Hellow again!

so it's been quite a while since I last gave any sign of life here on the forums, and there was no news on the progress (shame on me)

I'm here to catch up now!

The smoker has been sitting there near completion but I was away for uni so nothing moved. To give you an idea how the thing looked here are pictures of some of the building steps (the pictures are out of date and the smoker is looking a bit better actually but this is all I had on my phone)

Here are the pipes I've used for this project:
The taller one is about 60 inches long, the shorter one around 39, both are 1/4in strong and about 16 inches in diameter.


The first cuts where done with the circular blade saw you can see in the picture, it took quite a while and cutting at an angle wasn't too great (it's my first project of this kind so I've been learning along the way). Later we got a plasma cutter for all the doors and traps: a real pleasure! (we actually made two cuts with a big torch before getting the plasma, that was a bit messy!)


Here you can see both pipes put together. As it lies on the floor it's a bit tricky to imaging what is what, but as soon as I get back home i'll show pictures of it standing up and with the doors in the right places it should make more sense.
The white lines roughly show the contours of the door to the cooking chamber, and the part of the pipe that disappears in the bottom right side of the picture is the firebox and the foot of the smoker.


This last picture is taken from within the cooking chamber and shows the opening between firebox and cooking chamber as well as the outlet of the smoke vent.


Since those pics where taken, we did all the doors, hinges, the baffle plates, fire grates. The firebox door needs a latch, we need to finish the drawer for ashes and the air inlet. And the the whole thing needs to be cleaned and painted.

From the materials we have used I'm going to imagine that it's going to be a rather slow starting smoker and it could end up being a bit fuel greedy but it should also be quite stable (the baffle plates are are around 1/3 in!).

So thank you for your tips and for the calculator, as well as you interest

I'll keep you informed.

[onesquin]

Glad you made more progress. Looks like an interesting build. Would love to see more pictures when you have a chance. have you test fired it yet?

[JollyGuard]

Yes I fired it up once, but it was le last day I was back home so not much testing possible.

We exaggerated the fire size quite a lot to see how the temperature would climb, how it would spread through the smoker and how the heat would radiate through the door. As a result (although it is not certain I hope that was the reason) the fire did create quite a lot of black soot. Next week I'll be back home and will do a fire as I would do it to smoke something (low and slow) and I hope that will solve it. It will also be the occasion to load up some more pictures here and maybe get some more ideas on possible improvements.