Planning a Reverse Flow

[fagesbp]

how do I determine the very accurate measurement? Are you saying the baffle plate to cook chamber opening should be exactly the same as the throat?

[fagesbp]

Wife welding and her weld




And yes I did tell her to put some shoes on lol

[bbroper]

If she can weld like that jumping around since she doesn't have shoes on... just think what she will be able to do with a good pair of boots...

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

After seeing that I think you should just sit back with a cold beverage and let her work on the smoker.

[SmokinFF]

[The Czar]

As close as possible yes....


And put some damn shoes on !!!!

[bluecatfish]

Great looking welds! Buy her some shoes! I wish I could get my wife to help me weld with or without shoes.

[Big T]

Wife welding
No shoes

[fagesbp]

Thanks DC MAn.I will make them identical. 20 X 3

[fagesbp]

How high up should I put my air intakes? The calculator says I need 4 at the size I want. If I put 2 at about 2" off the bottom and another 2 at halfway up the fb would that work?

[Rodcrafter]

My experience has been I would rather make 2 at 2"x4" with the bottom of it at 2" from the bottom of the FB. Remembering hot air moves so vigorously that if we place intake air vents much higher the hot air won't let the cooler air in.
Jm2cw

[fagesbp]

Thanks a lot. I want to be as learned up as I can before I start so the problems will be at a minimum. Since my fb door will be on the front I can probably put 2 intakes on the left under the cc and 2 on the right on the end at 2" off the bottom.

[Big T]

I would definitely want to have multiple intakes on a stationary unit, if you get a steady wind blowing in your intakes it can be a pain trying to control temps and fuel consumption. Since you can't rotate the cooker you'll be able to close the one of on the windy side and open up a different one. jm2cw

[onesquin]

Dont have any intakes higher than a few inches above the FB floor.

[fagesbp]

I hadn't thought of that big t. I will definitely put 2 on each side then. I can close off any that have wind blowing into them. I could probably just put 2 in each side a couple inches up and just work with the ones I need based on the conditions

[Rodcrafter]

Why do you think you need 2 on each side rather than 1 larger one on 2 sides?

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

I run one on each side of my FB and 99% of the time only need to open one for maintain temp.

[fagesbp]

Well my thought behind using 2 is to spread the air flow over more of the fire and I like the look of it with 2. Probably irrelevant though. It would definitely be a lot easier to fabricate with only 1 per side since the hole cover plate could be solid rather than having a hole in the middle.

I'm trying to learn cad while I plan. First try at that as well as welding. I have a strong carpentry background so I think that should help me with laying things out.

[DUAYNE B]

When I, m doing my intakes, I like to have air go under the fire grate and just above the edge of grate bottom, then it helps under and at fire height,,,, jm2cw

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

I do it the same way DB

[onesquin]

My intakes are the same as DB.

I started building smokers with the same skill set you are coming in with. The biggest thing is experience with what metal does when you heat it. It does crazy stuff. The measuring and planning translate well. With metal you can tack and "try" it out and if you don't like it you can cut it off and grind it back to the way it was and start over. Try that with wood.

[fagesbp]

So if I make my fire basket 3" off the bottom, I should put an intake at say 1.5" and at 3.25" then, pretty much touching each other. Or do you mean center the 1 vent with the bottom of the basket? Like having an intake that is 3" tall with 1.5" below and 1.5" above the basket bottom.

[onesquin]

The 2nd way.

[Rodcrafter]

If I was making my fire basket 3 inches off the bottom, it would mean I would be making an ash pan that was about 2 to 2.5 inches tall. So my intakes would be the same from the bottom of the FB as the top of the ash pan.

jm2cw

[fagesbp]

So I'm going to go with a 1" tall ash pan on the bottom then have the fire basket on rails at 2.5". (4) 3" x 3.5" intake vents set at 1.5" off the bottom. There will be a 1" lip from the door rail so I think the 1.5" gap will be just enough to get the 1" ash pan out to dump. I'll put 2 vents on the left and 2 on the right since it's stationary, in case of wind.