backwoods clone

[Charlie que]

Hello all, I am from southern California, been catering for about 6 years. Due to some issues we had to sell our rig awhile back. I'm starting a new project this week and could use some help and advice. We were using a Blackwoods piglet and loved it, but we want to go much bigger. My plans are to duplicate "the whole hog". I did not take to much care in how the heat and smoke entered the cook chamber. The builds I see don't have channel for the heat and smoke to enter the the cook chamber. If it does use the channel what size enter/exit vents would I need to have sufficient flow? I found hinges, door latches, rope insulation etc on eBay is there a better place I could find what I need? Thickness of metal, I have seen everything from 16 gauge to 11 gauge what would everyone suggest?

[Rodcrafter]

Welcome to the crew.

[Charlie que]

Thank you Rodcrafter, nice community you have here.

[Pete Mazz]

Use the dimensions you want for the CC (cook chamber) and use the Pit Calc http://www.smokerbuilder.com/pitcalc/ to determine the FB (firebox) and vent size. If you're making a straight vertical, vs RF (reverse flow) don't worry about the stack length.

For parts and odds and ends try this http://www.bbqsmokersupply.com/.

If you want to be sure it'll be a good cooker, contact Frank Cox and he'll hook you up with plans. http://smokerplans.net/

[Big T]

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

[Charlie que]

Thank you for the responses. I contacted Frank, and he said keep it on the board so others continue to learn from it.
My main question is the smoke race way, or path from the fire box to smoke chamber.
I remember our piglet having 2 ports on the back wall, but some of the builds I see have smoke and heat entering on all 3 side. How would the smoke work it's way through the insulation and into the cook chamber?

[Pete Mazz]

Never saw a backwoods. Are they RF? A simple drawing may help get advice.

[Pete Mazz]

I found this cross section drawing. It is a RF. To insulate you'd need the triple wall configuration shown here.



Personally, I wouldn't bother with a RF. They're great for horizontals but really not necessary for verticals.

[Puff]

Great cutaway cross section...says it all. I've seen them in regular photos but never knew how they were setup.

[Charlie que]

Pete thank you so much that is exactly what I needed to see. As far as metal gauge was thinking 14 gauge for fire box and 16 gauge for cook chamber?

[Rodcrafter]

On that one the smoke/heat are only coming in on 2 sides and the exhaust is going out on the back wall, down low. So the insulation would never come in contact with the smoke.

jm2cw

[Puff]

So it looks as though the triple wall is on the sides only? How does the bottom by the fire box terminate? I've looked around but found no good views.

[Rodcrafter]

The first bottom is the sides and back wall, then the next has the FB bottom the center walls and the top and door sharing the back wall with the inside walls. The most outside is the skin over all outer parts

[smokeinnj]

Question for all on this im going to be starting a Backwoods clone shortly i have between that and doing a gravity but just decided on the Backwoods for now. I know for the air inlet on the BW they have the cut out with the slider for the air to enter the firebox, do you think instead of that i would be ok with running a 2" ball valve instead. My thinking behind that is i can get get a tighter seal with that and probably adjust my air flow much better plus when i want to add on Guru just slap on the adapter and away we go. Just wondering what your guys thoughts would be on that. Thanks

[The Czar]

Yes!!! We have seen several set ups like this with a guru assist....

[Rodcrafter]

Yes, I agree with DC and at this point in time I'm ok with that. Just kidding Buddy

[nightperson]

I used the calculator for a cook chamber of 22x23x24- close to a g2 fatboy- it comes up with a fire box volume of 4048 in^3. by my calculations that makes the fire box 8" high. Is it okay to go 10" high? i assume the volume is the lowest recommended number?

[Rodcrafter]

On a vertical the calculator doesn't really work the same as on on offset because the CC and FB are really in the same chamber. Like an UDS only divided by an Baffle Plate. That is the way I see it.
jm2cw


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