Originally, I intended for the smoker to be 30 inches deep on the outside corners, and 36 inches wide. That way it would only take one sheet of 12 ga. mild steel to skin the outside, not counting the top, bottom and doors. I wound up thinking that it was going to be way bigger than I planned and not as pleasing to my eye, so I cut the fram back down to 30 inches wide along the back, making the outside dementions 30 x 29.5".
Started out with some square tubing:
So here is the frame built out of 2 inch square tubing tacked together:
Test fitting the inner skin of 3/16 plate:
More if the interior panels test fitted. Realized I didn't need the horizontal braces, all they were is extra weight, so out they came:
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Last edited by Atama on September 20th, 2015, 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Being that I am also a real welding novice, I chose to keep all of the seam welds on the inside of the insulated panels, which can be seen in the last pic if you look closely on the far right hand side. We did it that way completely around all five sides. It was a good opportunity for me to get some practice in!
Door frames put together and the inner skins tacked on:
Air inlets plumbed in. Will be using two 2 inch ball valves to control the air flow. I will be adding a Stoker down the road.
I don't think I will ever have to worry about this thing getting stolen! It is H-E-A-V-Y!!!! Will probably end up somewhere in the 800-1000 pound range.
I said earlier that there would be more on the waterpan/heat defelctor later. The bottom of the waterpan is a piece of 1/2 inch plate that my Dad had laying in his shop. Basically, it was cut to the inner dimensions of the smoker, then several 1.5 inch notches were cut out of itaround the perimeter to allow heat and smoke to rise through the chamber. The teeth that were left effectively formed tabs that were then welded to the walls of the smoker. I should make for one heck of a heat sink since I don't generally prefer to cook with water. Once that piece of plate gets up to temp, it should really help regulate the internal temp of the CC. On top of this plate, my Dad welded in 3.5 inch tall walls to contain water (if I ever use any) but also to form a drippings pan that can just be hosed out after a cook to clean the interior. Sorry, didn't get any pics of this part of the build.
Well, got the wheels on the bottom, and all sides insulated. I am thinking about pushing the wheels out to the far corners for more stability. The only down side will be the the wheels will stick out some from the cooker when I roll it around. Thoughts or advice?
Also, it looks like you have four swivel casters -- that's going to be harder to steer than if two of the were rigid. I did that once on a router table I built and it was a pain. You could push it in and direction, which was handy at times but awkward too. Maybe with as heavy as this thing likely is it will be just fine.
Great looking smoker, by the way! I'm assuming there is a water pan just above the firebox?
I was talking about the outside with Dad, and I think I am going to have the outside powder coated. Out of curiosity, what would happen if I had the INSIDE powder coated? Is there any type of off gassing associated with powder coating? Just curious.
I leave the inside of all my builds raw metal and season them with cooking oil(spray type) and fire it up and let it burn hot for a while. I wouldn't risk any type of coating in the CC and it will get covered in grease anyway. jm2cw