Bkndsdl's Insulated Hybrid

[Bkndsdl]

well.......may not make it. Just been told that the office needs help and requested I work Friday and Saturday........I am so thankful to have a job, but MAN I so want to get this done before T Day........

[Big T]

I hate it when my job gets in the way of my hobbies

[Bkndsdl]

I hate it when my job gets in the way of my hobbies

Don't I know it!

Well I ended up only working half a day Saturday so I got to it!

How to square a door frame with an unsquare & unlevel table.......takes a bit longer but it can be done.



Got the door strikers lined up.



Door frame hung! I had to build spacers to shim them up so I got the gap right; you can see the spacers on the corners. I also added short pieces of the gasket so that it will have the right spacing.

Bottom of the door frame...



Top of the door frame. They fit and operate very smoothly. I used the 1/4" pipe inside of the 1/2" pipe for hinges, but I may end up using the 1/2" rod as there is a bit more room for misalignment. I also got the firebox door to the same state. All I need to do is skin them now. I am a bit nervous about fitting hinges before welding the skins, but I've got a plan to keep the warping down to a minimum.



Here is the latch mechanism; I needed to shim the doors without the skins to be able to get this just right.



I then built a box around the latch and installed it. The latch will go into this box, and will not interfere with the smoke chamber. After the box was fit and welded, I just covered up the holes and welded it up.



Here I am fitting the front out. This is all I got done this weekend.



After that, my 14 year old wanted daddy to show him how to cook hamburgers.......Proud daddy moment!



They were awesome!

[Big T]

Good job Dad Gotta teach them right.

[Rodcrafter]

Keep up the good work on both the smoker an the young man.


Making memories.

[Bkndsdl]

Thanks Guys!!

Well I just might make it! I worked on it until nighttime on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday after church I got it to a point where I can cook the turkeys in it! WOOHOO!!

Here's how I welded up the door skins; the way I did the doors for the horizontal were just like I did the rest of the smoker, weld square tube frame then attach one side of the door to the frame, then when I put the other side, I drilled holes in it and plug welded it to the frame. It warped those doors pretty bad, not bad enough to worry about the seal (I hope) but it was pretty significant. So this time around, I cut the door skins about 3/8" short, and welded the fillet weld created by the short skin next to the square tube. I welded about 6", flipped it over, and welded 6" on the opposite side in the same direction, then moved down and did the same thing, just kept going round and round until it was fully welded. They didn't warp one bit!

Here's the high-tech way I employed to keep me straight on the welding...........



Here's the pocket for the vertical latch, after the outside skin was put on. All welded out.



WE HAVE DOORS!!



Here's a pic to give you an idea of the size of the vertical section.



Here's what I used for the handles; 1/2" rod slid into 1/2" sch 80 seamless pipe. Pretty straight forward here, will run the rod through, get the gap right, tighten it down, then mark where the stops go on the rod. The stops are made out of 1/2" pipe too.



Here I am fitting it all up.



Finished product. I will put the springs on after it's painted. Did this for both the vertical seen here and the firebox.



Got the exhaust on and welded out; I did some closer measurements and the vertical exhaust cleared the door opening by a mere 3/8"!!!



Happy, but whooped guy!



The smoker needs a lot of welding still, and I plan on doing that in the afternoons under shop light. The smoker is sealed inside, so even if I don't get the outside welding done I will still be able to use it. All I need to do is install the door gaskets, weld on the drain nipple and ball valve and It will be all sealed up and ready to use. I will not worry about exhaust closures right now, I am going to just fill the un-needed exhaust with aluminum foil for the time being. I plan on using the tuning plates for this cook. My wife added a ham to the cooking list for Thanksgiving, so if I choose to try the vertical for that, I'll need to build at least one rack for the vertical. May just stick it in the electric smoker and not worry about that right now....main thing is I can cook the turkeys in here! I will probably do a full burn out on Wednesday; I am off Wednesday so I will probably do a burn out in the morning, then I will play with the tuning plates to see if I can even the horizontal temps out in preparation for Thursday's cook.

I AM STOKED!!!!

[Pete Mazz]

Very nice!!!

Have a happy T'day!

[Big T]

I'm glad that you were able to get it usable, I know that you were working your butt off to get it done!

[Rodcrafter]

You're gonna have a great cooker when you get done! Don't take any short cuts at this point I know it gets tempting. But you will have this rig for many years finish every detail and you will be glad you did.


Making memories.

[Bkndsdl]

Thanks guys!!

Well I played it safe on Thanksgiving and used my MES for the first bird, and did the second on the smoker........It didn't turn out too well. It was done, but it was cooked way too hot. It seemed to need way too much fuel to get to the temp needed. While dismayed, I decided I needed to do more tests to see what the problems were. Friday I decided to see if I could work out the issues and dial it in a bit more, so I put my Maverick to work. Turns out that the therms were reading waaaaay low, which means I was cooking that turkey waaaaaaaaaay too hot......I am thinking that the probes don't stick out of the doors enough to get a more accurate reading. So I put two chimneys of lump in it, one pecan stick, and lit the fire. Playing with it a bit I got her to run 250 on the top racks for almost 5 hours......:banana_smiley: :sausage: :nana2: One happy guy!

Right now I've got it loaded with two racks of ribs, some drip beans, and a few pork steaks. I have gotten it set at 230 on the top rack closest to the firebox and 220 on the one farthest....... I am amazed at how little fuel I need to maintain temps......pretty stoked about now. I will adjust the therms to read accurately the top racks.

[Rodcrafter]

It takes a while and several burns to work through the variables of wind direction, water in wood, type of wood, ect.... Keep up the good work and we want pictures. And samples!!!


Making memories.

[Bkndsdl]

It takes a while and several burns to work through the variables of wind direction, water in wood, type of wood, ect.... Keep up the good work and we want pictures. And samples!!!

I can help you out with the pics, but as far as samples - Big T is actually close enough to have some. Believe it or not, I invited two brothers and one friend over, and nobody took me up on it......something about some football championship got in the way I believe.....

How it started at 5:00 this morning. Started early because my youngest had a basketball game this morning that ended at 10 so I wanted to get a jump start. Two slabs, four pork steaks.



They get a coat of garlic powder then rib rub, wrap in saran wrap then into the fridge until I get back. The small package is the two strips that are the flap on the inside of spares, I cut it off and smoke it to put in the drip beans.




Here they are unwrapped and ready to go in. Also my drip beans.



Into the smoker with some apple and cherry. I put just two chimney's worth of lump in to start with.



If that isn't the most perfect sight........TBS baby......like it was meant to!

[Bkndsdl]

After 3 hours on the smoker, they come inside to get more work done.



They are now given a bath in honey, tiger sauce, parkay, and brown sugar, then double-wrapped in foil and placed back on the smoker. The strips are cut up and put into the drip beans.

Sweet momma.........after two hours in the foil they come out to get some sauce........

[Bkndsdl]

Smoke ring.......





And my plate.

[mp4]

Yummy

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[Big T]

Now you tell me..lol

[Rodcrafter]

Heck yeah! That's what I'm talking about! And as for those buddies of yours, you should call them and thank them for providing you with all the lunches for next week. Good job!


Making memories.

[forty_creek]

Strong Work Bk!


Drankin, Smokin and Dreamin

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[Pete Mazz]

Never see pork steaks around here..... How'd they come out?

[Bkndsdl]

Yummy

Now you tell me..lol

Heck yeah! That's what I'm talking about! And as for those buddies of yours, you should call them and thank them for providing you with all the lunches for next week. Good job!

Strong Work Bk!

Thanks guys!!!

Never see pork steaks around here..... How'd they come out?

They are basically a butt cut into steaks. They came out awesome. Wife and oldest son devour them. My youngest and I tear up the ribs though.

[Tom_Heath]

Wow, that looks amazing.

[Bkndsdl]

Wow, that looks amazing.

Thanks Doc!

[Bkndsdl]

Been kinda busy the last few weeks, sorry I haven't posted. Just wanted to back up to before thanksgiving and show the progress I made.

I was really surprised at just how easy the gaskets were to put on the door. I was prepared to have to screw them down for the gasket cement to set, but no need. This stuff rocks! All I had to do was spread it out on the door, then place the gasket down on it and mash it into the gasket cement. In about 5 mins it set up enough where it wasn't moving. Here's the first door, the vertical cabinet door.



Here's the horizontal doors.



Here's both the vertical doors done.



Now, what sucks........at first, the gaskets make the doors waaaay too hard to close. I had to put a smaller rod in the firebox and vertical door hinges to get them to close. On top of that, the horizontals wouldn't close at all. The horizontals have no latch; they simply are supposed to rest on the front of the cooker and gravity makes the seal. Well, with the 1/2" rod they didn't touch at the bottom of the door. I used 3/8" rod so that they would close for the cook, and figured I'd have to cut the hinges off and reset them. Well, the verticals just had to be worked in. They took a lot of opening and closing to get to where they were snug but were not hard to close. The horizontals, on the other hand, will take a lot more work. May try a 7/16" rod. They are close with the 1/2", but just not enough to get a good seal.

Here I am mounting the thermometers.

[forty_creek]

Strong Work!


Drankin, Smokin and Dreamin

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[Rodcrafter]

Don't let it bother you. We all make mistakes as we learn. If it were me, I'd cut them off set the doors and either weld on new ones or reuse the old ones. The doors should work really well because you will use this many times over a very long time.


Making memories.