New Build Thread: Uncle Charlie – Short and Full of Fire

[ACC]

WARPED JOINER PLATE.
I learned that ¼” plate will warp quite easily, especially if you keep welding and grinding and welding in the same area for a long period of time. I gave it many wacks with a large sledge hammer and it straightened out. With the opposite end of the CC open, it made a hell of a noise. Sorry neighbors. I image dogs and cats did not like it either.

[ACC]

I don’t want the Joiner Plate to warp again and cause the FB to sag so I decided to make a buttress. I welded a scrap piece of ¼” plate to the bottom of the firebox and the JP. Hopefully, it will work. Since the CC is not yet attached to the cart, I was able to rotate the CC 180 degrees. This made it easy to weld.


Sorry for the pictures being sideways. I don't know how to rotate them.

[Rodcrafter]

Looks like you're learning your way through the process. Nice work. The pictures right themselves when clicked on.

[Big T]

[bluecatfish]

Joiner plate (JP). I have often wondered what to call the plate between the CC and FB. Frank should add that to the Official Slang Data Base.

[ACC]

CUTTING THE DOOR OPENING

I laid out the door opening to be 1.25” back of TDC and 1” below the midpoint. The side edges were 2 inches from the outside edge of the CC. I went in for the night.

The next day I set out to cut the door opening. My plan was to cut the top seam and weld the hinges on before I cut out the rest of the door. My thoughts were that after I cut the seam with the plasma cutter, I would clean out the slag with a reciprocating saw. This did not work. The opening made by the plasma cutter was much narrower than the saw blade. I resorted to using a cut-off disk on the HF hand grinder. This quickly removed the slag. However, when I had the seam about 80% cleaned, the pipe made a pop and the seam opened to about 1/8th inch. This happened even though there were 2 inches of full pipe on each end of the cut. Maybe I should have made a shorter cut, weld the hinges in place and then finish the cut? May have popped anyways when I cut the bottom of the door. I would have liked to have a closer seam on the top of the door but that’s the way it goes.

Now is when I noticed that I marked out the door opening (the night before) on the wrong side of the CC. Oh well, it is now a left handed cooker.

Cut out the rest of the door opening without incidence, except for my poor craftsmanship. It seems that the better cuts occur when the Plasma cutter is kept as perpendicular to the material as possible. If you lean the cutter a bit, the arc will bend and your cuts will not line up. Unfortunately, I’m learning on the job. Good thing the flange will hide a lot of these cosmetic mistakes. Even with these errors, the plasma cutter is a life saver. Glad I bought it.

[Rodcrafter]

You know when they roll the steel to make pipe or tanks they don't stress relieve the steel afterwards. So sometimes we think we caused the warp but really we just released the stress. It is easier to bend the door back into shape when it isn't welded to hinges. But let's see how it goes.


Making memories.

[ACC]

How do you bend the doors back into the same curvature as the CC? I have access to 2-3 long pipe clamps.

I pretty much have already decided to cut off the current low hinges and replace them with some fabricated tall hinges so correcting the shape of the door is something I can do at the same time. With the low store-bought hinges, I don't see how I could install a flange on the top edge of the door and still be able to open the door. Looks like I need the lift created by the tall hinges. Any ideas how I can flange this seam without changing out the hinges?

How about a flange on the inside of the CC along the top seam of the door (in addition to the flange on the outside of the CC)?

I'd appreciate all the help I can get.

[Rodcrafter]

The inside flanges are a real pain to weld on, it can be done but not easy. A piece of chain and a jack is used to bend pipe doors back to the right shape. I think Big T has a thread showing the process using a floor jack.


Making memories.

[ACC]

Thanks for the help.

Is the pain because you are welding overhead, inside a pipe, reaching through the CC door and not being able to get a good view of what you are welding? Yes, that sounds like a real pain in the backside. Since my smoker is not yet welded to the cart, I should be able to remove some of these factors by spinning the CC 180 degrees. In this position (the CC being upside down), I'd be making a flat, horizontal weld instead of an overhead weld. I can also gain access through the open end of the CC. Unfortunately, I have already added several pieces of the FB. It might already be too heavy to spin or dangerously unstable. I think I'll put the inside flange on before I do any more work on the FB. What size flange material should I use?

I really need something to slow down the heat loss through the gap in the top seam. The inside flange should help this. While I am at it, should I install flange all the way around the inside of the door?

I'll look up Big T's thread on reshaping doors.

[Tom_Heath]

I have built several rigs with the flange on the inside and it works fine. As stated, it is somewhat of a pain.


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[bluecatfish]

Are the advantages of installing the inside flange worth the extra work involved? It seems to me you would not have any better seal than an equally well fitting outside flange. The gap is still there it is only covered on a different side.

[Rodcrafter]

The best way I have found to seal these doors is 1/2" fiberglass rope under the outer flanges then pulled down with an toggle clamp. this fills most leaks for sure.

jm2cw

[bluecatfish]

RC, I agree. Then you have your sealing gasket on the door flange and out of the way when the door is raised, which helps prevent damage to the seal.

[Tom_Heath]

X2 on having the rope on the door. It's all in personal taste as far as which way you do the flange.


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[ACC]

It has been a while since I posted.

I installed an inside flange to the top of the CC. I built a replaceable bottom for the firebox. The 1/4th inch plate slides in and out on rails made of 3/4th inch angle iron. The idea is that when my children don’t clean the firebox and the bottom rusts out, they can just slide in another plate. Well, that’s the idea anyways.

I installed the BP, well, kind of installed it. I had calculated the size of the BP several months ago and cut it out when I was piecing the 10 x 5 sheet of ¼ inch. Unfortunately, somewhere I messed up and cut it 1 inch too narrow. I decided to make my BP gap adjustable so I used a different piece of steel which was shorter than the original BP. Not trusting my ability to cut the new BP to the proper width, I gave myself a margin of error by welding rails to the sides of the CC for the BP to rest on. I’ll weld the BP to the rails toward the end of the project. For the BP gap to be 100% of the throat size, there needs to be a 2 inch gap between the end of the BP and the end of the CC. I cut a piece of 1X5/16 flat bar to lay in the gap. This will reduce the BP gap from 100% to 50%. If I want to try something in between those, I can turn the flat bar on its side.

I squared up the firebox and built the lid. I decided not work on the firebox anymore until I determined the particular material I was going to use for gaskets. I finally decided on fiberglass tape that is rated for 1000F. I ordered some from Jet.com for cheap.

[Rodcrafter]

Interesting top on that FB

Keep up the good work!


Making memories!

[Squiggle]

[Big T]

[ACC]

Sheet Metal Brake

For the skin, I picked up a sheet of 14 gauge at the surplus yard. Originally, I thought I would cut and weld the corners. Now, I have decided to try and bend it. I know nothing about bending sheet metal. The homemade brakes I saw online were bending much thinner metals so I decided to beef mine up a bit. I used 2.5"x1/4" angle and 1/2" square rod. I used 5/8" grade 8 bolts for the reinforcing bolts. The clamp down bar is held down with 1/2" bolts. The springs came from bin # 50 at Ace Hardware. The handles are made from 1" pipe with 1/4" walls and 7/8" solid steel rods. The hinges were made from 5/8" rod and 1/2" tubing. I mounted the contraption to the rear of the truck.

To my surprise, it bent the 14 gauge pretty easily.

[Rev.Mike]

[Rodcrafter]

Ok now I see better


Making memories!

[Big T]

That's a neat contraption that you've built and it looks like it works great

[Squiggle]

Looks awesome dude, nice work!

[Mississippi smokin]

gonna be a good un!