New guy needs advice

[Rodcrafter]

You must have enough grease on her now Puff. As I was reading your post Miles, I was thinking it is steel put it back if you don't like it. I know it is a lot of grinding and welding but you can have it your way. I cut 1" below horizontal and 1 inch above TDC. It helps the bottom rack be the biggest it can be and it slides out, and the rain runs off the back better. Just my rule of thumb, doesn't have to yours. These cookers will last a long time so if you find something you don't like while building it I say change it then. Other wise you will not like that part for a long time.
jm2cw

[Puff]

RC...that just made a Ton of sense to me for at least 5 other things I do!

[Rodcrafter]

lol

[Miles]

Thanks guys,
I just re-measured, the BP is 5-3/4" from the bottom of the door opening.
Man I'm not looking forward to making a new door , and I don't have the material. Where can I find pics of a square door on a round tank.
I suppose I could cut the opening lower and use the seel I cut off for the front of the rack then seal it with an internal flange of some type.
Or devise a rack that drops down an inch or so while sliding in and out. I could weld the expanded steel on the bottom of the frame rather than the top. That would give me the same distance above the BP as a 4"clearance with the mesh welded on the top of the frame.

[Miles]

Hey Puff,
When you say the starting point for the bottom rack is 3-4" above the baffle plate, does that put the meat 4-5" above the BP after the rack is built? Assuming it's made of 1" material?

[Big T]

Here is one that CRS just built viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4235 If you don't have a lot of material to work with I would set the door back in place and weld the bottom piece back on and then cut the opening lower. I know you don't want any extra work but it's definitely worth it from a performance stand point and with a little effort you can make it look like it never happened. jm2cw

[Rodcrafter]

Yep, the good thing about working with steel

[Miles]

Thank you,
I've got a little smoke coming from my ears, my brain is in overdrive trying to think how to get out of this one.
That's a lot of welds I'd have to drill out.

[Miles]

Well after about three months away from my build due to work and family issues I got some work done on the FB door.
I welded some 1/4X1" strap to the inside of the door to try to prevent warpage, I hope that does the job. Now if someone can explain the correct way to weld the hinges on I'd appreciate it. Does the tapered part go straight on the box to lift the hinge off for clearance and get a bead on both sides? Or line the hinges along the joint and lay the pointy parts down on the door and box?

[Rodcrafter]

I wrote all this on my phone yesterday to try to help you and it gave me an server error. So here I go, what I would do is first if you're using a gasket put it on. Then put the door in place, and use an ratchet strap and maybe an 4x4 block of wood on the center of the door to apply pressure as if you were all completed and door latched. Make sure the door is in the center of the opening of the FB opening. Then set the barrel hinges with the pins looking up turn the wedges opposite of each other place an shim at least 1/16" behind the bottom barrel to hold it away from the FB wall. allow the wedges to lay where they may, the one on the FB wall and the other on the flange of the door. Using an gasket will give you some room to weld both sides of the wedge if you want but you really shouldn't need to. But since you put both pins up you can take the door off and do some more welding if you choose. The most important thing about this process is to make sure to align both hinges really well or the door will not swing very well.

Hope this helps

jm2cw

[Miles]

Thanks Rodcrafter,
I tacked a piece of angle on the bottom of the box to hold the door up until I got the strap on and hinges welded. I glued a gasket on, but it started to fall off before I could get the door on, so I removed and went without it. My hinges have grease nipples, seems the heat would melt grease and make a mess, especially on the CC door. I was going to use graphite on the FB door, can't take the CC door off for that, do people grease these?

Next task is the door latch.

Thanks again

[Rodcrafter]

You're doing a solid nice job on that rascal. That door will serve you well. The FB door gasket is not as critical as the CC door is.

Keep up the good work!!!

[DonaldE]

i think you have got enough advice on that

[Rev.Mike]

[Miles]

Well, it's taken me ten times as long as I had anticipated, but the smoker is finaly ready to be fired up.
I want to thank all here who helped me with good advice. I left a few things on the welding table but followed most.

This was a project using scrounged material, last year my wife and I were watching NFL on TV and I was looking at smokers at the same time. I showed her a few pics of ones I thought we could use and we both almost fainted at the price. That and the fact charcoal now cost as much as the meat I've been smoking, led me to start this build.
I've never welded or fabricated anything before last year but the help I received here made it possible.
All the steel except that of the food grates was used, most of it very badly pitted, so much four coats of paint will not fill. But now I can appreciate why these things cost so much. Steel is very expensive and it's a lot of labour building one.
I got the trailer out of a recycle bin and it only took me a couple of weeks to fix it up enough to use. I had to but the pain, grate material, thurmometers, hinges and welding supplies.

I welded a 1-1/2" pipe to the back of the firebox and up to the underside of one of the shelves, that will feed air from my stoker. I have a 1" pipe out the bottom of the tank from the baffle plate to drain the combustion chamber, I found an old gate valve to use for closing and opening the drain. The shelves are wood as I ran out of expanded steel.

Thank you so much for your help and patience.

Al Miles

[Miles]

Soory it should read " had to buy paint..."

[Miles]

You're correct I can't spell.
I started up a nice hot fire and burned it that way for about 4-5 hours. That burned off all the paint and other contaminants. I sprayed the inside with water and flushed all the crap down the drain pipe. I then dampened it down to approx 250, painted the inside of the chamber with fat and place about 10 pounds of scraps I've been saving off pork and beef roasts, ribs and bacon, onto the grills and let it cook for three hours. I stoked the fire and let it go overnight. I now have a nice coating on the grates and the inside of the cooking chamber. That should do it for curing.
Today I will practice controlling the cooking chamber temps. Yesterday I had it swinging from 200 to 400 every time I added fuel of moved the damper. I've always used charcoal in the past, using wood for fuel will take some getting used to.

[Rodcrafter]

I think you will find a smaller fire, and add a couple of sticks ever 45 minutes or so will make it easier.


Making memories.

[Big T]

[Pete Mazz]

[bluecatfish]

[Miles]

Thanks Guys.
I'm going to start a new topic on controlling the smoke and heat. I practiced yesterday for 6 hours but haven't got it yet.

[Miles]

Rodcrafter, thanks for the tip. I tried a smaller fire but although better smoke control, I had trouble maintaining heat.
I know as a beginner I will need a lot of trial runs but would like as much info as I can get from the start. I've never seen these types of smokers or know anyone who has one so I can't go over to a buddies and get first hand help.

[Rodcrafter]

The first thing to do in my opinion is don't expect the cooker temperature to be right until the steel is hot all the way through. The first light up could be a full chimney of really hot charcoal, then about 3 splints. Feed that again in 45 minutes then start trimming the air. My backyard cooker is up to temp in 35 minutes that way. It is 3/8" thick all over built to the calculator specs. My trailer rig I built before I knew about the calculator. It has a much different design with more than one stack and stuff. So it heats pretty fast too. But runs on the same size fire as the small cooker. But because it has 2 stacks I do control the temperature of each cc with the stacks. I can make 1 run 100* hotter than the other so it serves as a warmer. But they all take some getting used to. I ran my big one a certain way for a year before I figured out it worked better if I did 1 thing different. So don't give up, everything you do will effect the way it runs. Wind direction and ambient temperature, moisture in the wood, the type of wood, on and on. That's why they call you a pit master when you get it to do what you want in every type of environment.


Making memories.

[mp4]

I'm learning as I go too. My last cook I tried more wood and dampers it down. I noticed that I was quite a bit warmer (30°) on the firebox side. If I don't have enough wood then I cool off and get temp swings. My best luck so far is to feed wood until I start having a tough time holding a steady temp and I add a chimney of charcoal. It seems to work the best for me.

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