# A different kind of smoker build



## sleepersilverado

I have been wanting to build a smoker for a while. Actually have a big traditional horizontal pipe one that is about 75% complete from years ago but it is just too big. After seeing the vertical cabinet type smokers more often I have taken a liking to them. Jtburf on here build a gravity fed one a while back and the design intrigued me. So in typical fashion I decided to take that design and put my own twist on it. I was curious about a reverse flow with the vertical smoker. Through research there is not a bunch of info out there, but there is a company that does them and has for a long time.

So this is going to be a gravity fed reverse flow vertical/cabinet smoker. Normally I sit down and put together a decent drawing but not this time.

Yes this is totally crazy but I had some 5/8" plate laying around so decided I would use that for the fire box. Rather than grinding bevels all day I decided to cheat and overlap the corners to create a fillet weld scenario. Made the box rectangle but harms nothing.


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## sleepersilverado

After the fire box was welded out I made the shoot. Pretty simple concept, take the bottom measurement and subtract 2" so it is a reverse funnel. I had some 3/16" plate laying around and used that for the shoot. This is welded out 100% so that the shoot is air tight.


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## sleepersilverado

Needed a transfer tube but did not have any 4x6 tube. Had some 1/4" plate laying around so I made one. Tried to do a spray ark technique but ended up with some undercutting.















I originally had the brilliant idea to drill holes to create a screen to keep the charcoal out of the transfer tube. I don't know what I was thinking and decided to cut slits with my torch. Built a jig to guide the torch at a 15* angle and started cutting. What I was doing looked like hammered hell so I had to come up with a 3rd option. Most people just cut a hole and wells a piece of expanded metal on it. I decided to cut the entire rectangle out and build a louvre out of 1/4" plate. I cut strips of 1/4" plate and created a fixed louvre that is angled to where no ash can get into the tube. Once I had everything tacked I put some 1/2" round bar in between as spacers. Pretty difficult to get in the limited space and weld.


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## sleepersilverado

Welded the tube on. The tube is long and will be cut shorter later on. 















Took some angle and cut it down to create a frame for the grate to slide into. You can see it here on the bottom. You can see a joint in the middle. I went off memory for the measurement instead of measuring and had to cut it down.


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## sleepersilverado

Time to get started on the frame. This part is taking me longer since I did not take the time to create a drawing. Here is the top. The side with the offset is where the door will be. The goal is for the door to be flush with the front or the fire box portion. 








The next day I started building the sides. It is taking longer to cut this because I am using a Porta band and making a cut on each side of the tube to get true cuts. We have an abrasive chop saw but I hate it and it never cuts true. 















This is where I left it last weekend. I forgot to take pictures today but will take some when I work on it tomorrow.


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## Big Guns 1971

Nice work cant wait to see it finished and smoking


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## sleepersilverado

Well went in today but could not get motivated for only a few hours of work. Have to take the pooch to the vet mid day so it kills my progress. Decided to just clean up my mess. 















Need to get some more tube, when I did a rough figure I did not figure in the offset on the fire box area. 
Also sitting there drinking coffee I realized I forgot to flip the top when I started building on it. No big deal, just means my fire box will be on the left rather than the right like I wanted. Only thing that will have to be redone is the angle on the bottom of the fire box that holds the grate.


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## sleepersilverado

Little update from 2 weekends ago. Picked up more tube and cleaned it. Started cutting the plate up and got the transfer box tacked up. 
















Will be in a holding pattern for about 6 weeks. I managed to fracture my wrist.


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## saltwatersensations

Hope you arent ever planning to move that sucker. Looks overly heavy duty. nice work


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## sleepersilverado

Everything I build I get carried away with. However the entire firebox, charcoal shoot, transfer tube, and fire box grate cost me nothing. Nard to pass up me using what I have even though it is way overkill.

Yes the plan is to put some nice casters on it and keep it in my garage. So the movement will be in and out of the garage.


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## sleepersilverado

Back in action again with some aching none the less. I got to work on the pit this last weekend. I feel like I am not making any progress. Here is a picture where I had cut the shoot down and mocked it up in the pit.















If you look closely you can see that the right leg of the section that holds the fire box is going to interfere with removing the grate from the fire box. So here is where the lack of progress comes in (redo). Below is before I started cutting.








Here is after. The door for the ash box and the door for the cook chamber will overlap a little but will be flush on the front.








I was finally able to start working on closing in the ash box area. I cut and bevel the plates to fit down in the tubing. This takes me a good amount of time to get them fit up. 








That is it for now. Hopefully my progress will pick up some once I get back from vacation.


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## WildThings

Enjoy your vacation! Looking forward to more build pictures!


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## sleepersilverado

Ended up spending Saturday getting rid of another project and only got to work about 4 hours today before I got a killer back cramp from some hunched over off position welding. But I feel like I am making some progress.

Cleaned and capped the shoot. Installed the fire box into the frame and got the ash box sections all closed in.


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## sleepersilverado

Made some progress today, cut the last piece to go around the transfer tube and complete the "transfer tube box". 








Then started cutting the walls for the cook chamber. 








Spent a lot of time trouble shooting the plasma cutter. Put new consumables on the torch and it ran like a dream again. 
Public service announcement, if you use a sanding disk with a backup pad wear a glove the hand that is holding the grinder. This type of setup is made to be ran flat so you can not use the guard. I know better and let my guard down and cough an edge and attempted to grind my knuckles off. One of these.


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## sleepersilverado

Did a little work today. Got the last wall of the cook chamber in and put in the 1/2" spacers that the second interior wall will mount to. The second wall will creat a chase on each side where the heat and smoke will travel up and then enter the cook chamber at the top.


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## sleepersilverado

Got the top of the cook chamber in, the floor, and the false walls partly in. 





























Left 1-1/4" at the top to let the heat and smoke out. 
Clamped two framing squares together to make sure the walls are square and parallel so I won't have any issues when building the racks.


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## cubera

sleepersilverado said:


> Made some progress today, cut the last piece to go around the transfer tube and complete the "transfer tube box".
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> Then started cutting the walls for the cook chamber.
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> Spent a lot of time trouble shooting the plasma cutter. Put new consumables on the torch and it ran like a dream again.
> Public service announcement, if you use a sanding disk with a backup pad wear a glove the hand that is holding the grinder. This type of setup is made to be ran flat so you can not use the guard. I know better and let my guard down and cough an edge and attempted to grind my knuckles off. One of these.


Great looking welds.
Noticed what you're using to grind welds.
Give this setup a look at. Usually when you grind you'll see dust. With these you actually see metal shavings. They are way better than regular discs or flap wheel type and last longer. Another great feature is they grind welds flat.
No tools needed to change one out. They stick out just beyond the backing pad (required), just spin it off.
I bought the 36 grit package, sure saved my arms and hands.
You can thank me later.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012LJTXK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AW16F9W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages01


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## berto

Nice build !


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## sleepersilverado

I might have to give those a try. The thing I like about the ones I have is I can go 1/2 mile down the road and pick up more disk.

Almost like Christmas this week but some parts I wanted to show up did not. I ordered the door gasket $$ ouch, the door latches $$ ouch, the door hinges, and picked up some ceramic fiber insulation $$$$ huge ouch. Think I am going to rename this project. "Project over kill.

Latches are nice quality all stainless. Took me 4 days to find them on Google. They are polar 506 flush latches. None of the local put builders would sell them to me or even tell me what they were or where to buy them. 
Purchased at www.cottco.com 















Here is the insulation. I am still gritting my teeth at the cost. But it is supposed to be better than the mineral wool and is rated at 2600*


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## cubera

Life of these is a lot greater than anything you've ever used before.


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## sleepersilverado

Got the cook chamber square and welded in. Started on the smoke stack. I based the stack on what I generally see on vertical smokers. About a 4x4 square stack. So I went from there and started calculating the amount and size of holes I needed trying to match the surface area of a 4x4 area. Started drilling. 








Thought to my self that is a little over half what I calculated and that is a lot of holes. Most builds I have seen used 6-8 holes. So I drew a 4x4 area and stacker the coupons.








At this point I decided to keep going to what I had calculated. Figure worst case is it is too much and can be dampened down. 








I knew my layout had one too many holes, but for sakes of keeping things uniform I drilled them all. 








And one to grow on. 








Now for the stack. I went back and forth on designs and ultimately decide I wanted the stack to not be visible and to not be hot to the touch. 








Built the stack into the wall then spent a bunch of time building the exit.








The exhaust plate will stick out past the finish wall a little bit. 
Moved on to installing a pass through for the temperature probes to go into the pit. Still debating how to finish it off on the outside. 
















Moved on to start working on the shoot to fill the charcoal tube. That is all for this weekend.


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## sleepersilverado

Got some goodies in the mail. Just your standard bullet hinge but I decided to get brass pins in hopes to not have any issues with rust and binding up.








Received the door gasket. The bulb portion has a stainless inner liner. The bulb thickness is 3/8" and I allowed 1/4" for the gasket. After messing with the gasket some I might shrink the area for the gasket down to 3/16 or so to get a better seal. 








That is a 1/4" piece of steel. Went back and forth on the wheels. I could not bring my self to spend $40 and up for one caster. The more and more I searched a lot of the castors looked to be made by the same manufacturer. I found some that looked good from the pictures and they had a brake. These castors are rated at 1k lbs each and cost me $22 each a piece. I am overly impressed with them for their price. 






















Another reason I chose these was because they are notched on the swivel portion for a stop. Through my searching I found out that the swivel lock can be added. Too my surprise I found the swivel locks in a bolt on form. This will allow me to lock two caster so I can easily move the pit in a straight line but I can unlock the swivel for final maneuvering.


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## sleepersilverado

This weekend I built a frame for the charcoal shoot. Made sure it was flat and true because this is where the door will seal to. This keeps oxygen out of the charcoal shoot thus preventing the entire charcoal shoot from becoming a fire. I made sure everything was good and true along with being welded out 100%. 















Added a piece of tube under it to close it off. Then I started cutting the plate to creat the shoot. Problem is the vertical shoot is not centered so the horizontal shoot had to angle to the right 1/2". Even though it is angled it the side walls are parallel. 















I will eventually build a tray that slides out to help with filling the vertical shoot. Not going to be as easy as filling from the top but I did not want a door on the roof and did not want to have to find something to stand on to fill it. 
I originally was going to have the top skin of the pit overhand 1/2" on all sides so rain would run off the top. I recently decided I need to add something to pick this thing up with and help tie it down. So I am going to put a D ring at each corner so now the only over hang will be over the door and the stack. So I added so bracing at the corners.


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## sleepersilverado

You will have to excuse some of my post, i am doing this off of my phone so i can post the pictures. Got some more goods in the mail. Got my ball valves, the swivel locks for the castors, and my teltru thermometers. Here are the bolt on swivel locks. Not being a caster professional I found it cool that you can bolt on a caster swivel lock. 















The thermometers. 








Placed them in boiling water to check their accuracy. Hard to tell from the picture but two are exactly the same, probably a hair under 212* and the other is about 214-215. 








I am waiting on a hand wheel and some bevel gears. Need to order a few weldable pivot bushings and an axel. That should be the last of the parts gathering.


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## sleepersilverado

Been a while since I have been able to work on the pit. But I made a little progress this weekend. I decided to make the main door shorter and build a storage compartment below it to store the BBQ guru. So I insulated that small section and skinned it.















Next I took some 2"x2"x3/16" angle and started making the doors. The flat side will be the out side of the door and get skinned. When building the main door I discovered I had a little warping on the frame causing a low spot in the horizontal tube the door will close to. 








The benefit to using the angle as the door structure is I can cut a piece of plate to fit in the door and then bow the inside of the door to match the closing surface. Here is all the doors with their interior skin on them. 








I had a little time left so I insulated the two small doors and was able to get the exterior skin on the charcoal shoot door. Had to cut the insulation up into sections to get it in. 















Does not look like much but a lot of cutting, fitting, grinding, fitting, welding, then blending in these pieces.


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## sleepersilverado

The intake for the firebox will have a 3/4" ball valve with the stoker fan on it then a 2" for the main intake. Since this valve will be under the pit I decided it would be nice to control it from the front. I removed the handle from the valve and miked the threads and they read about .40". I purchased some right angle gears with a .375" bore. I drilled one of the gears out and tapped it to Mach the ball valve threads. Ended up drilling the gear out to .42 so my pos digital caliper is off. I bought a hand wheel with a folding handle to control the valve. I still need to order some pivot bushings and a shaft. 
Here is how I tapped the gear to make sure it was parallel to the bore. 








Fits nicely. 















I still need to cut the lever handle so I can use the stops on it and drill holes in the side of the gear to install set screws.


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## Flyingvranch

You'll enjoy using the BBQ Guru. The guy that invented it was an old family friend. He's passed on now. I use one nearly every time I cook in my Onyx oven.


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## sleepersilverado

I did not give up, have not had much time to work on the pit with work, hunting, and holidays. I am down to one day a weekend when I get a chance. I have been working on the cook chamber door. I noticed the top of the door warped and tried fixing it 2 times. I have been fought with the door like an x wife for 4 different days. I decided to move on in the name of progress and address the top of the door later.

I laid out the three thermometers and decided I wanted to have them stick out of the front of the door. I built a little jig so they would all stick out the same. 








Checking to make sure they are all sticking out the same. 








Decided to add bracing to the door to make sure the thermometers stay in the same location. 








Don't know if I mentioned it before but the tubing that the door closes on pulled in a little when I welded the inner box. So I built the inside of the door to match the bow. That is what made getting all the thermometers the same height difficult.


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## sleepersilverado

The bottom of the door was good and I wanted to make sure it did not move so I added more bracing. As in typical fashion I went overboard. This could be a safe door. 








Took a good amount of time to insulate it. 








And got one side skinned and the door hung today. It closes pretty true. 






















That is where it sits now.


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## peckerwood

I can't wait to see your first smoke results.When your finished with yours,how about slapping one together for me some weekend.Made my living welding lot of years and still build custom trailers,but my skills are no where near yours.Not so much skills but talent.Keep on keeping on sleeper S.


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## Red3Fish

Great work!! I am not going to order a welded aluminum boat from you.....I would get a BATTLESHIP!! LOL Just kidding!

Later
R3F


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## sleepersilverado

Thanks for the compliments. Had a good 3 day run. Little bit more redoing on some things I thought could be a better design. I got the hinges 100% welded out and blended with the skin. Put the skin on to the left of the cook chamber door. Hung the charcoal shoot fill door and blended the hinges. Ended up doing a relief cut in the top of the door to true it up. Built the buckets to semi recess the thermometers into the door and skinned the door.


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## sleepersilverado

I am spending a lot of time smoothing and blending because I PLAN to paint this thing like a car. I am going to try and run down a tap to clean up the threads the thermometers screw into. I labeled the thermometers per their positions and welded the couplings in so the orientation of the faces would be correct. Well with all the heat cycling on the couplings the orientations are off a little. The tap I made out of a nipple only helped a small amount. I would like to get one more full turn on each to suck them in a little more. Next i will take it out side with the fork lift and turn it on its side so I can skin the bottom and start working on the intake. Finally starting to feel like I am building something here.


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## peckerwood

I've kept up with your progress from the beginning and am way impressed with your work.Even your tack welds look like you measured where to make them.Fantastic!


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## jtburf

If I can make a few suggestions regarding your build.

Sadly the site where all the builders of Gravity fed smoker congregated went down a lot of valuable information was also lost.

You are building a great smoker no doubts about it, however you are going to have some issues very soon.

1. You should have not welded your door on with out having the Tadpole Gasket in place, your doors will most likely not close and seal properly now.

2. Your lump shoot and the face framed door, it will be very hard to A. dump your charcoal chimney in that vertical face B. Its the same with pouring the raw lump in and most importantly knowing how much fuel you have left. Keep in mind you have to burn all the fuel out on ever smoke or you will not get a new fire going.

3. The 2" ball valve is over kill, the fans we use are built for 3/4" pipe. and the 3 temp gauges are not needed as you cannot tune an upright. If you run a guru and also a temp probe you will never look at them. 

4. No grease drain, you will have to have a drain pipe of some sort or it will all pour out the door. also the pan needs to be sloped to drain.

I would suggest you build an ash pan it does help with removal or the majority of the ashes then I use my shop vac.

Hope I did not hurt your feelings I just you to know what I learned and read over for 2 years before building mine.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Jt you are got to try harder to hurt my feelings.

I believe i have most of that addressed. Below is my thought process or flawed thought process for each.

1. The door was built to have a 3/16" gap all the way around between the door and the smoker frame. This was achieved by cutting small slivers of 3/16" plate (about 10) and tack welding them around the perimeter of the smoker frame where the door closes/seals to. then i hung the door using scrap metal from the outer faces so the door would be flush on the exterior. after it was tacked up using the scrap i built the inside of the door and made it match the smoker frame. Once i had the door complete i hung it again and shined a light through the gap and verified that the door was making contact with all the 3/16" slivers. With the door still hanging the hinges were installed. I am using a 3/8" gasket and compressing it down to 3/16". Should work, we will see.

2. I agree it would be much easier to utilize a door on top. I did not want a door on top for rain, and i refuse to have to get something to stand on to load the thing. I contemplated moving the door to the side so it would be much easier to load but decided to modify the feed tube into the shoot (made it steeper). Finishing that is on the detail list. Once complete it will be much easier to load. Also i did not plan on using a chimney. I will use a propane burner inserted into the ash box to get it started.

3. I agree the 2" valve is too much, but it can always be closed. I have a 3/4" valve that will hold the stoker fan 100% of the time. As for the 3 gauges, i agree it is over kill also but ultimately decided i wanted to see the telmps through out the pit. You also have to remember my heat and smoke runs through the walls up to the top. So i can try to tune the chamber to be more consistent. I can drill holes in the side walls at different levels to introduce heat at different elevations. This will be a big experiment and i don't know how well it will work. That is one reason i built it like this so i can TRY and get a more even heat. 

4. I am going to build a 2" pan that will sit in the bottom of the cook chamber that will catch the liquids and can have water for humidity if desired. 

I will be building an ash pan also. Funny you mentioned that, i was sitting in my thinking chair pondering and was curious how big it would be. It will end up being about 5.5" high by about 11" wide by about 13" long.

I plan to leave the back and left side open and fire the pit up. I want to see how it runs and do the biscuit test before i close the thing up 100%. With the back and side open i still have access to the fire box and smoke stack if i need to make any modifications. 

Thanks for the feedback. I can use it with this experiment.


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> Jt you are got to try harder to hurt my feelings.
> 
> I believe i have most of that addressed. Below is my thought process or flawed thought process for each.
> 
> 1. The door was built to have a 3/16" gap all the way around between the door and the smoker frame. This was achieved by cutting small slivers of 3/16" plate (about 10) and tack welding them around the perimeter of the smoker frame where the door closes/seals to. then i hung the door using scrap metal from the outer faces so the door would be flush on the exterior. after it was tacked up using the scrap i built the inside of the door and made it match the smoker frame. Once i had the door complete i hung it again and shined a light through the gap and verified that the door was making contact with all the 3/16" slivers. With the door still hanging the hinges were installed. I am using a 3/8" gasket and compressing it down to 3/16". Should work, we will see.


I did not see in your post where you mentioned the gapping, that is good compression thickness for the Tadpole.



> 2. I agree it would be much easier to utilize a door on top. I did not want a door on top for rain, and i refuse to have to get something to stand on to load the thing. I contemplated moving the door to the side so it would be much easier to load but decided to modify the feed tube into the shoot (made it steeper). Finishing that is on the detail list. Once complete it will be much easier to load. Also i did not plan on using a chimney. I will use a propane burner inserted into the ash box to get it started.


While I understand the thought process you actually only look in to confirm complete burn, you still have no way measure of how much lump is left.

1 item I kind of wished I incorporated was a gauge rod, it would give you a visual on how much lump you have left. 


> 3. I agree the 2" valve is too much, but it can always be closed. I have a 3/4" valve that will hold the stoker fan 100% of the time. As for the 3 gauges, i agree it is over kill also but ultimately decided i wanted to see the telmps through out the pit. You also have to remember my heat and smoke runs through the walls up to the top. So i can try to tune the chamber to be more consistent. I can drill holes in the side walls at different levels to introduce heat at different elevations. This will be a big experiment and i don't know how well it will work. That is one reason i built it like this so i can TRY and get a more even heat.


Okay



> 4. I am going to build a 2" pan that will sit in the bottom of the cook chamber that will catch the liquids and can have water for humidity if desired.


Watch adding water as you will make a steamer, you will find these smoke completely different than a traditional stick unit. Think if it as a oven with a touch of smoke. Now you can produce a lot of smoke by adding wood chunks in with the lump.



> I will be building an ash pan also. Funny you mentioned that, i was sitting in my thinking chair pondering and was curious how big it would be. It will end up being about 5.5" high by about 11" wide by about 13" long.


Thank might be a little large, on a 6 hour burn I only get about a 3# coffee can full of ash.



> I plan to leave the back and left side open and fire the pit up. I want to see how it runs and do the biscuit test before i close the thing up 100%. With the back and side open i still have access to the fire box and smoke stack if i need to make any modifications.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback. I can use it with this experiment.


Before you even burn something in it I would test your fan and see how it drafts.

Looks like you are enjoying the build so I will butt out.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Don't leave!
So let's continue the discussion. 
-Please elaborate on the gauge rod. I am interested and have an Idea but don't know how I would keep it air tight. 
-do you incorporate wood chunks in your charcoal shoot or put it down in the ash box? And thanks for the amount of ash info. 
-can you elaborate on checking the draft.

As for progress this weekend don't look like much. I decided to not skin over the frame on the bottom so that when I attach the legs I will be welding them directly to the frame. Of coarse doing this takes about twice as long as just skimming over the frame. Also spent a bunch of time sitting in a chair moving the valves around and figuring out their layout. I am not going to need the 90* gears and won't be able to use the hand wheel for adjustment. I will ultimately come up with a way to extend the valve controls out toward the face of the smoker. That will be on the details list.


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## jtburf

Ok, for starters it does not have to be as "Air Tight" as you think. 
There is no way to make it air tight when your using a fan as a stoker, I would take a plate say 3-4" in diameter, weld a nut dead center (3/8-16) use a solid rod threaded on one end. You can use two bushings in the center of the shoot for the rod to pass through. If the bushings are in line the rod itself will slide up and down easily enough to indicate the level of lump.

I would make it 2" longer than the depth of the shoot, I'm considering adding one to mine.

On the draft seal the entire smoker and power on your fan with any temp 50 degree over ambient, then take baby powder or flour and check how well the fan is pushing.

Make sense?

I am not far from you (Jones and Grant rd) if you would like to see mine in person.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Got it. So if you are telling me that a small hole in the top of the charcoal shoot will not cause any issues then I have an idea I believe will work.


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> Got it. So if you are telling me that a small hole in the top of the charcoal shoot will not cause any issues then I have an idea I believe will work.


That is what I am saying, keep in mind if you use a 3/8" rod the bushing should be .385 so you have movement of the rod. It's not like your just popping a hole in the top.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Well don't look like much but I got the compartment under the door done. Looking at the picture now I don't like the hinge spacing. I spaced them evenly but it would probably look better with the outlets closer to the edges. Need to adjust the hinges some and decide how I am going to hold it closed. Inside the door will eventually have a pocket welded in to hold the probes and guru. I also finished the ash box door but decided it would be easier to mount with the pit laying on its back.


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## sleepersilverado

Well did a little more fitting on the door for the compartment. I probably have the fit too close for paint. Cut the top and welded it out. Started making the plates for the castors and made a pattern/ template for the front legs. I based this pattern on 2.5" tubing then ended up not having enough. So for the hell of it I made a leg out of 2". Think I like the 2" leg better. 




































I originally was going to put the center pin of the castor 6" out bound of the corners for stability. But ultimately decided to put the center pin directly under the corner.


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## sleepersilverado

My goal was to get this thing on wheels but I got off track on insulating. I had some 1/4 rod laying around and I created little pins. I bought some push nuts and fender washers to secure the insulation. Everything fits up tight and probably did not need any tape but I went ahead and taped the joints anyways. On a good note I ended up with only about 24"x24" of insulation left over. Hopefully I will get the side closed up and the casters on soon.


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## bordovskyrl

You guys are unbelievably talented!! Please post pics when complete and fired up.


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## sleepersilverado

Slow and steady...
Got the side on and the lifting eyes. Welded the wheel plates on and then spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a way to add a support that would not look like chit. 





























Some mock ups of caster supports. 















I am going to try and notch the tube where it will split the corner. That will probably take me a bout 3 more patterns to figure it out, or try some pipe.


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## sleepersilverado

After about 5 hours of this 








Spread over multiple days after work I finally got it how I like it. Cool thing about taking the time to make the pattern is after I get it to fit, it slips over the tube so you can mark the tube. 








I laid it on its back for hopefully the last time and finished welding out the legs. Mounted the ash box door and built a bracket for the door latch. 















It is heavy no doubt but rolls surprisingly good. Will have better control once I make handles for it. 
Started working on the racks and supports this morning. Hoped to have them all complete and at least racked up. 








Unfortunately I ran out of shielding gas. So I decided to putt it all to get her to feel like I have done something. 






















With no gas I decided to learn my self how to tig with this little thing. 








Played around for a few hours and about the only thing I got better at is reducing the frequency I contaminated the tungsten. Turns out scratch start might not be the easiest thing to learn on. 
This is the best I could do in the few hours I played around.


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## sleepersilverado

Well got all the rails welded in then put in some pieces above the rails to prevent the shelves from tilting forward. Built all the shelves then made a little door that looks like packman. The small door is to let the temperature probes pass through from the outside while mostly closing off the hole from the inside. 




































I think I am going to keep moving with the small details. Then once they are done I can fire it up to make sure it works properly. If all goes well then all it will lack is the back and paint.


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## sleepersilverado

Lots of work with little to show. When I bought all the door latches I planned on using one latch on the cook chamber door. The door is plenty stout that one latch would be fine but well.....
I spent half a day drilling and tapping holes for the latches. Then started making a tie bar for two latches I recently decided to put on the door. Took the entire day to get it 100% done but it looks awesome. 




































I came up with another design for the handles to move the thing around so hopefully next weekend I will have time to work on those.


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## jtburf

Looks great, now is the point where all the small tid bits eat at time and do not show a lot of progress.

Keep up the good work.
John


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## OnedayScratch

Been monitoring from afar. Dude, you're an artist. Looking forward to the first burn. Thanks for sharing.


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## sleepersilverado

Thanks for the comments. Work got in the way but I managed one side handle, so it is one handle a day. 











































I am not trying to get a mirror finish but it still needs some sanding to remove scratches. I am going to mock one up for the cook chamber door but don't know if it will get one. Once they are all complete I will weld them on with stainless wire. Before it is all said and done all the shinny stuff might end up brushed.


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## sleepersilverado

Not much time to work on this project. I have managed to get all the handles complete. I have sanded them and then sanded them some more. I decided today that I am just going to grain them and move on. 








I got all the tadpole gasket on the doors. I started with the charcoal shoot door. Put the gasket on the face and it would not close so I had to redo that one door. I originally had 1/4" gap for the gasket but tightened it up at the last minute to 3/16". All the doors close extremely tight. Hopefully they will break down a bit. 






















I drew up all the metal I need broke for the grease pan and such and sent it to my buddy along with a cad drawing for the firebox grate and some lifting eyes to have cnc cut.


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## jtburf

Looks great, why over lap the tadpole?

They will compress.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Hell I don't know, seamed like the logical thing to do, over thinking it, save a rivet?


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## K Man

You are good!!!


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## sleepersilverado

Well I got a few pieces of the many I am waiting on. Was able to go do some work today. Here is the ride box grate. 








I tried sliding the grate into the fire box and it got stuck about half way in. So i got the grinder out thinking it was a bit too wide. I took some other 5/8" plate and verified again that the grate holder was correct. I went ahead and welded me a handle on the grate and took my sanding disco to the top and bottom of it. Still did not slide all the way into the pit. Don't know why but I decided to hold a strait edge to the flat horizontal surface. There it was, the grate had a belly in it at the center. After some scrap metal and a fork lift the grate slides in. 








Moved on to start the fuel gage. Here are the makings of 2 stainless steel pulleys. Started with stainless washers and as I stacked then I would plug weld them together. 








Finished product and the cable fits like a glove. 















Made the plate to ride on top of the coals and the mount for the pulley that will be at the top of the fuel shoot. 
















You can see the hole I put in the top of the shoot. I have some small tube that will be welded over the hole to act as a raceway for the cable. You can see the stainless strut I will use to guide the portion of the fuel gage you will see from the exterior. I will install a stud at the bottom of the strut. When you need to load the charcoal you can pull down on the cable and hook it over the stud. This will hold the fuel gage plate at the top of the shoot for loading. 
I also got a chance to grain one of the stainless handles. It looks good and will match the side shelves once complete.


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## jtburf

You might consider rounding off the corners of the plate to insure it does not hang up as the lump will burn slowly and uneven.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Mann, what a pita today was. I was trying to mount the pulley at the top of the shoot. Tough to get the welding torch in there with, two magnets, hold the pulley with one hand and the torch with the other. It ain't pretty but it got done. 
So I did not have such a big hole I welded a nut on the hole at the top of the shoot. Took a bolt and drilled down the center just a small amount bigger than the cable. If I ever need to change the cable I can pull the bolt out and have a 1/2" raceway to fish the cable through. 















I was tacking pieces up and using my phone to take pictures to make sure the cable was lined up between the pilot and the pass through. 
Plenty of room to still load the shoot 















Thinking about putting some stops at the top for the plate to push up against so it is not swinging around. 
Picture down the shoot. 








Started to make the counter weight out of some square stainless tube, unfortunately the tube was about 1/16" too wide to slide in the strut. 








Here is the back portion in the strut. 








Started making a piece that will mount to the back that will fill the gap in the strut. I can add some lead shot to the back portion if I need to add weight. 
Another toy showed up also.


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## sleepersilverado

Feels pointless to show such little progress but I know some enjoy it. My focus was working on the fuel gauge this weekend. I got the counter weight that I started last weekend about 90% done before I decided it was not up to par. I was not to happy with it through out the process but thought I could make it work. So I started over again, but I feel it was worth it. For such a small piece there is a tone of time in the thing. On this one I made a raceway for the cable so I could replace the cable if I ever needed. I also took some old shotgun pellets and used them for weight. I spent a good 2 hours putting the lead in and beating it down to get more in. 








I did not take many progress pictures but you can see it is 4 pieces not including the caps.















Then moved on to mounting the pulley in the strut. Took a bunch of time with a file slowly removing material to fit the pulley. This is it finished and mocked up.


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## RLwhaler

Amazing skills Sleepersilverado! :brew2:


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## BullyARed

Look great! Great job! When can I come by to take it home!


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## sleepersilverado

Thanks guys, and you are going to need a 1 ton truck and a fork lift!


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> Thanks guys, and you are going to need a 1 ton truck and a fork lift!


You laugh about that however, I calculated mine weighs just at 1000#'s

John


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## sleepersilverado

Thre is a cat scale not too far from me I will probably swing by if I ever finish


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> Thre is a cat scale not too far from me I will probably swing by if I ever finish


The one at Gessner and beltway 8?

John


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## sleepersilverado

Yea


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## sleepersilverado

Another redo day. Some how I got off on my measurement of how long the track needed to be for the counter weight. Had to start over again because it was too short. Got the little tube raceway done, with a few tries I can blindly push the cable from inside the charcoal shoot out through the pulley. 








The new track full length. 








Added small feet to the play that rides on the coals. The back legs are 3" and the front needs 1" legs. On the front I installed springs that are about 1.5-1.75" long. This will prevent the plate from moving around when in the up position. When you pull the plate up the back legs hit then the front springs hit. 















Pull the cable a small amount more and it compresses the springs and and sits nicely so you can load the shoot. 








Trying to decide a way to hold the plate up. Thought about make a loop in the cable below the weight then having a stud the loop would go around to hold it. Not sure if I want to go that route or make something to dog off the counter weight.


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## jtburf

No updates recently, was wondering if you finished it and smoked anything yet!!

John


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## sleepersilverado

Should have one tomorrow, fingers crossed a good one. Been crazy busy at work and waiting on a waterjeted damper. Won't complain too much, I am blessed to have work.


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## sleepersilverado

Well it was a eventful day. I decided that while I am waiting on others the only way I am going to make any progress it to fire the thing up. Silly to let one damper hold up the whole project. So I took some scrap and made a half *** damper. 















Loaded the pit with two bags of charcoal and fired it up, so I thought. I have a newer propane burner with a bunch of safety **** and it is a pos. So long story short I don't believe I got the fire going good enough and spent a good bit of time getting that corrected. I was nervous while I waited to see if I could defy physics. The pit was not drafting and was exhausting smoke out of the I take. So I fired up the fan to create a draft. Pitt started flowing so I started messing with the intake valves. I was able to open the Ash box door and leave it open while the fire was building and it drafted fine. I think if I get a better base of coals it might start the draft by itself but if not I can use the fan to start it.

About an hour in with the ash box door open the thermometer needles were not moving, then the same thing at 2 hours. Put the burner back in and decided to put the probes from the bbq guru in the cook chamber. Made little holders for the temperature probes and placed the at 4 different elevations. After starting up the guru I figured out my door mounted thermometers were not working. Believe I may have mentioned my dilemma with the stem lengths on the thermometers I bought, well I am gonna have to get the ones with the longer stems. 
Off and running here is a pic of coming up to heat.















As you can see there is a hot spot on the bottom and right side. Once we got up to temperature it evened out pretty well. 








I was pretty pleased with a bout a 5 degree delta through out the entire chamber but it was hard to tell because the BBQ guru was all over and the pit prove was only reading 1xx degrees when all the others were in the 250 range. So I put two more probes in the pit tied to another thermometer. One of the probes was at the top and one at the bottom. Pretty constant 5* difference between the two probes. 
Decided to throw the biscuits on to see the real results. After about 40 minutes I was really impressed with how consistent the biscuits looked. 








Next picture shows the biscuits out where we can see them. Top to bottom is how they came off the pit. Two left rows were in the front, center was dead center of rack, and right was toward the back. 















So you can see the bottom ones are darker on the bottom. So that means my radiant heat idea is working. Then you will notice the ones on the right are a little more done than the center or left. The biscuits show what the camera showed.


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## sleepersilverado

The only reverse flow pit I could find any reviews on had a hot spot at the top. Make since because heat rises and you are interdicting your heat to the top of the chamber. This is why I built the insulated box under the cook chamber and just used a piece of plate to separate the two. The hope was to heat the plate and interdict heat to the bottom of the chamber as well. The drip tray is not in place so when it is there I believe it will reduce the heat coming from the bottom. 
Now that I know the thing works I will finish closing it up. But in the pursuit of perfection I will cut a hole in the bottom of the cook chamber so I can do some modification to the transfer tube. When I installed the tube I knew there might be an issue with getting enough air/heat to go 180* back to the left wall.

I came home and used boiling water to check the accuracy of the BBQ guru. I have to say I am disappointed. Here are the 4 probe temps (missed the cook chamber probe) the other thermometer I used was within 2* of 212. I will be calling BBQ guru folks to discuss. 
















Have to say I am pretty happy with the results.


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## jtburf

Looks great, I would keep in mind your smoking meats and there are a million variables to consider so 2 degrees is fine.

I start mine with "match light" and a chimney, with yours being a vertical fill you might need to adapt something.

I start a chimney full of match light and when they are white I dump them all in, followed up with all of my lump.

I do not have dampers because I use a the controller fan so cannot advise there.

From starting my chimney to putting meats on I am normally looking at 1-1.5 hours.

Keep up the good work.

John


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## sleepersilverado

John, Thanks for the response it is very helpful. Next time my plan was to use my chimney and dump it twice. Good to know about your time line on getting up to temperature. 

As for the dampers I will just have to play with that aspect, If I can get it to run with just the 1" valve and the fan I will go that route. If I need more air then I have the 2" I can crack open. 

As for the 2* on the thermometers that don't bother me and I know there is a margin of accuracy on all thermometers. However the thing that bothers me is the guru pit probe did not work properly all day. When I took it home it worked fine but then I had the one probe that read 236* in boiling water. That is what I would like to get worked out.

Over all this was mainly to test the draft. Once i get the other interior pieces made i will fire it again to see how consistent the heat is on the final configuration. 

Should i use lump over standard charcoal?


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> Should i use lump over standard charcoal?


Yes, no question about it, the lump will change your whole game. I have tried both the higher end (B and B)







and lower end brands (Royal Oak)







, the only difference is a little extra dust and smaller pieces in the lower end.

The Ace at Louetta and Grant has a nice selection, Home depot always have the Royal Oak...
John


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## tcs2018

Man you guys know your pits! Best of Luck Perfecting!


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## joe h

Boiling water will ruin your guru probes

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk


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## sleepersilverado

:texasflag


joe h said:


> Boiling water will ruin your guru probes
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk


The probes read from the tips and were hung where only the tip was submerge in the water. No different than placing them in meat.

Maybe in about a month I will be able to work on this again, ready to be done so I can start my model A


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## sleepersilverado

Had a free day to day and part of yesterday. Got the back of the pit about 80% done. Once the back is complete then I can install the handles and it should be down hill from there. 
Here is the damper welded out and blended in. The face of the damper is 1/4" metal so I don't have any warping issues and so it would stick out past the skin. 















Got lucky, the one thing I needed to fit perfect was the slot for the fuel gauge and it emended up fitting like a glove. 
















Need to finish some of the edge seams then I can put the stainless wire in the welder so I can attach the skin to the fuel gauge. Over all a ton of work and a bunch more for just this panel. 
On a side note if anyone is looking to replace their Miller M25 gun don't be scared of the htp brand. This gun has a 15' lead and uses all Miller consumables at half the cost. Runs flawless, everything looks and feels like it is good quality. Only big difference is the trigger has a lot longer pull. Hopefully it will be with out issues for another 15 years like the original.


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## Lee T

About 60 Lbs of Weld.
About 3,000 Lbs of steel.

About 143,000 hours and Voila.

Incredible effort man. I have no idea how that thing works or if it does but....WOW!

I learned about 12 yrs old how to Arc Weld. I was taught by an absolute idiot. Then High School and College. All I am qualified to do after all my efforts is to analyze weld XRays. I can make a mean Fab / Weldment Drawing...but...Then it takes a n expert such as you to straighten it all out and produce.

WOW...Insanity Rules!

:texasflag:brew2:


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## choppercop

I've just had the enjoyment of finding and reading this thread. What an incredible talent!


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## sleepersilverado

Lee T said:


> About 60 Lbs of Weld.
> About 3,000 Lbs of steel.
> 
> About 143,000 hours and Voila.
> 
> Incredible effort man. I have no idea how that thing works or if it does but....WOW!
> 
> I learned about 12 yrs old how to Arc Weld. I was taught by an absolute idiot. Then High School and College. All I am qualified to do after all my efforts is to analyze weld XRays. I can make a mean Fab / Weldment Drawing...but...Then it takes a n expert such as you to straighten it all out and produce.
> 
> WOW...Insanity Rules!
> 
> :texasflag:brew2:


I have two issues when it comes to building things. Over engineer/ over build and being a perfectionist sure puts a damper on progress.

There is probably about 90# of wire in this thing but about 30# turned into dust.



choppercop said:


> I've just had the enjoyment of finding and reading this thread. What an incredible talent!


Thanks I decided after enjoying many build threads of all sorts to share so others could enjoy. Thanks for the feedback.


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## jtburf

sleepersilverado said:


> I have two issues when it comes to building things. Over engineer/ over build and being a perfectionist sure puts a damper on progress.
> 
> There is probably about 90# of wire in this thing but about 30# turned into dust.
> 
> Thanks I decided after enjoying many build threads of all sorts to share so others could enjoy. Thanks for the feedback.


Looking good, keep up the hard work.

John


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## sleepersilverado

Well had a few days to work on this thing last weekend and this weekend. Not much to look at considering all the time. I started welding the skin to the stainless track for the fuel gage weight. Started using the tig and stainless wire. That was not working how I wanted so switched to mug with ss wire. What I figured out after welding about a foot and a half was I was creating sugar on the inside of the ss strut. By this point I am welding this like you would a car. Tons of spot welds and it was still happening. The problem was my counter weight was now getting stuck. Multiple scenarios to remedy the problem but nothing worked. Modified a multi tool and welded a file on it.















This fit into the track but as I thought would happen welding the file softened the metal and the ss just tore the file up. So I tried welding on the handle to a piece of strap as to not disturb the hardness of the file. 








This was not working to my liking either. Decided to keep moving with welding and figure it out toward the end. So I cut a opening in the track to remove the weight and re do it. Ironic i modified it to how my original design was. This took forever welding and cooling, slow and steady. Here it is finished. 








And before 








Here is how much I got welded and blended. 








The slot I cut and get to fix. 








After a bunch of grinding and reworking it functions properly again. 








Hopefully once done with this it will start picking up some pace.


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## choppercop

It's about time you got back to work on this thing!! Keep up the good work.


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## sleepersilverado

Little more progress. Welded the bottom of the fuel gauge track. Did not patch the track back. I decided with the modifications to the weight I need to put pickling past on the weight before it gets locked back in the track. Also welded the bottom of the back skin to the frame. So the skin is 100% less the small section where I have to fix the track.








Got the three stainless handles on. 






















Started on modifying the transfer tube. All I got done was cut a hole in the floor of the cook chamber. 








Got some new toys. The right angle die grinder in the center is what I have been using for a long time. The new right angle is mac's bigger one. Very impressed with the amount of power. 








Hopefully some time this week I will have some time to get my drawings to the metal man for the 3rd time so I can get all the break metal.


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## RLwhaler

Incredible skills , sleepersilverado ! Looking forward seeing this baby smoke some meat! :brew2:


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## sleepersilverado

More progress. 
Cut the hole and built a diverter. The diverter goes in half way so hopefully about half the air/heat is sent to the left side wall. 





























All closed up








To continue my madness I decided to build a damper for the middle of the chamber while I had it all cut open and modifying it.


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## sleepersilverado

Cutting the holes in the side walls was a pita. Here it is installed and welded out. 















Got one piece of the track patched back. Takes forever to make the filler piece and get it fired up.


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## tim b

*.*

Overkill..


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## fy0834

This is a NASA type smoker... It may fly upon completion.
However, any work that is performed with such precision deserves respect.

My smoker which is being built out of repurposed farm parts is on the opposite end of the spectrum...


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## 3GENTS_Fishing

So just spitbaling, how does this compare to Oklahoma Joes? 

Amazing work!


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## sleepersilverado

If you are referring to a traditional offset smoker then I don't know. Hell I dont know how it compares to anything yet. Maybe jtburf can answer that. 

I started participating in cookoffs at the age of 13, participated in the hlsr cookoff for 15 years. With teams that used anything from a traditional off set smoker to a commercial rotisserie pit. 

What I do know is I am not interested in a bunch of baby sitting any more. The whole goals here is to make something I can fire up and leave alone. With an offset you generally end up with a hot spot. Not a big deal but you have to make sure you jockey your meat. My goal is to have consistency through out the cabinet and consistency over the course of the burn. If I can achieve that I should produce a better, more consistent product. 

Easy bake oven.


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## jtburf

Okay, since Silverado asked I will answer.

When using any brand of offset smoker, or stick burner no matter the name you are always going to have sap wood tar issues.

The gravity feed is a much cleaner smoke, sometimes you can barely see any smoke coming out of the flew pipe. I actually add a small amount of wood chip as I am loading the chute on mine to impart just a touch of darkness. These smokers are what I call the Ron Propell smoker, set it and forget it. With a guru or PIP controller the small fan cycles on and off as the temp calls for it. I can get almost 24 hours on unattended smoking out of mine. 

Here are pictures of gravity feed smoked meats.


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## T3XX

Just found this thread! Great work and cool project. Hoping this baby is ready to smoke for football season?!

-Colin


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## sleepersilverado

Unfortunately it is not done and wonâ€™t be done by then. 
Lots of life changes that I am having to take care of. Hopefully by the end of they year I will have all my things running smoother where I am not doing company projects on weekends but working on my own stuff. I will up date and show final results when I start working on it again.


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## DCUnger

Very nice!


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