Small smoker build

[vartz04]

Had these tanks sitting in the garage for a while. Also had a bed frame and some other misc steel. So far the only things I've purchased to build this are the chimney pipe and a small section of exhaust tubing I plan to use for the air inlet on the firebox.

After cutting out the door

Door mounted and holes drilled in tanks to transfer the heat/smoke

Mounted on the frame. Here is where I realized the door isn't mounted straight (hole is pretty square but door was mounted out of whack causing it to not close right.

Cut the door off and installed the chimney.

Left to do is
Cut the one set of legs off flush with the lower shelf and install wheels on the other end under the firebox
Make a T handle out of black pipe that will screw into the 1/2" npt drain valve hole in the previous bottom of the tank to allow you to lift up the one end and wheel it around
Remake hinges and remount door
Cut out door for firebox (trying to make my plasma work again for this)
Install air intake pipe in firebox and make baffles for it
Install wood or expanded metal in bottom shelf
Install cooking grate
Start a fire in it and burn off paint/grime
Paint it with high temp paint


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[machine_punk]

Interesting project. I like it when folks try to use what they have laying around.

did you buy the valve for the top of the exhaust? Any reason you didn't just fabricate a butterfly valve for that?

Looking forward to seeing the final product.

Kev

 

[vartz04]

I have a mini WSM that I built out of a smokey Joe grill and a tamale pot. Works great for 75% of what I want to cook. I run into problems when I want to cook more than 2 slabs of ribs or more than one pork shoulder or even most size brisket.

Wife said no way on dropping $4-500 for a bigger smoker so I'm building this instead.

I Found the valve sitting in the junk pile at work. Other wise I would have built a baffle because those are like $40-50 each


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[Dan's EB]

Nice. I like it.

 

[1931S/X]

ive been wanting to do the same. have an 80 gallon tank but don't want one that big. yet.

 

[vartz04]

You could cut off part of it and use that part as the firebox leaving you with a smaller cook chamber. Then you can use just some plate steel to care bathe two ends and it will be much easier to join the two in a more traditional manner.

Also there is a calculator online that is used to get all the sizes right so you get the correct draft through the smoker. Google Felton's bbq calculator and you'll find it.


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[vartz04]

Got it almost usable. Just need to get the firebox door and vents put in but I decided to burn it to get all the possible contaminates out. It's also helping me strip the paint.

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[firemanast]

Got it almost usable. Just need to get the firebox door and vents put in but I decided to burn it to get all the possible contaminates out. It's also helping me strip the paint.

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Nice job I like it !

 

[vartz04]

Thanks. Taking the CCW class this weekend so this is about all I'll get done I am hoping to finish all the welding, paint, and season the thing next weekend then do a practice smoke the following weekend.


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[Bears Fan]

Cool...I like it

 

[vartz04]

Finished up the firebox (minus baffles for air intakes) and made some handles

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[JonBoehman]

What does the inside look like? Also What are the pieces of exhaust tubing on the fire box for?

 

[vartz04]

Nothing going on in the inside yet. I need to make the cooking grate and the firebox. The pieces of exhaust tubing are the air intakes for the fire. More pics will come once the grates are made.


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[vartz04]

Built the grate for cooking and made a fire grate out of one of my old weber grill grates. Now I'm just working on removing/scuffing the powdercoating on the tank and I'll be painting this coming weekend and cooking on it too.

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[vintagespeed1956]

cool, i'm looking to build a couple of these pretty soon. my buddy is all about it right now.

i was of the opinion that the intake path and the exhaust path need to be the volume? so you can balance the flow through the cooker.

i see that you have a much larger tube between the firebox and main body than your exhaust stack diameter.

any ideas?

 

[vartz04]

That is per the online calculators. Google fledons bbq calculator and plug in your known values. It gives you the rest


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[vartz04]

All finished. Letting paint cure then it's time to do a practice smoke with a chicken

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