FREE SMOKER some assembly required

Mostly just a picture dumping post. Can see now that it's ratcheted on where I got a little crooked cutting the lid out and welding the lip on. Oh well, if it needed to be perfect, someone else would have made it. I did this to the firebox. I'm still debating how to seal the sides that don't have a lip while still making it easy to feed the fire. Stupid math. This pretty little piece of fire extinguisher has been an accidental answer to a lot of problems I ran into on this build. Just so happens to have an OD of 4 3/16 inches, and magically (luckily) was cut at almost the perfect angle to mount almost flush with both the fire box and the cooking chamber. My magic connection piece figured out and I didn't even need a contour gage. Should be able to get a 4.25" hole saw on both parts without an issue.

This was the plate the motor and pump were mounted on. It was full of holes. Now it's full of ugly welds. This is going to be my baffle plate. I'll know for sure how it's going in once I cut the holes to connect the 2 boxes together. But I suspect it will be going uglier side up because that's how things work out for me. I tried to be fancy and use copper as a backer to fill the holes. I welded the copper to the steel on the first hole, so I freehand filled the holes and ground down the excess. Much easier that way.

The only thing not pictured so far is the chimney and the grates. I bought expanded metal for the grates, then remembered my plan for my old smoker(build thread coming next spring). It just so happens the grates from my old smoker will fit this tank perfectly, so I got that going for me.

I think in the interest of making this work, I may just finish it like a regular offset smoker. The joy of metal, I can always change it later.

I can't model the inside of the tank well enough to extend my baffle to cover where the fire box comes in. Making both reverse flow setup and an equalizing baffle currently impossible.

Yes I could probably take a point, like the drain, and make an assload of measurements, but I know from experience I will screw up translating them to cardboard then metal.

The grates from the old smoker are 1/2"too wide to be a perfect fit, and aren't long enough to reach the side walls. So I may be wasting some cooking space as well. I'm going to do some weight tests on them to see how they will hold food anyway before I get all crazy with the expanded metal.

The only things left to do are cut the hole for the chimney, install the fireplace gaskets, and paint it.

I'm hoping to get the chimney in today, so I can fire it up and see where the gaskets and any other patchwork will go.

Well, it's a smoker now.

I still need to make a decision about these seems. I might just put gasket material there and call it done.

Things got ugly in a hurry with the chimney. A difficult cut to make for someone that knows what they're doing, let alone me. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the hole, but know that those strips of 1/8" are covering some gnarliness. I had to use an angle grinder. So yes, the steel stick is necessary to fill the gaps, welding just wouldn't cut it. Not with my skills and tool anyway.

Chimney damper.

This is the firebox connection from inside the cook chamber. This sidewall is extremely thin in some places, and there was a lot of burn through, so I tacked it in place and used JB Extreme Heat to seal the gap. The other gap, I don't like is about 3.5 inches from the end of the grate to the wall, and it curves. That's the piece I can't figure out for a baffle.

(steel stick is rated to 300F Extreme Heat is rated to 2200F)

Last picture, inside where the chimney is. Yes, it rests on the grate, that helps to draw the heat and smoke across the food instead of above it, giving some better flavor and hopefully better temperature control.

It's going to be a huge pain, but I have more fire extinguishers and there's just enough sticking into the cook chamber, that I can probably cut a shield to go on top and direct the heat downwards a bit.

Still left to do are make a new coal box for the fire box, the sems on the firebox, the holes on either end and the drain of the cook chamber, and paint.

In other words, it's about as done as it's going to get. Tomorrow, after all the JB products have a day to cure, I'm going to build a fire in it, and see how it handles, where it leaks, and what just needs redone entirely.

I have often wondered why no one insulates any parts of their smokers?

Some people do they just don't talk about it much. I've been seeing a lot of mention of wrapping the cook chamber with welding blankets on the competition circuits lately, and whispers of rockwool or inswool wrappings.

I know they sell blankets for electric smokers, but honestly for as E36 M3ty and thin as box store smokers are I really don't know why people don't insulate them more often. I think it's because they don't know any better.

With bigger, heavier duty smokers it's not as important, like those made from 3/16"+ plate. The metal at that thickness should hold onto heat well enough that the occasional view or mopping won't disturb too much.

I'm still thinking about it. Again, I don't know how to shape the sides but I have enough insulating cement it might not be a bad idea to reinforce and insulate them. It would just make things a pain in the ass to clean and could potentially harbor bacteria.

My one concern with insulation is that it could hold too much heat, and I would wind up much hotter than desired.

Yes, black wheels. Bite me. It lives!!

Took it up to 500F today for an hour after coating the inside in PAM spray. I'm now satisfied any oils or residues leftover are burned off, and I know most of the paint on the firebox has.

Lots of gasket work to do yet, but it holds temp, it'll take some learning, but I'm ready to try it out next weekend with a full cook.

I'm glad I got this one done, because my next project showed up today, and I have a lot of thinking to do.

I might take this opportunity to start a catering service, if I can decide how to build this out. Unfortunately the piece of 330 Stainless rod that I have with holes bored through every 6 inches is too short to use as a rotisserie spit, and I have a feeling buying a big enough one will be pricey, let alone a motor I can gear to 3 rpms. At least cutting this one will be easier with the plasma cutter. Seriously, go buy a berkeleying plasma cutter yesterday. Greatest toy ever.Future thoughts

It's black now.

I did a test fire yesterday, that turned into a clusterberkeley. Massive air leaks, wild temperature swings, open flame, but it still turned out alright.

Gasket in the cook chamber, flaps that made the air gaps WORSE on the firebox. I may need to build a new firebox.

A bit dry, but still acceptable. Far Far from my best work, but considering the fights I had during the 7.5 hour cook, I'll call it acceptable.

To at least feel a little productive, I found something to do that I could hold off on welding. I built myself a charcoal basket from some expanded metal. I still need to shorten it a bit so it actually fits in the firebox, but I'll do that after it's welded solid. When I finally remembered to take pictures. You can see I already cut this end into 3 sections to fold up for sides. Using this table with the angle iron made things so much easier than the last time I made one.

I was having trouble making the bend for the side, so I notched the metal a bit and used the angle iron for a break. It worked better than I thought it would. Then the fun part of tying it off tight with steel wire, while keeping it all compressed into the right shape. Welding will be entertaining I'm sure. It's only a couple inches too tall. I'm going to compare cutting the expanded metal with a cutting disc vs the plasma cutter, you know for science.