Dropping the fire box?

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I only use royle oak lump for heat, then small chunks of what ever wood for smoke/bark....my basket for the fire box holds 10lbs of lump....


I have bout the same height off the FB floor for ashes, but I only get bout 2" of ash when I smoke for 12 hours....my CC door has small puffs of smoke coming from it when I'm smoking....I use the top intake vent for more heat across the top of the coals not from the bottom, I've never had my bottom intake open more then half way ever....I can run temps as low as 220 to 350 depending what I'm cooking, exhaust stack is always wide open and I only use intake for heat temp control....
 
I have tried the upper intake closed still a no go and no obstruction.

I never knew what the upper intake was for!
 
I only use royle oak lump for heat, then small chunks of what ever wood for smoke/bark....my basket for the fire box holds 10lbs of lump....


I have bout the same height off the FB floor for ashes, but I only get bout 2" of ash when I smoke for 12 hours....my CC door has small puffs of smoke coming from it when I'm smoking....I use the top intake vent for more heat across the top of the coals not from the bottom, I've never had my bottom intake open more then half way ever....I can run temps as low as 220 to 350 depending what I'm cooking, exhaust stack is always wide open and I only use intake for heat temp control....
Where did you get the grating?
 
 
 
You definitely need more wood/charcoal than I'm seeing in pic #3.  I use a charcoal starter chimney almost full of briquettes and keep a couple of wood chunks 6 to 8 inches long and up to wrist sized on the fire and have to feed it another chunk or two about every hour.  After 3 to four hours when the meat is about done absorbing smoke, I often just stoke the fire with fresh briquettes

I run the air intake either completely closed, or sometimes cracked about a half an inch
Even with that amount if i close the lid on the firebox it goes out.

The only way i seem to be able to get a good burn is with my wood stove fan.

its as if there is no air movenmet at all like it has stalled somewhere.
Take a look at the pic of my firebox at the very top of the first page.  That is how much wood and charcoal I start mine with.  I wait for it to get going good, then close the FB lid, close the FB door on the end and crack the air intake about half an inch.  The flames will die down and the fire just smoulders thereby creating the smoke.

Try burning a test fire with a pretty good amount of charcoal and wood.  If the stack is open and all other doors and lids closed except for the lower air intake, it has no choice but draw air over the coals and draw the heat into the cooking chamber

If you have too little wood in the FB, it could well go out, especially if you don't have a good base of coals going underneath it.  My chimney starter will hold about a gallon milk jug full of charcoal, so that is what I start with, plus a few sticks of well seasoned Oak

I'm thinking you just don't have enough wood or charcoal in the FB
 
posting up my progress asked for, cut the new stack hole and fit the piece cut out to weld in where old hole is on left....



cut the FB to CC hole biggest I could....





with the stack just stuck in the new hole, it looks like a RF now Thumbs Up ....
 
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over 4 years i have had this smoker and it never let me down ever :yahoo: ....I'm just waiting to get everything I need in place for welding to get the welding done on it and everything else needing welding....
 
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I am thinking of dropping the firebox on my Oklahoma Joe's Highland smoker as well. 

I currently have a baffle that blocks ~1/2 of the top of the opening between the firebox and the cook chamber (~per Feldon's calculator), and then convection plates to distribute the heat. I can get it up to about 290, but with a blazing hot fire in the firebox. It was no better before I added the baffle + convection plate. That's with the firebox intake vent totally removed to give it more airflow. I think it has a little trouble with airflow/draft.

It seems like dropping the firebox a couple inches would line up the top of the firebox with the bottom of the convection plate, more effectively suck the heat off the top the firebox into the cook chamber (rather than from in the middle of the firebox), create better draft, allow it to get hotter in the cook chamber, and potentially use less fuel.

For anyone who has dropped the firebox in your smoker:

*Did it improve draft?

*Did it allow you to get to hotter temps in the cook chamber?

*Do you notice any difference in fuel consumption?

Thanks!

 
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