The Great Northern Manifold Project

[tasunkawitko]

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[fire it up]

Beautiful job! Can't wait until you toss a bird on there, ought to be a beautiful thing.
And that Rivet guy you're talking about, he is pretty damn awesome!
You are a good man John

 

[bignick]

Man, I am jealous. I have the same pit, but sure wish I had a coal basket and baffles like that. I am not very handy when it comes to manipulating metal, I don't own any tools to do so. Great job!

 

[rivet]

Excellent play-by-play and pics, Ron! Your design works like a champ, and I'm really looking forward to seeing your real-life results with a food smoke. I knew the basic design to be robust enough, and you've proven the extra thermal-mass of your design to be just what the doctor ordered for your latitude; beautiful!

 

[seenred]

Well-done, Ron! Thanks for walking us through this. I gotta build something similar for my NB Hondo. I've been using an old cookie sheet as a makeshift baffle, with the intention of making something better and more permanent. I really like what you've come up with.

 

[tasunkawitko]

guys - thanks for the comments, and for the points. a lot of thought and discussion went into this design for the specific application. looking forward to seeing it in action!

 

[stircrazy]

would it have been worth it to put a solid baffle in and then put some exhaust pipe or something on the inside to bring the exhaust vent to the other end and basicly convert it to a reverse flow?

Steve

 

[ddave]

YIKES, that's cold!!

Great job on the manifold.

Did you have to beef up the legs at all on the SnP to accomodate the extra weight? I was thinking of doing something similar with 1/8" plate but I have pretty good end to end temp evenness with my tuning plate setup.

And it NEVER gets that cold here.

Dave

 

[3montes]

Wow!! What a excellent write up on a fantastic mod! You are going to love the performance of that manifold Ron. I really like the two piece design. Gives you alot of options. Mine has most certainly given a whole new perspective on smoking in cold temps. With out balmy 25 degree weather here yesterday I never had a issue keeping temps in the snp. Between the manifold and the charcoal basket I can smoke in any cold temp up here. And beleive me it gets cold we just came out of a two week -20 degree weather marathon. Good luck with your mod and keep us posted with the great qview you get from it.

I have been meaning to ask you. Where is Chinook in relation to Hamilton Montana? I lived in Hamilton for a few years a looong time ago.

 

[mudduck]

looks real good i won't to do mine that way
but what abont the dripings wou'd you put
a pan on top of the Manifold or what
i know i'm dom ice haha and new at this

 

[brohnson]

Awesome work!

 

[tasunkawitko]

x

 

[seenred]

A loong time ago, I had a friend who was from Hamilton. He had a business called Montana Guide Service.

 

[tasunkawitko]

x

 

[rivet]

Wow, that one is ten times better than mine by a long shot! Nice work your guy did, really nice. Very good workmanship on the cuts and edges and the thickness looks justabout perfect. That's a real nice thickness you have, looks thicker than 1/8 in the pictures, but that's just perspective. I think you are gonna be set forever with that door, far longer than I will with mine. Very nice!!

 

[tasunkawitko]

x

 

[3montes]

Excellent job on that fire door Ron! Looks like you did a fantastic job. I have a bit of a different arrangement on my snp which is aolder version of what you and John have. I works pretty well but dosen't choke off entirely. Here is a pic of my set up.

Also I know what you mean about a sheath for the bottom of the firebox. I ordered some heat shields for that purpose from Brinkmann awhile back. They mistakenly sent some extra so if you want one pm me your address and I will be happy to ship one out to you. Here is what it looks like:

Lays nicely in the bottom of the firebox for a little added protection. Now that I am using the snp as more of a stick burner I have given some thought to making a burning barrel. When I initially start a fire in the firebox of the snp the top gets VERY hot from all the flame. To the point of I think it may be warping it some.

 

[tasunkawitko]

pm sent, keith, along with my thanks!

 

[tasunkawitko]

hey, keith - the heat shield arrived and i wanted to say "thanks!" i plan on giving it quite a workout and when i saw it i ahd a couple of ideas which i will tell you about soon!

i also wanted to say thanks very, very much for the little "extra gift" that you put in there. i'm owrking up an idea for dinner next week that will include your gift, and will post pix when the time comes. can't thank you enough for it!

 

[rivet]

Hi Kieth, glad to know that you are maximizing the benefits of the mods! They are perfect fro making the SnP into a real wood-burning smoker aren't they? Other mods seem to merely improve the wimpy charcoal-burner status of the unit. Looking forward to some of your successes with it!