Hello from California

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

gbridges

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 8, 2012
1
10
Oakdale, California
Hey there everybody,

I'm new to smoking but I've been grilling for years.  I'm a student of the "Santa Maria Style" bbqs.  I've been raised on burning Oak and grilling tri-tip.  I've recently tried my hand at ribs and pork shoulders.  I'll admit I've grilled the ribs and put the shoulder in a slow cooker.  Let the hazing begin.  Anyways I've finally decided to build a horizontal reverse flow smoker.

I am an agriculture teacher.  I teach welding and construction classes.  So I discussed this new endeavor with my fellow colleagues and we came up with a simple plan for the smoker.  55 gallon drum for the cooking chamber.  a 12 x 12 x 18 fire box.  The fire box will be mounted so that it will be below the cooking chamber by about 2/3rds.  Does that make sense?  We discussed putting a perforated piece of metal just above the opening from the fire box on the bottom of the cooking chamber.  It will stop short by about 6 inches.  I researched this and I think it is called the baffle???  Help me out here.  One rack of expanded metal in the center of the cooking chamber with another half rack/shelf mounted about 6-8 inches above that.  The smoke exhaust will be mounted above the fire box.

My hope is to one: build my own smoker that will bring years of enjoyment to my family and Two: be able to smoke pork shoulder and pork ribs.  I have 4 young kids and they love BBQ!!  I am redneck and we grill every chance we can get.  I've wanted a smoker for years but couldn't bring myself to buy one.

Well this is why I joined this forum.  I'm looking for advice and insight.  Any advice is welcome.  I'll post pics as we get started. 

Thanks
 
Hello and 
welcome1.gif
to SMF - glad you joined in the fun 

Please do us a favor and update your profile with your location 

Here is a link to the smoker builds area that might give you some ideas

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/197/smoker-builds
 
welcome1.gif
to SMF!!! We're happy you found us! You've come to the right place, we have over 40,000 members and over 800,000 posts so you should be able to find almost anything you want to know. Remember the search bar at the top can be your best friend for finding answers fast!

You might want to check out Jeff's Free 5 day E-course it will teach you all the basics and a whole lot more!
 
icon_cool.gif


First off Welcome to SMF. You'll really like it here for there are a lot of really good guys an gals that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking meat. Now if you need there is a 5 day E-Course that is very helpfull to newbies to the smoking world. Then you can always just ask question here and we will answer what ever you need to know. So the best thing to do next is go get something to smoke and if you need ring us up. Oh yea don't forget the Q-view or pictures. So after all of that.

Welcome To Your New Addiction.

Go Gators
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky