Alright folks... here it is. My plan is to build a small patio RF. Over the weekend I posted in the Roll Call thread a little bit about myself and my idea but here it is in more detail. I work at a steel fab shop and we have plenty of scrap or drop I can use so size and type of material isn't really an issue cause I can find something that'll work. I'm basing my first build off of a 20"x.5" pipe... that's right, a half inch thick piece of pipe. It's what we got so I'm going to use it. Here's a pic of it not cut to size yet, ignore the cut to 5' cause that's what was needed and this piece is basically the drop from that. And as I stated in the roll call thread... YES the bbq calculator and I are great friends!!
I plan on cutting it in half and extending it vertically 9" with steel plate so it's more oval shaped and it'll be 40" long. The diagrams below (which I did quickly in good 'ol microsoft paint after some old sketches, so no comments on my "drawing" skills lol) don't show dimensions but it'll be roughly 40"x20"x29" with the firebox being basically 19" square and using 6" sch 40 pipe for the stack. The drawings are also slightly off, I'll have the firebox even with the baffle plate opening and the doors will actually start to square off from the top of the pipe and not slightly below as it shows.
The baffle plate will start 6" up from the bottom of the pipe at the firebox opening and slope about an inch to the other end (stopping about 3.5" from the end of the smoker for the RF opening with also a lip on top and bottom) and about a 1/4 inch drop from the sides to the center 1 1/2 angle trench. The four racks will be made out of inch square tubing with expanded metal and will slide in and out. I went with different sized doors opening outward so I could accommodate long pans and short pans if necessary but not have to open the whole smoker. They'll be 22"x19" and 12"x19". I'll also have a removable ember box, roughly 18"x18"x10" (with a slightly lower front side) made out of rebar for the base and heavy expanded metal for the sides. The 6" stack will have a rotating damper just after the bend and of course an adjustable cap at the top. I don't have the frame completely drawn out but I figured that would be thrown together with whatever (probably 2" square tube) and have some heavy duty solid wheels on the firebox end and heavy castors on the other end. Plan on moving it in and out of a garage door on flat concrete so I figured that would be do-able.
Now for my main questions that I need help with...
size of material:
My main pipe housing is going to be 1/2" but I was planning on using 3/8" plate to extend it the 9", to frame out for the doors, and for the firebox. I have a good sized sheet of 3/8 tread plate that I was going to use for the firebox and doors if I had enough but I was considering doing the doors themselves in 1/4" since the thickness there wouldn't matter as much. I could use half inch everywhere (price difference is minimal because it's smaller scrap pieces) but that's just overkill, I'm just concerned that for this small size it's going to be a pretty heavy guy.
Which leads me to my next question... the baffle plate. Since price difference in minimal, what size would you use? Like I said, 1/4 to 1/2 isn't a problem getting... so I was thinking 3/8 all around besides the 1/2 pipe and the racks/supports.
Again, I know all of this is probably overkill on size since most decent smokers and components are made out of 1/4 (from what I can tell) but I figured once I got this "little" guy up to temp, which will take awhile granted, he'll be holding steady like a champ from then on with minimal constant babysitting (IF I didn't want to constantly watch it that is).
Sorry for the long post but I'm just looking for some input from the experienced pro's on my sizes and layout... am I crazy for using 1/2 pipe and 3/8 everywhere else (especially the baffle plate)?
I plan on cutting it in half and extending it vertically 9" with steel plate so it's more oval shaped and it'll be 40" long. The diagrams below (which I did quickly in good 'ol microsoft paint after some old sketches, so no comments on my "drawing" skills lol) don't show dimensions but it'll be roughly 40"x20"x29" with the firebox being basically 19" square and using 6" sch 40 pipe for the stack. The drawings are also slightly off, I'll have the firebox even with the baffle plate opening and the doors will actually start to square off from the top of the pipe and not slightly below as it shows.
The baffle plate will start 6" up from the bottom of the pipe at the firebox opening and slope about an inch to the other end (stopping about 3.5" from the end of the smoker for the RF opening with also a lip on top and bottom) and about a 1/4 inch drop from the sides to the center 1 1/2 angle trench. The four racks will be made out of inch square tubing with expanded metal and will slide in and out. I went with different sized doors opening outward so I could accommodate long pans and short pans if necessary but not have to open the whole smoker. They'll be 22"x19" and 12"x19". I'll also have a removable ember box, roughly 18"x18"x10" (with a slightly lower front side) made out of rebar for the base and heavy expanded metal for the sides. The 6" stack will have a rotating damper just after the bend and of course an adjustable cap at the top. I don't have the frame completely drawn out but I figured that would be thrown together with whatever (probably 2" square tube) and have some heavy duty solid wheels on the firebox end and heavy castors on the other end. Plan on moving it in and out of a garage door on flat concrete so I figured that would be do-able.
Now for my main questions that I need help with...
size of material:
My main pipe housing is going to be 1/2" but I was planning on using 3/8" plate to extend it the 9", to frame out for the doors, and for the firebox. I have a good sized sheet of 3/8 tread plate that I was going to use for the firebox and doors if I had enough but I was considering doing the doors themselves in 1/4" since the thickness there wouldn't matter as much. I could use half inch everywhere (price difference is minimal because it's smaller scrap pieces) but that's just overkill, I'm just concerned that for this small size it's going to be a pretty heavy guy.
Which leads me to my next question... the baffle plate. Since price difference in minimal, what size would you use? Like I said, 1/4 to 1/2 isn't a problem getting... so I was thinking 3/8 all around besides the 1/2 pipe and the racks/supports.
Again, I know all of this is probably overkill on size since most decent smokers and components are made out of 1/4 (from what I can tell) but I figured once I got this "little" guy up to temp, which will take awhile granted, he'll be holding steady like a champ from then on with minimal constant babysitting (IF I didn't want to constantly watch it that is).
Sorry for the long post but I'm just looking for some input from the experienced pro's on my sizes and layout... am I crazy for using 1/2 pipe and 3/8 everywhere else (especially the baffle plate)?