quick and easy pie vent

ribwizzard

Master of the Pit

Original poster

May 10, 2012

2,184

84

Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #1

On my large pits, I have always included a pie vent on the bottom of the firebox, but have never really shown any pics of them or how I make them.

On mini #22, I have decided to use just one pie vent at the end of the firebox, and mount it inside of a fold down door that can be used to clean out the ashes from the firebox.  I have always prefered a 3 hole pie vent over a two or 4 hole, and that will work out well for this mini, giving me two holes under the fire grate and one above.

In this pic, you can see where I cut the door at the end of the firebox.

 

ribwizzard

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May 10, 2012

2,184

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Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #2

I have layed out two plates , one for the door, and one for the "pie" that will be located on the inside of the door.

Once I traced the patterns onto the plates, I stack them together and drill out the center bolt hole. Install a bolt to hold them together as I drill out the corners of the holes. This will make my corners clean, and make sure that the holes in the pie match my holes in the door exactly.

I then unbolt them from each other , and use a torch or plasma to ruff cut the holes.

 

ribwizzard

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May 10, 2012

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Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #3

I will cut these out tonight, but in the meantime, here is a pic of a pie vent I retrofitted another firebox with. I made the pie vent out of two pieces of 1/4" plate, then just cut a hole out of the firebox floor and welded it in.  I had to do it this way becouse the pit was already mounted to trailer and I did not have access to "flip" it over.

 

ribwizzard

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May 10, 2012

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Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #4

What I dont have is a pic of the bottom side of the bolt. What you do not want to do is just bolt the pie vent together, becouse it will rust up and freeze up on you.

What I do is take a spring from a valve train that will fit a 3/8" bolt and install the spring on the outside or bottom of the fire box.  What that will do is it will keep both plates pushed together nice and tight, but also allow them to give if they get stuck.  If the above pie vent gets stuck from sitting around, just reach in with a hammer and hit the pie, the spring will give and allow the vent to free up.

Here is my control lever for the pie vent on #19

 

ribwizzard

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May 10, 2012

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Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #5

And the reason I am going with the pie vent on this build is due to the small size of the door and the round shape of the firebox. A slide vent would not allow the openings to go low enough to get the air under the firegrate as I want.  You need a lot of width for a slide grate.

The slide vent below is about as compact as possible .

 

daveomak

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Omak,Washington,U.S.A.

• Jan 28, 2013

• #6

RW........... you make way too much sense at times.....  Severely reprimand yourself.... 

 

ribwizzard

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May 10, 2012

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Orlando and Tampa Florida

• Jan 28, 2013

• #7

Heres the rough cut with the plasma, will need to dress it up with rotory tool.

 

daveomak

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Nov 12, 2010

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Omak,Washington,U.S.A.

• Jan 28, 2013

• #8

Ribwizzard said:

Heres the rough cut with the plasma, will need to dress it up with rotory tool.

Click to expand...

Not me.... I'd leave it rough so folks knew it was "home made" by me.... Folks always look for something to critique... put it right out in the open so they don't start digging around for some other flaw.....   Works every time...   used to do that with inspectors...   

Dave