Time for a Remodel

Thanks Dave. The only thing I am wondering is the stacks you see in the pic are about 28" each giving me 56". The pit building calculator says I need a total of 41". Should I cut them down or do you think it won't make a difference?

I decided to cut 8 " off of the stacks. It just looks better IMO. In regards to your question about the fire box I have not added an air vent for it yet. There is one that comes with the kit and it is under the door you see on the barrel stove to the left. The barrel sits behind the fridge and it connected by a 6" diameter flexible steel pipe. When I burnt out the inside of the barrel everytime I would close the door the fire would go out even with the air vent on the bottom open. The back of the barrel has a large dent in it so I am not able to use that space. Where and what style of vent should I add to the front of the barrel you see. On the second hole you are talking about do you mean on the fridge itself? I would prefer not to cut another hole in the thing if I dont have to. Also, The flexible pipe connecting the barrel and fridge is roughly 4ft long. I have a pipe insulating piece made out of fiberglass. What percentage of heat do you think I would lose from the stove to the smoker. I was thinking 50%. would it be higher or lower do you think?

Finally had a day off so I decided to find out if this barrel idea would work. Once hooked up it produced more than enough heat to the smoker, but found out that the fridge leaks like a sieve, and flexible metal pipe I bought to attach to the fridge doesnt flex much at all requiring me to sit the barrel at an angle. So after all this I dont know if my plan was a success or failure. I have attached pictures showing the setup. Could use some help in two areas though

1. Get equal heat distribution once the heat leaves the pipe. when the smoker is 240* the heat leaving the pipe is 305*. the heat doesnt equal out until it reaches the top rack. This leaves the middle of the bottom three racks with good heat but the outer edges are significantly cooler.

2. You will notice that the door is off of the barrel. I have to do this to get air into the inside to keep the fire running. the vent at the bottom doesnt allor enough air flow so I need to come up with another option where I can attach a vent somewhere that would allow more air into the barrel without keeping the door open the whole time.

This was just a test run. I am going to do another test run next week when I seal up all the leaks on the fridge. I am going to add more firebrick to the inside of the barrel, and throw some pipe insulation around the flexible pipe hoping to give me better temperature control.

Any help would be appreciated. The deadline to enter the next contest is in two weeks and I want to make sure this works before I pay the entry fee.





Barrel tilted. Only way to keep the pipe connected


Lever where I can open and close the damper on the inside of the pipe

Dave,

I thought about that but with only two competitions here in Jacksonville I want to get into it. Last year I competed in my first one and made the smoker to compete in it 1 month before. I took second in Pork and 9th overall. I thought it was pretty good for my first comp. The comp isnt until the end of April so I have plenty of time. I marked smoke leaks with a sharpie and found that it is small gaps between some aluminum pieces and the side of the fridge. Threw in a little silicone and worked like a charm. I did some research and found a lot of people use convection plates for better heat distribution. I thought about doing this directly over the pipe. Maybe start with 1/4" holes above the pipe and expand to 1" holes on the edges.

Dave,

Thanks for the help. Attaching the barrel to the fridge was what I intended to do but since I started it as electric and didnt care where the vent hole was I just hacked thru the steel without measuring. Turns out that it is a few inches higher than the top of the barrel.The flex pipe was $100 (yeah I know stupid for me to spend that much) so I want to use it if I can so I dont feel as if I wasted money. I shortened the  pipe and thru a pipe insulation cover over it then started burning some more chunks. After playing with the damper on the flu I could maintain the temp between 240-255 without any problem. I would throw a wood chunk into the barrel about every 30 min. I am planning on using splits that will burn longer when I acctually get it completed but I had a few bags of hickory layin around so I decided to use that. I did a google search and found a few guys drilling a 1 1/2" - 2" hole underneath the stove door. They would fasten a pipe about 2 inches long to the hole with a damper on the end. It seemed to work for them so I might give it a try. After cleaning up today and managed to find a scrap 12"X24" 16GA piece of sheet metal. I decided to use this as a baffling plate. I laid out a 2" grid on it and started drilling small holes. I used a unibit and varied the size. 3/8" in the middle over the pipe. 5/8" next and then 7/8" at the edges. There is a 2" gap all the way around the outside. I didnt have time to test it out but plan on doing it sometime next week. I am going to pick up a welding blanket when I go to northern tool for some more firebrick. Can I just wrap this around the barrel?

I will try and post pics later this week. Thanks again for all of the help.