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romansblues

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2017
13
11
Hello Everyone,

Really need some help from the wise souls on this forum. I know you guys probably get this thread on here a lot from newbies, but i am hoping all the advice and help i have given newbie home brewers over the years is paid forwards and all my problems are solved on this site.

So, I have been smoking for a little bit on a home depot cheap jobs, but the opportunity has come up to get my hands on a large oil tank and cabinet. Please see photos of what i have to build with. A buddy of mine is a welder and fabricator but he is not a smoker, so he is leaving it all to me to figure out then i just take what i want on paper to him and he is gonna do it all for free (Cue the A-TEAM Theme). Well, i am sure he will be paid back in brisket and good home brew.

And to the point at hand, the oil tank is about 5 feet long, about 4 foot tall and about 2 foot deep, i can't find how many gallons it is. What i want to build is a Trailer Mounted Reverse Flow Smoker With Warming Box on top of the Firebox. And I have a few questions, any help would be really appreciated as I have spent so much time researching that I think my kids both had a birthday at some point and Christmas seems a lot closer than when i first started.....

1) I understand there are equations to figure out size of firebox, but with regard to the warming cabinet i would ideally like to be able to actually smoke in it by closing off a damper at times when i'm not cooking for many people, but i would also like to be able to cook in both at times when i am feeding the 5000. Is this possible? My buddy said about covering the cabinet in another layer of metal to help hold heat in?

2) I have attached a photo of a smoker i like the look of, it looks like it has a pull out shelf under the main cooking doors, again is this possible as it would give me a rib rack and double the cooking space, add in the warming cabinet and i'll be rocking (I will be regularly cooking for 100+ People). The smoker i currently have just has the one rack, with having multiple shelves do I then need to plan more regarding food safety, ie having food dripping down on other food and leading to a lot of people sick and blaming me?

3) Regarding the cleaning, i have read that i wash the heck out of the oil tank with dawn, then go pyro and burn it out inside multiple times with fire to get rid of the nasties? Are there any tests or anything out there that will let me know that it is clean and ready to use, with it being an oil tank i don't want to poison people and get back sick people blaming me while they say EUROPE at the bowl....

4) We may need to cut the tank and cabinet up to get it out of its current basement home, as i don't want to make more work for my buddy down the road, So is there any advice in where to make the cuts to lesson the amount of work down the road.

5) Regarding the firebox, i know the calculations are out there to determine size, but a poster on a forum i was reading talked about how he prefers a vertical firebox as you can then burn longer logs as opposed to the standard square box? is this something to consider or the guy was a raving loon posting under a full moon...(The rhyme was accidental)

6) My intention was to mount the cabinet on top of the firebox, if it was going too prove too big a warming/cooking cabinet then to cut down and mount it. From the pics i have up here is this a valid idea? or should i just bite the bullet and pay out for metal and build a cabinet?

7) What is best when using an oval oil tank, should i keep it vertical or lay down horizontal? If it is vertical then i can have the two shelves? if its horizontal then just the one shelf? I know a lot comes down to every individual, i am just hoping there are a few people out there who built vertical or horizontal, but after using it for a while all say i would have gone the other route.

So, i am sure i will have a ton more questions as we go and i will post pics as we progress, but if you have got to the end of this thread and still awake then please chime in with your 2 cents. Life is opinion and those that don't listen end up alone.

[ATTACHMENT=3316]Dreamsmoker.jpg (100k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

[ATTACHMENT=3317]Box1.jpg (1,075k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

[ATTACHMENT=3318]Box2.jpg (1,085k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

[ATTACHMENT=3319]OilTank.jpg (1,069k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]
 
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Thank you for the link, it has def helped out a lot getting the numbers straight.
 
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I kept my oil tank verticle, i have plenty of rack space.

As far as cleaning goes, I didn't burn my oil tank out. However, it had been empty for a few decades and when I finally cut doors in (after welding the firebox on) I did find a thin layer of dried residue and a lot of rust. I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel and flapper discs and it looks like new where I took my time (it's a work in progress and I still need to do a final pass - see my 200 oval oil tank thread for pictures). Not having to burn it along with getting the fb on 1st limited the warping significantly.

I posted all if my calcs too if you are looking for an example. I didn't go with a warming box at this time, so I won't be of help there. Use the search functions here, that answered a lot of my questions.

Good luck on your build, it's harder than it looks!!
 
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