Hi all,
following this thread: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...sustain-big-fire-modification-project.287777/
I have done all of the work we talked about, including learning to weld in the process and have wound up with this:
The good news is I just about managed to cook a 11lbs brisket, although it did take nearly 17hrs. I cook it fat side up and wrapped in butcher paper at 6hrs.
The bad news is, although the fire management is BETTER, it's still very difficult.
I started the fire using a one full charcoal chimney with a mixture of briquettes and lump charcoal. And the the is started feed it oak.
The issue I had is that after a maybe 4 hrs or so the charcoal had petered out and I was just using the coals from the wood itself. Which really didn't seem like enough and I was led back to roughly the same problem I had in the original thread. A hard to sustain fire that need constant care and attention with very small sticks (like kindling).
I wasn't really able to control the heat of the fire with the air intake, for the most part I'd be lucky to have the fire going at all and I would be having to feed it really fine sticks. The idea of burning anything large was out of the question.
Like before I got better results if I cracked the lid of the firebox open.
So now I think I need to look into intake side of the smoker.
The firebox looks like this:
And here is an annotated diagram.
A few thoughts:
following this thread: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...sustain-big-fire-modification-project.287777/
I have done all of the work we talked about, including learning to weld in the process and have wound up with this:
The good news is I just about managed to cook a 11lbs brisket, although it did take nearly 17hrs. I cook it fat side up and wrapped in butcher paper at 6hrs.
The bad news is, although the fire management is BETTER, it's still very difficult.
I started the fire using a one full charcoal chimney with a mixture of briquettes and lump charcoal. And the the is started feed it oak.
The issue I had is that after a maybe 4 hrs or so the charcoal had petered out and I was just using the coals from the wood itself. Which really didn't seem like enough and I was led back to roughly the same problem I had in the original thread. A hard to sustain fire that need constant care and attention with very small sticks (like kindling).
I wasn't really able to control the heat of the fire with the air intake, for the most part I'd be lucky to have the fire going at all and I would be having to feed it really fine sticks. The idea of burning anything large was out of the question.
Like before I got better results if I cracked the lid of the firebox open.
So now I think I need to look into intake side of the smoker.
The firebox looks like this:
And here is an annotated diagram.
A few thoughts:
- The intake is below the fire box grate, should it be above, or perhaps the grate a bit lower, the area under the grate is nowhere near to be full of ash and debris.
- I think I should make the intake wider and longer
- May be the grate should be bob tailed so there is a larger gap for air to get drawn from the intake (you'll see there is a slight gap on the right hand side of the grate.
- I think I should build the new intake as a part of side opening door
- Perhaps I should add some intakes to the top of the FB chamber
- Finally the stack is 36" about the Cooking chamber, perhaps this is too long.
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