Backyard cooking area and smoker build.

[Starwise]

For in-between waiting and pontificating, I've started laying the fire bricks to the smoker and the grill space.

 

[JLeonard]

Im impressed already. Cant wait to see it finished!

Jim

 

[netspyder]

Question to the fabricators and welders. What would be the best way to make the hollow walls more rigid? I was first thinking of welding on 1" rods to the inner side of the outer wall, drilling an access hole to the inside wall and then welding the hole and the rod sticking through. Another option would be placing few horizontal and vertical 'slats', welded the same way. I'm not looking too much for load baring, just making the walls not flexing at all.

i'd weld those corners where the material meets and fill it with refractory cement

 

[Starwise]

Well, I realized the structure is far too flimsy. So, I built a skeleton of 1" square tubing to support in between the layers of the wall. Then tack welded the outer layer on so that it wouldn't bend too much.

 

[Starwise]

Little update here, I finished the fire chamber for the smoker, now I need to source a hefty piece of metal for the door. Well sort of, couple of the seams need little touch-up and brushing to clean everything up. I've spent all spare time over-engineering the actual smoker box, I'll post pics about that soon.

 

[Winterrider]

Heck of a build, following

 

[Starwise]

What's better than a smoker? Smoker with a rotisserie of course! And not permanently fixed in place, so that it can be removed when off chance you want to smoke something big, or two big things. This is the design I came up with for easy on - off and cleaning up as few parts as possible.

These mounting plates had to be made and welded in place between the walls before I mated the sections together. The purpose of those metal and aluminum sleeves you'll see in later pics. It took far more fabrication than I predicted to get the tolerances just right. I wanted barely an air-gap between each part, so there was a lot of drilling, fitting, filing, fitting, sanding, fitting, spot welding and then more filing and sanding. This is how the bigger sleeve looks like from the outside.

The round iron sleeve is welded on both sides of the wall, so it provides full enclosure to the walls and no chance of grease etc. ever seeping inside. I sanded them sort of flat, you can tell from the weld marks around the ring clip. With the clip in place and bearing over it, it has no room to move or fall out.

In the inside, the aluminum sleeves sit flush to the walls. With 27" bar, I think I can fit three chickens on it at the same time. With 1/2" stainless steel bar, supported by the bearings on the outside, they can be BIG chickens too.

I completely forgot to take pics before I put the ceramic wool in and set the inside wall in place and once it was seated, there was no wrestling it out anymore. It literally bound itself to the square bars and I had to use bar clamps to force it 1/8" either way to make things flush. I will run a full bead on both front corners and with insides riveted to the skeleton with 3/16" stainless blind rivets, it made the whole setup super rigid. Not to mention heavy. I think this thing weighs north of 250lb already and I'm still missing the roof and the door.

Some dimensions... when I did the trig for the rotisserie bar entry, it came to just shy of 28°. Which meant I needed 1 1/8" clearance to fit the 1/2" bar through 1 1/8" thick wall. So I made the larger aluminum sleeve from 1 1/4" round bar. The iron sleeve was made from 1 1/2" round stock to give me solid 1/8" wall for easy welding. On the other end, aluminum sleeve is from 3/4" bar and iron one from 1".
When inserting the bar, all I have to do is unbolt the bearing on the right side, push the 1 1/4" aluminum sleeve out and insert the rod. Slip the sleeve in and bolt the bearing in place. Reverse for the removal. When not in use, I will have the 1/2" holes plugged by 1" long pieces of aluminum round stock, keeping things nice and tidy.
The inside cooking area has supports for 11 shelves, in 2.5" increments. That should make enough bacon for couple meals in one sitting.

 

[Starwise]

i'd weld those corners where the material meets and fill it with refractory cement

Netspyder,
I considered that but then opted using ceramic wool as a lining.

 

[Mechanic of Smoke]

Great cooking area!
Well done and you'll definitely have it for a long time.
Nice report, stay tuned.

 

[Starwise]

Finished putting together the floor and the roof. Made a 6" smoke stack starter section first, then attached 4 'legs' which welded to the sides and then superficial rods to help welding the 4 roof sections. Those rods have really no other purpose but to soak some heat off the welding process so that I wouldn't punch holes through all over the place. My poor Harbor Freight mig welder got put to its paces with these long beads but it performed well enough.
The roof is angled 15° and beveled the same to create false flat section for the weld line.

 

[Starwise]

And then all cleaned off the weld spatter, sanded with a flapdisk and primed. I left the seams proud on purpose, not to weaken them and it is an accent to the look. The eye-hooks thread into the nuts I had welded onto the skeleton structure. Once I lift the whole thing in its place, I'll replace them with bolts.

 

[Starwise]

I took my time with the painting, applied 2 layers of high-heat enamel on all sides. Then yesterday we rigged it up and hoisted onto the platform for a dry fit. I still need to attach the gasket underneath before final seating. Work on the doors continues.

 

[jaxgatorz]

Looking great !!

 

[civilsmoker]

Very nice, in for the finish!