Cant get custom smoker hot enough

[Louielab]

I recently bought a custom made smoker pretty reasonably priced and for my first time using it could not get the temp above 150 degrees. Used lump charcoal, and cherry wood and would have struggled to get a bigger fire in the box. Besides the holes around the base of the fire box which I plan to drill out larger there isn't any way to get better air flow. Looking for suggestions.
cabinet is about 4' long by 2' wide weighs probably 150 lbs. The fire box is a 1/4 inch steel casing of some sort and weighs about the same.

 

[krj]

Yea, that is not nearly enough airflow into the firebox to get any heat at all. If it was me, I'd expand each of the 4? holes to 2" diameter and add adjustable dampers to each of them. This was you can dial in your air flow.

Personally, I wouldn't make any changes to anything else until you accomplish the above. Do another couple test runs after that to see how she run's, and then come back and we can look at other options.

One problem at a time sarge. One problem at a time. <- look up that if you want to read a funny story, and get a good piece of advice.

 

[sawhorseray]

Welcome Louie! With the smoke and heat having to travel about three feet to the cooking chamber thru that 4" pipe it's gonna take a bonfire to get it up to temp I'd think. RAY

 

[fivetricks]

Tell me, does the lid get crazy hot? Maybe try cracking the lid juuuust a bit then next time you fire it up and see if your temps go up. You may just need a higher inlet so the heat actually travels up into the pipe rather than getting trapped at the lid of the fb