Convert to Reverse Flow?

[pianov]

I have a masonry offset wood-burning smoker that I built about 18 years ago. It works reasonably well.

I need to make a new top and door for it. The top and door are made of wood and were really only meant to be temporary when I built the thing so long ago. The wood is all warped and needs something new. I'll likely either make the new top out of masonry or steel.

Here are a bunch of pictures of my current setup:

 http://s275.photobucket.com/user/PianoV/library/Terry Smoker?sort=3&page=1  

The smoke comes from the firebox (FB) to the left of the cooking chamber (CC), gets spread around by the steel smoke shield in the base of the CC (works quite well) and then goes up over the meat and out the chimney on the upper-right back of the CC. When I build the new top, I can close off the original chimney location and simply tap into the new top (which I can make higher if I wish to) - so I can put the new chimney port anywhere I want really.

I hear so much about how great reverse flow is. I could easily place a steel plate over the base of my CC, leaving only a slot on the right side of the CC base. That would force all the smoke to go across the bottom of the CC, beneath the new steel plate and then up and around to the left, traveling over the meat and out a new chimney port on the far left side of the CC (above the FB).

Anyone care to comment on this thought? If I were to do something like that, how thick should the steel plate be for the base of the CC? How large should the smoke slot be (about the same size as the port between the FB and CC?)? Should I keep the new top flat like I have now to direct the flow of smoke over the meat? Would there be any advantage to making the top taller?

Sure would appreciate any thoughts. I need to make the new top and doors, but if I can improve the performance of my smoker at the same time, I sure would like to do that!

 

[gary s]

If you can move your chimney and you are going to do some rework anyway, give it a try, you have probably looked at enough RF builds to know what you have to do. If it's working good for you now why the change, I would set it up that if you don't like the RF set up you could change it back without to much problem, I like RF that is what I use, be interesting to see your conversion and how it smokes, be sure and post a lot of pictures along the way, good luck. One other thing it looks like a lot of build up, maybe from unseasoned wood or just years of use, I would clean all that up when you do your mods so everything will be fresh.

Gary s

 

[pianov]

If it's working good for you now why the change,

Well, it does seem to work well, but I have never used another smoker, nor ever even watched someone else smoke meat - I don't know anyone else that does it, so I don't have much to compare it to. Even if my current setup works well, perhaps going RF would work better!

I would set it up that if you don't like the RF set up you could change it back without to much problem,

That's a good suggestion. I'll be sure to do that. Thanks.