Finally Got my 500 Gallon

[Meat&Smoke]

It’s easier to control airflow with dampers then by just adjusting the opening of the door. Do you have any type of damper on your stack? Sounds like air (heat) isn’t moving through your smoker fast enough and that is creating the uneven temps. I usually have about a 5 degree temp difference across the grates on my 500 gallon tank smoker

No damper on the stack. And now I understand what you mean, is it possible my exhaust collector isn’t big enough, it doesn’t quite go across the tank

 

[smokin peachey]

No damper on the stack. And now I understand what you mean, is it possible my exhaust collector isn’t big enough, it doesn’t quite go across the tank

I was going to mention the possibly of the exhaust collector not being big enough. Stack diameter and size are also important.

 

[daspyknows]

Wow. Amazing smoker. Gonna make some smokin bbq on that beast.

 

[Danabw]

OMG, congratulations on your new beast. Very impressive, and you clearly have a great wife.

 

[Meat&Smoke]

Wow. Amazing smoker. Gonna make some smokin bbq on that beast.

Working on it, once I get the draw figured out I will be good.

 

[Meat&Smoke]

OMG, congratulations on your new beast. Very impressive, and you clearly have a great wife.

She is Second to none, Thank You

 

[Meat&Smoke]

No damper on the stack. And now I understand what you mean, is it possible my exhaust collector isn’t big enough, it doesn’t quite go across the tank

I was hoping you didnt agree, Im sure my metal guy is going to hate me. lol

 

[smokin peachey]

I was hoping you didnt agree, Im sure my metal guy is going to hate me. lol

This works good for me. I slide a piece of stove pice over this section of stack. Stove pipe has a damper in the pipe. Works great.

 

[Meat&Smoke]

Just got the smoker back from the welder and we fixed it. Thanks Peachey I made the exhaust chamber significantly bigger and added a deflector in the CC. Temps are about 20 degrees different from left to right but I see that the doors don’t create a perfect seal. Going to get some gasket material and see if that fixes it and evens everything all the way out. But the draw is awesome and he added a damper as well. Tomorrow doing a couple of pork butts for the maiden voyage. Very forgiving since I’m still learning this beast!!

 

[smokin peachey]

Looks good. It might run more even after you get everything heated up and it settles in. Depending on how I have my dampers set I can have anywhere from 0 to 20 degrees of difference across my grate. Look forward to seeing some meat in that bad boy tomorrow

 

[Meat&Smoke]

I love how you designed your smoker, did you coat the outside with anything to protect it?

I coated it with beef tallow and it’s pretty cool to see the metal evolve.

 

[Meat&Smoke]

Looks good. It might run more even after you get everything heated up and it settles in. Depending on how I have my dampers set I can have anywhere from 0 to 20 degrees of difference across my grate. Look forward to seeing some meat in that bad boy tomorrow

I agree. I’ve had a fire in it EVERY day just trying to get familiar with it. What I have seen is that after about 40 minutes it levels out pretty good and takes minimal wood to maintain temp since the firebox is insulated

 

[spudthegreater]

I saw a video where a guy cleaned the outside off then heated up sections of it with a weed killer flame torch (Propane) then rubbed boiled linseed oil on it. Not sure im a fan of the method, but it was interesting.

 

[Meat&Smoke]

That’s different, what affect did it give the smoker?

 

[cysmoker]

I saw a video where a guy cleaned the outside off then heated up sections of it with a weed killer flame torch (Propane) then rubbed boiled linseed oil on it. Not sure im a fan of the method, but it was interesting.

I'm going to try this on mine. You can also heat it up from the inside. You don't want to just build a fire to heat it up because you can get soot/grease on the outside which will effect the bind of the linseed oil. I painted my smoker with high temp paint, so I'm going to try a small section and see how it comes out before I coat the whole thing. If it looks good I'm going to do the rest of it.

 

[shaneb56]

Nice build!! I'm in the middle of a 500 gallon build myself. It's an underground tank manufactured in 1956 so I'm stripping it down to bare metal and I'm going to do the linseed oil. This thread is super inspiring!!! Thanks for sharing.