first rf build with a question

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so I ended up doing a brisket yesterday..honestly it came out with great flavor...tender..but dry (first one ever so expected something along that line) Anywhooo....ended up working the whole day away on the grill and got pretty far. Here are some pics


here is the back and the top of the fire box.. the back is 1/4 inch steel the top is 3/16 diamond plate that I had left over from the door. It might be awhile before I can finish the fire box due to the metal yard being low on reminants. But I'm checking dang near daily so you never know what will end up there and when.


I got the top of the fb welded to the tank and I also got the smoke stack finished by filling in all the holes around it......oh and I'm starting to play around with the colors if you couldn't tell lol


I also got the rf plate in. took a little bit of fanalging and a bit of cutting on it but there it is. I also got the angle iron and expanded metal for the grates I just havent made it yet. So I'll have the total guts of the grill done within the week if not the next two days. I'm kinda layed up sick right now


I'm not sure if you can tell the hole at the end there but I did make it a tad bit smaller than the fb to cc hole. I wanted to choke the heat there a little bit due to the results of the grills that ribwizard has had with this method. I like to go low and slow but if I can raise the heat maybe 25 degrees so I'd be around the 250-275 range I'd be a happy camper.
 
actually yeah I was gonna go with the john deere colors. Since we live rural and down the road from an orchard and a tree farm john deere is a staple around here and my little boy loves them and told me we should do the colors. He has been helping me alot with this project (as much as a little boy can do anyway) so I thought that if he wanted john deere colors it wasent gonna hurt..besides I like the colors as well
 
also I was wanting some feedback on the fb...I seem to have trouble with ash after a few hours of cooking so I was thinking of making the bottom of the fb slope out to the front so that way the ash falls out on its own and I could use the ash fall out hole as part of the air intake.
 
Im playing around with a simular ideal right now,   I usually go a pie vent with a tray underneath it, but considering different ideals before cutting into this current build, I just havnt had much time to let my mind wonder.
 
well I'm glad to see that I have had the same idea as one of the good pit builders. So I'm gonna go foward with that idea....hopefully I'll be able to find the metal to finish before thanksgiving...I'd love to see this bad boy cookin some turkey.
 
I actually got the idea from when I moded out my box brinkman smoker. I cut out the bottom of the tray and cut out some sheetmetal to put around the tray because the air was coming in up and out without ever going near the coals which was in the middle of the box. Before the mods I was lucky to get 125 degrees in the cc and I got the thing to be a little more efficiant with the coal if I was just doing a roast or sumptin. After the mods it stays at 250-275 and I can jump it for chicken without a problem. I was gonna do a coal basket in the fb for the big one and make it where the air intakes were below the basket and the only way for the air to get in was to be forced through the coals. So hence the ash chute to get rid of the stuff and to help for air flow so I dont choke out my fire. here are some pics of the mods I did to the square smoker.




this is what I did to the tray..cut out the bottom and put in some expanded metal into the bottom. As you can see I had tried to drill holes into the bottom of the tray but it just wasent efficient enough.



Then I took the frame that the tray sits in and cut out some sheet metal that I had laying around..that way its a solid piece




so you see how it all fits in together...now that its one solid piece the air coming in under the basket is forced through the coals and now this little thing is a beast. dynimate right?
 
Now we are going back some years, what I did on that box smoker was home depot sold a stainless steel vege basket for the grill, it fit perfectly where the wire frame for the bowl sits, then I moved the bowl under it to catch the ash.
 
huh....well I had some extra stuff laying around so thats what I ended up using lol although I do have another tray from another egg smoker that was total crap no matter how I moded it. I put that under to catch the ash. But what I started doing was putting the wood for the smoke under the tray and it smokes real good there...if I put it up top it just catches fire without smoking. so I havent used an ash trap for a little while.
 
My biggest problem was when the water ran out , the grease would burn in the pan and make a nasty smell/taste to the food,  I saw a thread on here somewhere where a guy made an off set smoker out of one of those, looked cool.
 
I did the same as RW  went to Lowe's and bought an inexpensive SS rack. Also had the water problem also. What I did was the last thing before turning in was to fill my water pan as full as I could get it and get up in time to refill it before it ran out. Was batting about 70 / 30  Thought of increasing the size, but never did, Only use my ECB every once in a while. On my RF I just set a aluminum pan ( like the kind you get at the grocery store to cook a turkey in.) set it under my bottom rack and on top of my RF plate works great, Clean up is easy just throw it away.

Gary
 
I don't usually use water on my pits any more. The only time I do is when cooking a bunch of chicken, like a case or more, and there is too much grease going on. Water, or steam, in the smoker creates a bit different taste, it doesn't produce that real sweet smoke flavor I try for, seems to produce a bit stronger flavor. Seems to change the color some as well, making it more "brown" than amber, and I'm real particular about how my ribs look as well as taste.

My Dad uses water, along with some of my friends, and there is not a darn thing wrong with their BBQ, its just a personal preference in how I like to serve my ribs, that's all.
 
The neat thing about a water pan is, Hey if you want water fill it up and set it inside, if you don't leave it out.

Gary
 
my biggest thing is that some of the fb is exposed inside of the cc as its part of the rfp. So I think either way I was gonna put a pan there with some sand in it so that way I dont get a huge heat spot
 
i lined the top of my firebox with firebrick to help prevent hotspots
 
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