Hello from Western Australia

[Clive]

Hi, I am a retired metal worker and know absolutely nothing about smoking, my only ever experience was about 40 years ago when I smoked a couple of fish in. 5 gallon tin with sawdust and a methylated spirits burner. I am building my smoker first so will probably have a few stupid questions.
Thanks for having me.

 

[SonnyE]

Hi Clive!
Welcome to

I spent many fun decades using home built smokers of various types.
I'd bet you could build a totally righteous smoker! Great project!

 

[kruizer]

Welcome to SMF from Minnesota, USA. There are no stupid questions.

 

[noboundaries]

Clive, welcome to SMF from California!

Smoking is easy; Heat, Good Fuel, and Air make bad smoke. Add a little Time and you get good smoke. Throw in the meat, add more Time, and you've got Heaven on your taste buds. Rubs optional, but delicious.

Enjoy the forum!

Ray

 

[Tex1911]

Welcome my friend. Thats great you decided to build your own. The good thing about DIY pits is they are really hard to screw up. Yeah, maybe it wont be competition ready but with all pits, you just have to learn what it wants. Theres always a way to tame the monster, trial and error usually brings out the answer. Good luck with it and keep smokin.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Well I can't wait to see the things you'll smoke! My aussie net friends always seem confused by BBQ because alot of what we do isn't down there! <I heard if I visit I need to fear drop bears..! ;)>

 

[motocrash]

G'day mate! You're the second Aussie to join today!
Say mate,where are the buns buried?

 

[Clive]

Thanks everyone, I am currently welding up the firebox, Daveomak put me on to a calculator and said which parameters need to be changed.

 

[DueNorth]

Welcome Clive, from British Columbia, Canada

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome to the site, happy to have ya join up.

Chris

 

[JC in GB]

Welcome from Wisconsin. Happy smoking. Did you post pics of your smoker?

 

[Clive]

Welcome from Wisconsin. Happy smoking. Did you post pics of your smoker?

No, I have just welded up the firebox at this stage, I will take photos as I go, I need to get some more steel before doing much more. But I will post when I get more photos.

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!
Looking forward to seeing you build!
Al

 

[SonnyE]

Thanks everyone, I am currently welding up the firebox, Daveomak put me on to a calculator and said which parameters need to be changed.

Dave is a great friend and mentor. Straight as a new arrow with his advice.

 

[gary s]

Good Morning and Welcome from a Sunny and Cool East Texas

Gary

 

[JC in GB]

No, I have just welded up the firebox at this stage, I will take photos as I go, I need to get some more steel before doing much more. But I will post when I get more photos.

Just one word of advice... I am not sure how you plan to handle your air intake but if you are looking to maybe add a thermal controller to your smoker, you may want to check out what is available in order to understand what kind of air intake will work best for the controller air flange. There are some good quality controllers available commercially or you can get yourself a PID controller and whip up a nice DIY unit for under $100. I am in the process of getting that done myself. I have the electrical knowledge I need for this but I can't weld for crap. Thus, I am at the mercy of a machine shop until they can get around to making my prototype flange. :(

 

[flatbroke]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Clive]

Just one word of advice... I am not sure how you plan to handle your air intake but if you are looking to maybe add a thermal controller to your smoker, you may want to check out what is available in order to understand what kind of air intake will work best for the controller air flange. There are some good quality controllers available commercially or you can get yourself a PID controller and whip up a nice DIY unit for under $100. I am in the process of getting that done myself. I have the electrical knowledge I need for this but I can't weld for crap. Thus, I am at the mercy of a machine shop until they can get around to making my prototype flange. :(

JC, originally I was going to make slides in the door with 80% of inlet at the bottom and 20% at the top but might make a half circle at the bottom. Very much manually operated. The beer barrel is smaller than most offsets being 18” long x 14.5 diameter. It only required a 10” square firebox but I made it 17.5” long x 11.75 high x 11.25 wide because of the steel I had available. With that shape if I just cut out a rectangle for the door and put a lip flange round it the area for the vent is smaller because of the lip. I’m toying wether to do that or get some more steel and have a bigger door. One of the reasons I’m not rushing it. Due to the shape of the drum ends I am going to inlet the box into the drum rather than just weld it on the end.

 

[JC in GB]

Do you happen to have a skecth of what you are doing? A picture worth 1000 words and all that. Sounds like the start of a very nice unit. Anyway, I am not trying to be critical but hindsight is always 20/20. If I had to buy the same smoker again, I would go for the circular vents as I could have made a flange or of a coffee can instead of designing and contacting out a custom flange. Just my $0.02.... I wish you success in your project and can't wait to see some pics of your design.

 

[Clive]

JC, this is the box, 17.5 long, 11.75 high x 11.25 wide.