- Feb 22, 2017
- 70
- 17
So this may be a little odd but I'm not quite sure what I've gotten myself into. I have a buddy who is a chef and I can weld. He's a good/legit chef... like the kind that went to school to learn to cook. He's the one who wants the smoker. (not really me... I just said I'd help so we'll see where this goes)
I know very little about smokers. I've been reading everything I can for the past couple days. I'm learning that my gut feelings/guesses/assumptions were pretty spot on about hot & cold spots with cross flow (didn't know what it was called initially), importance of dampers, sizing & placement of the chimney... as well as baffles and importance of even heat distribution. There is a whole lot more to these things than I initially thought!
I think what we want is a reverse flow (RF) offset but I still have no clue and in my mind, offset placement of the firebox seems like more of an aesthetic thing --shouldn't really matter where the flames are as long as you can evenly distribute heat into the cooking chamber... but I could be completely wrong. My experience with smokers and smoking up to this point has been joining a competition (once, 6 years ago) as the token beer b*tch (keep the cooler full and hang out)... But I did zero cooking and I know nothing about that smoker.
What we have:
2x 275-gallon oil tanks (we might even have access to a 3rd)
3x 55gal drums (can get more)
3x 35gal drums (can get more)
several gas grills I've picked up off the side of the road or gotten free from CL, etc.
couple of metal desk & cabinet frames (all mild steel)
couple two drawer filing cabinets (mild steel)
a ton of bed frames (spring steel, bad to weld)
access to a bunch of old boat trailers (mostly junk/rusty but can prob get enough to make a good platform trailer)
Ummm... what else... I'm a car guy (restoring one, race one) so I've got a bunch of mild steel plate, flat and angle stock, exhausts, pipe bender... I just redid the plumbing and heating in our house so I've bot a bunch of extra copper fittings & stuff like ball valves. Have a bunch of random black pipe and metal conduit... I'm insulating our home so have some Roxul Safe'n'Sound as well as Safe 45 sheets. Also do my own boiler ever year so have some kaowool...
I'd love a bigger shop (wouldn't everyone) than I have but right now it's just a 25x25 2-car garage. I don't have a full metal fabrication shop but I've got a 5' brake, couple drill presses, small lathe, table & chop saws... I have 208Y power so I can have fun toys (good welders).
So I guess that's about it. I'm not really sure where to start. I'd like to use one of the 275 gallon oil tanks as the smoker. It would probably be better to take one of those 35-gal drums and turn it into a charcoal grill because the steel is so thin. Not sure if we should stand up the tank and put racks in it or lay it flat. No clue where you start in terms of sizing the firebox or calculating sizes, etc.
He wants to enter a pretty big state competition in June and he doesn't even have a small little box-store smoker to practice with so I have my work cutout for me... Any advice would be much appreciated!
I know very little about smokers. I've been reading everything I can for the past couple days. I'm learning that my gut feelings/guesses/assumptions were pretty spot on about hot & cold spots with cross flow (didn't know what it was called initially), importance of dampers, sizing & placement of the chimney... as well as baffles and importance of even heat distribution. There is a whole lot more to these things than I initially thought!
I think what we want is a reverse flow (RF) offset but I still have no clue and in my mind, offset placement of the firebox seems like more of an aesthetic thing --shouldn't really matter where the flames are as long as you can evenly distribute heat into the cooking chamber... but I could be completely wrong. My experience with smokers and smoking up to this point has been joining a competition (once, 6 years ago) as the token beer b*tch (keep the cooler full and hang out)... But I did zero cooking and I know nothing about that smoker.
What we have:
2x 275-gallon oil tanks (we might even have access to a 3rd)
3x 55gal drums (can get more)
3x 35gal drums (can get more)
several gas grills I've picked up off the side of the road or gotten free from CL, etc.
couple of metal desk & cabinet frames (all mild steel)
couple two drawer filing cabinets (mild steel)
a ton of bed frames (spring steel, bad to weld)
access to a bunch of old boat trailers (mostly junk/rusty but can prob get enough to make a good platform trailer)
Ummm... what else... I'm a car guy (restoring one, race one) so I've got a bunch of mild steel plate, flat and angle stock, exhausts, pipe bender... I just redid the plumbing and heating in our house so I've bot a bunch of extra copper fittings & stuff like ball valves. Have a bunch of random black pipe and metal conduit... I'm insulating our home so have some Roxul Safe'n'Sound as well as Safe 45 sheets. Also do my own boiler ever year so have some kaowool...
I'd love a bigger shop (wouldn't everyone) than I have but right now it's just a 25x25 2-car garage. I don't have a full metal fabrication shop but I've got a 5' brake, couple drill presses, small lathe, table & chop saws... I have 208Y power so I can have fun toys (good welders).
So I guess that's about it. I'm not really sure where to start. I'd like to use one of the 275 gallon oil tanks as the smoker. It would probably be better to take one of those 35-gal drums and turn it into a charcoal grill because the steel is so thin. Not sure if we should stand up the tank and put racks in it or lay it flat. No clue where you start in terms of sizing the firebox or calculating sizes, etc.
He wants to enter a pretty big state competition in June and he doesn't even have a small little box-store smoker to practice with so I have my work cutout for me... Any advice would be much appreciated!
