I posted a while ago with pics of the "first generation" home-built tube, I've refined the design slightly, and added a "foot", so it's time for more pictures.
The reason this tube came about is the surgeon who worked on my knee is retiring, over the last ten years we've kinda become "buds in the smoke", lol. We discovered a mutual love of BBQ etc, and have been exchanging recipes and ideas ever since. He's the one who introduced me to Sous Vide and Spatchcock.
I decided I'd build him a tube & maze as a retirement gift, the tube above is the result. The "foot" was a happy accident, it was laying in the scrap bin at work, already bent. All I needed to do was trim it to size & round the corners. The holes are the smallest slot punch we have here at work, the tube started as a 6" x 12" piece of sheet metal. As we don't have a roller small enough for a 2" tube, I tacked one edge to a piece of pipe and formed it around the pipe with a vice & hammer, once close to where I wanted it, I cut the tacks & "massaged" it together with the hammer & got it stitched with the MIG welder. This tube came out a little closer to round than the first. :cool:
The maze was built out of some 1/4" perforated sheet (the holes are 1/4", sheet is probably 12 gauge or so). The legs are 1/4" bolts w/ two nuts sandwiching the floor plate.
I built these 5" x 8" x 2" deep. I did a first-gen unit a couple of weeks ago that wasn't quite this big & got almost 16 hours of smoke out of a filling of pellets.
The astute among us will notice there are two mazes in the pic, I'm gonna give the second one a good home... :D
One more pic, just for scale...
The reason this tube came about is the surgeon who worked on my knee is retiring, over the last ten years we've kinda become "buds in the smoke", lol. We discovered a mutual love of BBQ etc, and have been exchanging recipes and ideas ever since. He's the one who introduced me to Sous Vide and Spatchcock.
I decided I'd build him a tube & maze as a retirement gift, the tube above is the result. The "foot" was a happy accident, it was laying in the scrap bin at work, already bent. All I needed to do was trim it to size & round the corners. The holes are the smallest slot punch we have here at work, the tube started as a 6" x 12" piece of sheet metal. As we don't have a roller small enough for a 2" tube, I tacked one edge to a piece of pipe and formed it around the pipe with a vice & hammer, once close to where I wanted it, I cut the tacks & "massaged" it together with the hammer & got it stitched with the MIG welder. This tube came out a little closer to round than the first. :cool:
The maze was built out of some 1/4" perforated sheet (the holes are 1/4", sheet is probably 12 gauge or so). The legs are 1/4" bolts w/ two nuts sandwiching the floor plate.
I built these 5" x 8" x 2" deep. I did a first-gen unit a couple of weeks ago that wasn't quite this big & got almost 16 hours of smoke out of a filling of pellets.
The astute among us will notice there are two mazes in the pic, I'm gonna give the second one a good home... :D
One more pic, just for scale...
