Hybrid smoker, first build.

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jonnyrod

Fire Starter
Original poster
Nov 23, 2010
38
10
Pasadena, Tx
I have been working on this smoker for about three months as time permits. This is my first build so be easy on the newbie
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 The main cook chamber is 24" x 72", the upright is 20" x 42" and the fire box is 24" cubed. Here are a few pics of the build along the way up until now. The first is the main chamber with the tuning plates fit up. The second is the carbon to stainless welded together. The third is the box tacked up. I used 3/8ths 304 stainless plate for the bottom and back splash, the rest is 3/8ths carbon.

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Nice work.

I would have to guess from the looks of the pipe, plate, the 304, and the good looking beads that maybe you have an inside track on your metal supply.

Once again, great work. I look forward to watching the progress.
 
Thanks y'all, it's a labor of love. Tom, I'm not on my tools anymore but fortunately I still have my connections for material. I do all my own work here at home at my leisure with cold beer and I use my kids as helpers.
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Here is the fire box with the grate installed. I used 5/8ths 316 round stock and 1/4" x 2" x 2" 316 angle iron. I like the grate but after tacking it in I decided to cut it out and reinforce the sides of the firebox first. The stainless draws so much when welding it bowed the sides. I will make it removable later after the door is finished and the box is welded to the main cook chamber.

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Okay, one more for tonight.......... I cut the end caps out of 1/4" plate and tacked them up to reduce the distortion from cutting the doors. Here it is with caps taked and doors cut. I cut the corners first then ran a short bead of p-5 to tack them back before I cut the long runs. This keeps the door from falling in and lessens distortion of the doors from all the heat generated from the cut. I will weld in the hinges before cutting the corner tacks out with a 4 & 1/2" grinder and Motabo wheel. This is a rolled joint of pipe and they will spring after cutting, I'll deal with that later. The second pic is the stainless hinges I made. All this so far is only stick rod welding, I won't break out the Tig rig until I get to the stacks. Any input is appreciated.

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Looks like you got a handle on it
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 I agree with the removable rack in the FB, I was going to weld a permanent rack in my FB with a removable ash pan underneath. But by the time I reached this part of the build I had realized the plans change as you build! It's nice to know what direction your going but you have to adapt as you go, as anyone here will tell you. Great build and lookin' forward to some Q-veiw!
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Looks like you got a handle on it
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 I agree with the removable rack in the FB, I was going to weld a permanent rack in my FB with a removable ash pan underneath. But by the time I reached this part of the build I had realized the plans change as you build! It's nice to know what direction your going but you have to adapt as you go, as anyone here will tell you. Great build and lookin' forward to some Q-veiw!
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True that, one of the benefits of building it yourself....you don't have to settle. Hey it's steel, if you screw up cut it out and do it again.
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Looks Great,

I really like the looks of the hinges, they should hold up for a year or two at least.

I take it you must have worked pipeline, looks like you still have a pretty steady hand. Is the door cut with plasma freehand?

The only thing I can freehand is pencil scribbles, and I'm not even that go at that.

I recently went back to using the buzz box working on my trailer since its way nicer to drag lead around vs the whole mig cart. I never used it much on the thin stuff until I bought some 6013 3/32. I was impressed at what I could turn out even with my poor skills. I must admit, sometimes I reach for the flux core machine if I'm working in one spot.

We have a can of 5p sitting at work that I think needs to come home for me to play with. Its been sitting there for at least 5 years now, will have to ask around the shop and see if they want me to help them clean up a bit.

I will be paying close attention to the fix for the sprung doors, I can tell its gonna be one for me to take notes on, for future reference.

Since you mentioned tig, here is my beer chicken holder. A friend made these for us a couple years back, several for chickens out of 2" and a couple for turkeys out of 4" They work fantastic since they really take on the heat and help the chicken cook from the inside as well as the outside.

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Thanks Tom, yes I grew up around pipeline. My family's business was a natural gas pipeline service Kansas when I was a kid. My first job was at 15 hot doping joints for underground. I think the box of 5-p finding it's way to your house is a good idea. Stick welding is way cooler than mig welding, a monkey can run a mig gun. The cuts are plasma freehand and I still need to practice, I still like my Victor with a double ought tip. I like the beer can chicken holder, I have made a few tandem units for friends over the years but never had one myself. As far as the door fix goes, I will do a step by step if you like and you don't need a bunch of fancy tools to get er' done.
 
You have great skills, I hope there is someone in the family you can pass these on to. I've been around welding all my life but I was always the helper/holder and hardly ever even got close to a hood. By the time girls came along they became more interesting then the welding. Life passed by and several years back I decided I wanted to smoke. I went to reading, learning and asking questions. Here I am now.

BTW..... I thought my vertical up was getting better until I looked at your firebox, I'm still pretty low on the food chain after seeing your welds.

My hats off to ya, very nice work.

I will stay tuned for the door fix.
 
Great looking build and I'm looking forward to the step by step door fix as well as more pics of your build
 
I started adding some reinforcement to the firebox. I have a bunch of 3" c-channel I am using for this, it isn't pretty but should hold everything in place when I weld out the rest of the box. I also got busy with the cleaning of the upright portion of the smoker. I think it came from an offshore oil rig and was used as an accumulator for sludge. I took it to work and steamed it for 2 days, then blasted about 4 thousand gallons of super heated water through it from a reactor that was in clean out.  

 


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WOW,sweet build.its nice seeing someone with skill work.How much pressure are you pushing thru that tank?Also will this be a trailer rig or stationary
 
Looking good, the firebox outta stay square for a while.

What rod did you run on the FB corners and also on the channel reinforcement?

I brought home about 8 lbs of the 5P (red rod) and spent part of today wrapping my brain reading about it.
 
Thanks Bamaboy, it will be trailer mounted. That was only about 30 pounds of pressure but the temp in the reactor was 285F so it looks a lot meaner than it was.

Tom, I used 309L on the carbon to stainless. I always run a root pass of 5-p then cap it with lo-hy on the carbon to carbon. I like that red rod for structural stuff and anything that can't be cleaned really good. It's a good penetrating rod and you can run it hot enough to burn out most of the impurities, especially good for welding galvanized or rusty stuff. 
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Thank You for the info. When I was looking at the top of the fire box I was thinking to myself, if thats a xx10 or xx11 rod, that I really had a long ways to go.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm sure you have better weather then I do right now. Kinda chilly here today.
 
Thank You for the info. When I was looking at the top of the fire box I was thinking to myself, if that's a xx10 or xx11 rod, that I really had a long ways to go.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm sure you have better weather then I do right now. Kinda chilly here today.
I think your weather made it down here, we had a 40 degree temp drop. I won't seal weld the bracing, it's not necessary i.m.o. That last pic is the firebox upside down with the stainless plate looking up. The 309L is only good for flat and horizontal so I have to wrestle that thing into position for those welds.
 
 
I am almost finished with the connector for the upright portion of the smoker finished. I wanted something a little different and something that won't rust or need a lot of maintenance. I built the first one out of 6" sched 10 316 ss but it seemed a little light so I made another out of sched 40.

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