Hybrid Smoker / Grill

[TSG]

First time poster but I gained a lot of great information from the board and figured I’d try to give back to the knowledge base. I also scoured the web looking for similar builds with little luck, so maybe this may help someone else in their journey.

Onto the build which as of writing is complete. The goal was primarily a grill that could also work as a halfway decent smoker (full disclosure - I haven’t smoked on it yet so it could be a bust). The build is pretty typical of what most folks are doing for smoker fabrication but with the addition of a direct propane heat source. All parts of the build were fabricated minus the propane valves / venturis.

Started with a 50 gal air compressor tank:



Greasable bullet hinges:



Bending the flanges:

And the easy part done:

 

[TSG]

That was the easy part. Not sure why all the little stuff takes so long.

Plenum for the exhaust:

Kind of hard to see in the picture but the left side is the propane grill and right side is the charcoal.

Charcoal basket and grate.

And now the burners. I bought the valves and venturis online from Texas Smokers (they have what seems like 50 side businesses/websites). The venturis accept standard 3/4” black iron pipe which were used for the burners. This was the initial thought:

128 holes and 8 bits later. Went with a 3/32 bit at 1/2” interval. Left 7” of holeless mixing length between venturi and the first set of holes.

Initial testing:

The burners are fully removable which was mandatory in my mind given that this is the usual death of most grills.

Final design. The piping is hidden under the shelf.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Looks like you got a great start there!

I wish I had the time, resources, and experience to do a build like that.

Let’s us know how it turns out!

 

[TSG]

More details.

Handle - used some iron wood out of the backyard.

Made the front shelf with a removable wood shelf so I could clean it and remove from the weather if need be. Wood is a combo of cypress and heart pine.

Hinges access for the charcoal box. Not the greatest of designs but it works.

And heat deflectors/grease guards for the burners:

 

[TSG]

Built a jig for the legs. This part took way to long and really stressed my geometry skills.

Mock up and trying to figure how to notch the legs (yes the pic is right side up).

And on all fours.

 

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Air intake.

Redneck diesel stack inspiration.

And casters so I could get it from garage to the deck.

 

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And to the finish.

And in its final resting place.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Love the redneck diesel stack you would fit in well here in Tennessee

 

[TSG]

Looks like you got a great start there!

I wish I had the time, resources, and experience to do a build like that.

Let’s us know how it turns out!

Thanks. The time is the hard part. I’m a self taught garage hack - if I can build something like this, anyone else is capable.

 

[TSG]

Love the redneck diesel stack you would fit in well here in Tennessee

I typically prefer red and black to orange. You guys need to stop stealing our staff. I grew up in GA and went to school in Western NC so I’m plenty familiar with rolling coal.

 

[Winterrider]

Darn nice grill/smoker. Some nice craftsmanship there.

 

[dcecil]

thats a great lookin build, cant wait to see some of your cooks on the new cooker

 

[TSG]

Darn nice grill/smoker. Some nice craftsmanship there.

thats a great lookin build, cant wait to see some of your cooks on the new cooker

Thanks. It’s only been done a week and the weather hasn’t been great for smoking. I’ll post up with some cook results soon.

Here is my real smoker - this was my first build. This one just takes more effort to get out and going. Probably try some shorter smoke time items (ribs, wings, etc) on the new one to try it out.

 

[dcecil]

Thats a great looking reverse flow. You obviously know what your doin.

 

[TSG]

Took her for a test run today. Definitely not as hands off as a traditional smoker but it did worked pretty well.

 

[Hawging It]

Awesome man!