Intake styles?

[ribwizzard]

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• ribwizzard
• Mar 1, 2014

 

[daveomak]

WOW....... That's a work of art....

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• ribwizzard
• Mar 1, 2014

 

[rikun]

That's awesome.

If you'd only make one row of intakes above fire, which one would it be? The lower one?

I think two rows is way too hard to fabricate for my first smoker.

 

[gary s]

Just take your time and lay it out, check, re-check and check again before making your cuts. Ask Rib he probably has pictures and can guid you through.

Gary

 

[rikun]

Is 5/16" of overlap on all sides of the holes enough for the pie vent?

 

[ribwizzard]

I'd say that's fine for rough cut, gives you some room to work with when you polish it out.

 

[crazyq]

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• crazyq
• Mar 10, 2014

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• crazyq
• Mar 10, 2014

 

[rikun]

I'm going to cut it with cnc plasma, so no rough cut required (hopefully) :D

 

[rikun]

Finally got something done,

Most of the cuts went fine, but the first cut didn't penetrate fully (too fast feedrate). Of course the first cut was one of the pie vent intakes ;) Gotta do some manual work with plasma on that one, otherwise they look pretty good and accurate enough. I might have gone a bit overboard on the size of that pie vent, but oh well :D

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• rikun
• Mar 29, 2014

 

[daveomak]

You can always tack a plate on the back to plug the hole.... or make the pies smaller..... Dave

 

[ribwizzard]

You putting the pie vent on the bottom?

 

[rikun]

Yeah it's on the bottom :-)

 

[rikun]

How much clearance you need for the slide not to bind? I guess it should be somewhat snug so minimal amount of air leaks around the slide, but still allow some wiggle room for heat expansion and such...?

 

[maple sticks]

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• ribwizzard
• Mar 1, 2014

Have you ever used just the top vents? I feed air to my fire from above it.

 

[gary s]

I just got the mod's finished up, I'll post some more pictures in the thread I started yesterday

Gary S

 

[rikun]

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• ribwizzard
• Mar 1, 2014

What's the idea of the screws? Do you have springs under them to keep tension on the intake slides? Or are they there just for easy removal?

 

[uga fan]

I made my sliding dampers out of 1/4" stainless.. 2 1/2“ holes and 1/2" stainless bolts. Drilled through and tacked some 1/4“ stainless round stock on the backside and covered the end with heat shrink.. Works like a charm!!

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• uga fan
• May 4, 2014

 

[ribwizzard]

My frame is 1/4" x 1/2" flat bar welded to the door, with 3/16" sliders, topped by a removable top frame screwed on.

A-This allowed me to paint all parts front and back for no rust

B- This allows me to fine tune the slides by use of shims to get the right feel. As of yet, there are no shims and the 1/16" gap feels good. But once I fire it up and it gets hot, I will be able to adjust them if needed.

C- I build for long term use, years from now, when there is a build up of grime, dirt, ash or whatever, I will be able to disassemble and clean the slider assembly. On pie vents, I use cylinder head valve springs to maintain good seal, and all hardware is stainless.

 

[rikun]

I kinda figured that,

I think I'm going to go with similar configuration, I already cut flat bar of similar thickness of the intake slider to be welded on the door. Then I'll add shims (since there's no gap by design) and bolt on the top frame. I was thinking of using springs instead of shims, but shims are so much easier...

 

[ribwizzard]

I did one one time where I cut some thin gauge strapping a little bit longer in length that the inside length of my slider frame. My thought was that the bow in the strapping would act as a spring against the slider and keep tension on the slider while still allowing it to slide easy.

Worked good ....in my mind. But in the world of cookers, where ash, heat, and grime come into play, it turned into a pain in the butt!

One of my machinist built his own cooker a couple of years ago. Perfect build. Fit and finish was perfect! Though he was going to show me up! But once it got up to temperature, the door wouldn't shut, the slides wouldn't move, and the sliding racks got jammed . His tolerances were way too tight.

I explained to him like this; you tried to build your cooker like a Ar15, a precision instrument , but it needs to be built like a AK47, with plenty of slop! He's not much of a gun person, not sure he understood.....