Is 5/16" steel pipe manageable?

[12ring]

I got a 42" piece of 5/16" steel pipe for a cc and a 24" 5/16" pipe for the fb. Both are 20" in diameter. I was thinking about cutting the cook chamber down to 36"-40" because one side of the pipe is not flush. The fire box will need to be cut as well. My question is how hard is it going to be to cut the ends and cut a door on the cc? Will it be torch cut or grinder cutting wheel cut? My buddy has the tools but I'm just trying to get some helpful info from you guys who have cut this stuff before. I wanted to go with 3/16" thick pipe but this stuff was given to me for a 18 pack of coors light so I couldn't pass it up.

 

[pdog83]

Im getting ready to start my smoker/trailer build and my cc and fb are both 26" diameter pipe 5/16 thick wall.....i used a 4.5" cut off wheel to cut my doors out,it was kind of a slow process and i went through a few wheels but im very happy with how it looks compared to using a torch. As long as you keep your lines as straight as possible and have some patience you should be ok.

 

[kam59]

5/16" is a nice wall thickness for both chamber and firebox. I prefer my torch over cut off wheels as I like the added kerf plus it is a lot quicker.  My little cooker is a 24" x 55" .375 wall chamber with a 22" square firebox 5/16" thick.

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• kam59
• May 23, 2017

 

[ahumadora]

I generally use a plasma cutter on the tanks and doors. Failing that a 9" grinder with cutoff wheels makes a nice clean cut along a scribe line.