Hey guys, new member here. Stumbled across this site when google directed me to the awesome build calculator.
Been a fan of grilling since highschool, bought a Masterbuilt Gravity series grill/smoker about a year ago, and I'm now hooked on smoking. Been wanting to dive into the offset world, just could never get myself to pull the trigger on a decent one. I love building/fabricating stuff, and when I started seeing pictures of tanks of all sorts being turned into smokers I instantly knew that was the route I'd go.
So onto the build.... My buddy had an old 60gal air compressor at the farm that locked up, which he gave me free of charge. Tag on the tank has a build date of 1966 from a barge company, and stated a thickness of .218 on the steel... perfect. I unbolted compressor and motor, those went on his scrap pile, and this came home with me.
I got the compressor mounting plate all cut off, and started laying everything out. I have not cut the legs off yet, not sure what I'm doing for a stand/cart at the moment. Figured I might as well leave those on there so I'm not fighting this thing rolling all over the place on me.
I went through all the calculations, and based my door opening off the CC/FB opening placement. I should be smidge over 4" from the RF plate to the cooking surface. Both racks will slide out, so the bottom cut is below the centerline of the tank. I laid everything out with a laser. Mainly because I'm a machinist, and it's a curse doing projects... everything's always gotta be perfect... Was a bit tricky getting the laser all lined up, but only took about 3/4 of a beer to get there.
Didn't take pictures of the whole process, but I used the laser to place my masking tape, and scored the entire perimeter with the cutoff wheel before proceeding farther.
Been a fan of grilling since highschool, bought a Masterbuilt Gravity series grill/smoker about a year ago, and I'm now hooked on smoking. Been wanting to dive into the offset world, just could never get myself to pull the trigger on a decent one. I love building/fabricating stuff, and when I started seeing pictures of tanks of all sorts being turned into smokers I instantly knew that was the route I'd go.
So onto the build.... My buddy had an old 60gal air compressor at the farm that locked up, which he gave me free of charge. Tag on the tank has a build date of 1966 from a barge company, and stated a thickness of .218 on the steel... perfect. I unbolted compressor and motor, those went on his scrap pile, and this came home with me.
I got the compressor mounting plate all cut off, and started laying everything out. I have not cut the legs off yet, not sure what I'm doing for a stand/cart at the moment. Figured I might as well leave those on there so I'm not fighting this thing rolling all over the place on me.
I went through all the calculations, and based my door opening off the CC/FB opening placement. I should be smidge over 4" from the RF plate to the cooking surface. Both racks will slide out, so the bottom cut is below the centerline of the tank. I laid everything out with a laser. Mainly because I'm a machinist, and it's a curse doing projects... everything's always gotta be perfect... Was a bit tricky getting the laser all lined up, but only took about 3/4 of a beer to get there.
Didn't take pictures of the whole process, but I used the laser to place my masking tape, and scored the entire perimeter with the cutoff wheel before proceeding farther.