Propane tank build

[parrish15]

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• parrish15
• Jan 17, 2015

 

[lendecatural]

One thing about this group, most of us are WAAAAY ahead of you at making mistakes, and the rest are dreaming up new ones!

 

[wolfman1955]

 
One thing about this group, most of us are WAAAAY ahead of you at making mistakes, and the rest are dreaming up new ones!

Yes we all make mistakes and sometimes they deal with

Hang in there and keep your metal clean.

Keep Smokin!!!

Wolf

 

[curtisimo81]

Thank you all for the tips..  I am new to this whole metal building stuff..  I have welded in the past (like 15 years ago) but not professionally and it was just messing around with my dad's welder.  Any tips are greatly appreciated.  The good thing about having stuff  critiqued is you can learn from your mistakes.  This build has been a great learning experiance and I'm sure it won't be my last.  

 

[curtisimo81]

Ok so I got a lot done this past week. All I have to do is figure out my fb vents and mount my thermometers. Here are some pics of the progress.

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 24, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 24, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 24, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 24, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 24, 2015

 

[gary s]

Looking Nice    real nice 

Gary

 

[curtisimo81]

Thanks

 

[lendecatural]

Good to see it in one piece!! And glad we could help, how doe she cook?

 

[daveomak]

The mounted therms will NOT tell you what the temp is on the cooking grate where the meat is.....   They will be an indicator... you will need to place a remote therm on the cooking rack and gauge the difference between the reading and adjust accordingly....  

 

[curtisimo81]

Ok so with the first burn I'm having problems keeping my fire going with fb door shut. There is still good flow out the smoke stack but fire burns down and temp drops. If I open door and leave it cracked the fire goes back up. Is my lower vent to small or possibly not low enough?

 

[lendecatural]

Go back and calculate the intake area needed from this link and check it against what you have:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...and-others-test-calculator-rev-3#post_1264161

 

[daveomak]

Lower air inlet needs to be below the fire grate...  upper across from the FB/CC opening...

 

[curtisimo81]

Dave the upper is across from the cc opening but due to my fb being circular and me not compensating in the door to have two vents. I had to put my lower vent on the side. My lower vent is circular and has a diameter of 7 1/2 inches. I found the center and drew a cross and then cut my pies out. My upper vent is 5 inches and did the same. The lower vent is under my fb grate. While I was burning the wind was blowing from west to east and my fb was in the east so I don't think the wind had anything to do with it. With a good fire I could only get temps upto 275 and that was with fb door open about 3 inches. Could I make another vent to compensate the differences? Then I would have that much more control over my fire or should I just make my lower vent bigger? By the way I great flow going through cc and only ranging about 5 to 10 degree difference from fb side to turn side.

 

[daveomak]

7.5" pie vent can only have about 20 sq. in. max. opening...

Recently, a member used a piece of channel, welded to the bottom of his round FB to make air inlets...     Adjust the size of the channel and holes to your smoker size...  The holes probably only need to be about 80% of the recommended because of the upper air inlets...

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• daveomak
• Jan 26, 2015

 

[curtisimo81]

So I tried the smoker out. I believe the reason I couldn't keep my fire going was because of the recent rain we had. I think my wood was still wet. I got some pecan and smoked these on the smoker and fire stayed lit the whole time with door closed. It was hard to maintain the temp though. It fluctuated a lot. That could be due to in experience with this smoker. But the pecan wood I was using was split real small so I was having to add a log or two about every 30 mins just to maintain temps. But the meat turned out amazing. Here are some pics

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 28, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 28, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 28, 2015

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• curtisimo81
• Jan 28, 2015