Shirley fabrication question

[soonerfan]

I have a deposit in at shirley fabrication for a 24 x 42 cabinet smoker. I am debating on either getting an insulated firebox or a three shelf warmer with a 1/4 or 3/8 firebox. Any suggestions from shirley owners?

 

[416bigbore]

I have a deposit in at shirley fabrication for a 24 x 42 cabinet smoker. I am debating on either getting an insulated firebox or a three shelf warmer with a 1/4 or 3/8 firebox. Any suggestions from shirley owners?

To the SMF Sooner!  This is a new one for me, do you have any pics to post up? Just curious, what made you decide to go this route for a smoker?  

 

[soonerfan]

I dont know if their pics have a copyright. Go to youtube and search for shirley fabrication and you will see why I chose this route. I looked at gator pit, lsg, yoder, klose, and lang and shirley looked like the best product for the $$$. The materials they use and their welds are amazing. And Paul Shirley is just funny to listen to in his videos. He gets fired up talking about his craft. You can tell he has passion for perfection.

 

[416bigbore]

I dont know if their pics have a copyright. Go to youtube and search for shirley fabrication and you will see why I chose this route. I looked at gator pit, lsg, yoder, klose, and lang and shirley looked like the best product for the $$$. The materials they use and their welds are amazing. And Paul Shirley is just funny to listen to in his videos. He gets fired up talking about his craft. You can tell he has passion for perfection.

0-ok I will have to go check that out, sounds like an interesting unit. This Paul Shirley, I don't believe he is a member of this SMF? 

 I question his Passion! 

I have surfed other smoke meat forums before deciding this SMF was going to be my new home. You to will have a lot of fun here learning new things and meeting a great bunch of members here, who are always will to jump in to help point us Newbie in the right direction. Why wouldn't anyone NOT want to be a part of all this?

Make sure to keep us all posted with your new smoker and post up your progress.

 

 

[first timer]

I bought a Shirley 60" trailer model about a year ago and couldn't be happier with it. I did not go with te insulated firebox and living in the north east I may go through wood a little faster when it's 20-30degrees out but it still holds its temp really well with the 1/4" FB.
I think either choice you make will be the right one, just depends on how often you think you'll be using the warmin box. To his point I typically use it more for warming my splits prior to adding them to FB.
Good luck!

 

[soonerfan]

I decided to go with warmer. I too will use it to warm splits, do sides, maybe cook hot n fast as well as low and slow at the same time. I would love to get a trailer rig, but i just cant justify it. The 24 x 42 will be bigger than my needs on most cooks. The best part of all is that i took 200 to the local casino and won enough money to pay for my setup. So i may end up upgrading the firebox as well. I have till august or so to make my final decisions.

 

[first timer]

Well congrats on the win, sure that makes te descions easier.
That's another good thing about these guys. You can make changes to your order and they always seem to be happy to help. I dealt with Tyler more so than Paul and always got a fast response and a helpful answer. The only downside is the wait but it's worth it once you see the quality and get to fire it up for the first time.

 

[notorious q u e]

My Shirley 3/8 CC and FB is my happy place on the weekends. If a thick rack of St. Louis spares takes 6 hours, this one will be ready in 4.5 hours.

I attribute it to 3/8 holding the heat and the reverse flow sort of getting the meat twice (radiant and flow over the top of the baffle).

I'm a happy camper. All 24 inch builds will automatically be 3/8 CC. If you're there in snowy OK, I'd say go full force and do Warner with both dampers as well as insulated FB, especially if Lady Luck smiled upon you. It's probably smart to post a check to Shirley for most of the money so you're not tempted back into that casino!