Short/Fat 120 Gallon Build

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Had a great day today! After doing a couple small little jobs on the smoker I decided to fire it up.

I started with a chimney of charcoal. Once that was going I added 3 small splits of wood. It came up to 200 and just stayed there. They were small so I added 2 more and closed my intake about halfway. Went right to 230 and stayed there!

I wanted to see how far I could push it. My son and I went fishing for an hour. Came back and it was about 210. Not bad I thought. Threw 2 more on and right back up to temp. Had it going for about 5 hrs total and used 8 SMALL splits of wood. Needless to say I was very impressed. My little one would have used that amount!

And the temps from left to right were less than 5 deg the entire time minus the span when I was playing catch-up. Then it was still only about 7 deg!

The smoke was very very light or nonexistent. Can't see it in the picture but it's running. This is actually when it getting back up to temp


I cannot thank everyone enough who helped me along the way! And thank you so much for the compliments along the way also.

I am MORE than happy how this dry run went. After running my cheap thin metal smoker for so long I was kinda leary when people would say "I just throw a split on every 45 min!" There is no doubt this one is going to be like one of those! It was waaay too easy. You guys here have got this smoker building figured out! Thank you!
 
I had a couple days off work so I thought I would see if I could get to painting it. I sand blasted everything. My air compressor isn't quite enough to run that. I had to stop and wait for it to build pressure back up every so often. Took a while but got it done. Here it is in the middle of sandblasting


And primed


And painted black


In case anyone is wondering here is the high temp paint and primer I found. The paint I could find anywhere but I could only find high temp primer at menards.


And that spray nozzle that's the best thing ever. 4 cans of primer and paint each so far and it looks great, no runs, and no sore finger! I would recommend one for anyone
 
Well change of plans today. Yesterday I seasoned the smoker and was going to get up today and fire it up but got a call first thing this morning. My parents had a storm roll through last night and left a huge branch off their big maple laying on the ground. So I hooked onto the trailer instead.

So sorry no food pics today. But I do have this


I save up bacon grease all year for bear bait so to season it I just smeared that all over and got a nice hot fire going for about 3-1/2 hrs. Boy did that smell good! Here's how it looks after painting

 
Looks awesome!! Hurry up and throw some meat in there 
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Bazza
 
So, my mouth is STILL watering from the bacon discussion from 2 weeks ago......awesome looking build.
Your attention to detail makes me look like a 1st grader with crayons in comparison to my 120g wide smoker. lol
Keep up the good work!
 
1st official cook!

So I've been working 1/2 days on Fridays and when you start at 5 that still leaves a lot of your morning free after you get home. Kids are at school and my wife is at work. I decided to slap together a beer can burger. I put in onion,jalapeño,bell pepper, cheese, and mushrooms. Kept it pretty simple.











Turned out pretty good! Smoker worked awesome! SOOOOO easy to control temps! It actually uses less wood than my small cheap offset.

A few things I would change next time
1) dice the onion also
2) use thin bacon. Didn't crisp up enough
3) make sure we have buns! Lol

Really I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for all your input, ideas, etc. Without you guys who knows what kind of smoker I would have!! Thank you

The question I have for you guys is - Do I tell my wife and kids what I did today?
 
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Burger still looked flavorful enough I could taste it just by looking at the pics.

I agree on the crispy bacon.  On my wrapped jalapenos, I like to use the thick bacon.

Takes about 2 hours before the thick bacon gets cooked enough. 

I wanna see a rack of ribs or a pork butt outa that cooker!   Keep up the good work!
 
Hi Woody, what size is your fire box L X W X H
Thanks, Pat

Good morning Pat. My inside dimensions are 24-1/2" W
22" D
22" H

If I had to do it again I think I would add a couple inches on the bottom to incorporate some kind of ash pan. Certainly not a deal breaker without one but just for convenience. Hope this helps!
 
Woody.....  Looks like your smoker came out A #1...    Nice workmanship....  Beautiful Thin Blue Smoke makes for some great food huh ??

Anywho....   glad we could help with the build...   The members here are awesome helping out.....     Dave     
 
Thanks Dave. Two things...

Yes the members here are awesome! I couldn't (wouldn't) have tackled this on my own without everyone's help. Thank you!!

And yes thin blue smoke does make some great food! It's so easy to make a correctly burning fire with this, I haven't even fired up my little one since I got this done. The wood usage is comparable between the 2 it doesn't pay.

Thank you everybody again. I can't say it enough
-Woody
 
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Hi Woody, does your smoker have any flap that covers the halfpie cut out in the fire box to control the smoke and heat? I saw one like that. Thanks, Pat
 
Hi Woody, does your smoker have any flap that covers the halfpie cut out in the fire box to control the smoke and heat? I saw one like that. Thanks, Pat
Hi Pat
I too have seen a couple builds with a damper between the FB and CC. I DON'T have one. After running mine, I found it's so easy to control temps, I'm not sure a person would gain anything by adding one. Hope this helps. Take care
 
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Hi Woody, does your smoker have any flap that covers the halfpie cut out in the fire box to control the smoke and heat? I saw one like that. Thanks, Pat

Hey pat. I just wanted to add to my last post. Right now I am smoking some cheese


Now I am truly convinced you don't need a flap or dampener between the FB and CC. It's holding temps steady at 80 deg left to right. I'm a true believer in DaveOmak's calculator.
 
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