Spring Cleaning the Smoker

[seaham358]

My smoker developed some rust spots where the heat paint baked off on the fire box so I decided it was time to take care of my baby.. I gave her a nice bath to start.. Then I took her APART!!!

Took her apart


Sanded off the rusted area on the whole smoker


Painted


Put back together and given a new coat of heat paint


Put in a new heat shield, made this one bigger and it it works well I'll get some SS to make a better one.


Everyone should take care of their smokers!!!

 

[Dutch]

Looking good seaham!! You'll find that re-painting the SFB will be a yearly thing. Seems like no matter what temp the paint is rated, it dries out, flakes off and the rust moves back in. Next time you might want to just brush off the rust, give it a coat of cooking oil and build a fire in the box to cook the oil into the pores of the steel (kind of like seasoning a cast iron dutch oven). It will take awhile to turn black so everytime you fire up the smoker, give the box a coat of cooking oil when it's hot.

 

[seaham358]

Good idea Dutch... No matter what I do I will be taking it apart every year..
Most of the rust is between the 2 barrels.
the kicker is, I cover this puppy every night, so she never sees rain or snow.

 

[smokin out the neighbors]

Good job on the tune up. The rust will keep coming back even with a cover. Humidity in the air condenses under the cover. The only way to really stop it is to store uncovered inside a garage or shed.

 

[rivet]

Hey, nice restore to your smoker! Looks great and makes you want to cook doesn't it? Got to agree with Dutch, give it a good slathering of of oil and heat and you won't have to paint anymore. After all, isn't this a hands-on tool?

 

[pineywoods]

I agree it looks great but hey if it never rusts out then you loose that excuse to buy a new one