Steel Question

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boozzer

Newbie
Original poster
May 27, 2010
18
10
Nebraska
Hey all I am finally pulling the trigger on my smoker build and have a few questions on the gauge of steel to use for the inside cooking area, Here is a rough draft with a few things pointed out. this is the inner shell and will be surrounded by 1" rock wool and an outter shell. Here are a few questions for you comments. All help will be greatly appreciated

1. 1/4" steel for the fire box ? yes or would you go thinner for weight?

2. What gauge steel would you use for the inner shell? was thinking 12 ga.

3. Should the bottom (darker plate) and the baffle be thicker steel? 1/4"?

4. Since I am using rock wool which is a high temp insulation what gauge should the outer shell be?


Looking forward to your input and thank you for your help
 
inner would all be 1/4" and on the firebox the outer would be 1/4" the cook chamber you could probably get away with 1/8" on the outside. thats just my personal preference. 

my current build FB has 1/4 inside and outside and 2" mineral wool insulation.
 
Sorry forgot to mention that this is going to be tow behind with the CC being 6' x 2'6" and the fire box 2'8' x 2'4" calculations based on Smoker build calculator. so need to think of weight, If I were to go with 1/4 for just the inside alone would put me at 2 tons of steel that is not including the grates angle Iron to hold everything in place, axle will also have side compartments for wood and supplies. Here is a rough picture of what it would look like completed, it is the first drawing so many modifications have been made.

 
Thinner the metal = less heat retention (even with 1" wool) and will burn out faster on the firebox end. How tall is the cook chamber? You only gave 2 dimensions.
 
CC will be 3'1" Tall 2' 4" wide 6' long from baffle to top of smoker with a 7" gap between bottom and baffle
 
i could be off a little cause i didn't figure your reverse plate but if you did the CC and FB in 1/4" plate the weight would come to 1500lbs, not 4000. i would try and stick to the 1/4" inner wall if at all possible.

1/4" plate weighs roughly 10lbs per sq/ft.

even if it ends up heavy as long as you get the axle/s in the correct location it would tow fine. 
 
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if i do make it out of 1/4" it would be around 3000 lbs total with my calculations but, i dont have all the steel drawn up yet so that would be roughly 1.5 tons. a ton + approximately 2204lbs so do you think I would need to add a second axle and make the frame longer the total lengh right now is around 14'
 
Depends on the axle. You could go 1 7000lb axle or two 3500lb axles or two 7000 axle. Really need to decide which way ur gonna go, rough figure your total weight then look at what will be best as far as axles and placement of them under the trailer. Or you coukd buy a trailer thats for the weight load your gonna put on it and adapt your build to it. That takes care of your trailer portion and all the guess work out of it.
 
That kind of weight and length if it is distributed correctly should not be a problem for a single axle. A tandem is going to track a lot better and be a better ride all around. I got 2600 lbs spread out all over a 5x 8 trailer with a long tongue single 5000 lb axle all the way the back it pulls great. But if your cooker itself is going to weigh that much I would think 2 2500 or 2 3500 lb axles would be better Try southwest wheels.com they have whole kits everything you need
 
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