Time to build a new cooker!

[dlnida]

Ok, so I've been drooling over everyones designs and trying to come up with my own blueprint.  Pages and pages of note book paper, napkins, paper plates, plotting and scheming on a cooker. Months to finalize my design, involving 55 gal drums and a custom built sidebox.  And then I found two metal wheel barrows on the side of the road with a free sign and everything goes up in smoke!{bad pun, I know}

So, with the "free to me" start I've decided to try to build as inexpensively as possible, using as much scrap metal as I and my buddies have laying about our yards. That being said, I started the burn out and totally forgot to document anything so far.

Q-view tomorrow, I promise! 

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Aug 18, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 18, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 18, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 18, 2012

 

[daveomak]

DL, morning......  I'm in for the build.....   

 ....  Dave

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

My little "helper" showing the reason I can't get too far.

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• dlnida
• Aug 21, 2012

the piece of wood is temporary, i just needed it for alignment purposes. 

I plan on running another piece of angle material on the bottom, and using the 

upper holes to mount a work surface/cutting board. I want to use as much

"nut and bolt" construction as possible since my welding skills are limited 

to welding wrenches to fenders with car batteries.  

 

[dlnida]

Sorry for being gone for awhile. Had to recover after shoulder surgery, and as soon as I can get my new phone to play nice with the computer, I'll have some progress pics to post!

 

[dlnida]

Sorry for being gone for awhile. Had to recover after shoulder surgery, and as soon as I can get my new phone to play nice with the computer, I'll have some progress pics to post!

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

 

[dlnida]

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

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• dlnida
• Apr 27, 2013

Well, it took a bit longer than I wanted to get to this point, but not to bad after(sorta) healing up from shoulder surgery.  Total out lay on the project so far is about $40, and most of that has been on the stainless steel hardware common to the cooking areas.

 

[dlnida]

Ok, got to looking at the pix and realized I'd posted them a little out of chronological order. So I figured a little description would be in order.  The wheel barrow section is going to be a charcoal grill with a propane torch to help with ignition.  The barrel will be (kinda) a UDS that I am planning to heat with a propane burner.  The chimney for the grill will be plumbed into the UDS as well, with a ball valve.  The space between the grill and UDS will house a propane burner, which I will have a cast iron griddle over. This will be used for onions, with enough burner space around it for setting a pot or two on for boiling if needs be.  The UDS will have an additional separate box for smoke generation, which I'm thinking an A-Maze-N will get the duty of.  The open space under the frame work will have a steel file cabinet on the right hand side, while the left will house the propane tank(s).  So far, everything has gone together with nuts and bolts, but I have a buddy with both a TIG and MIG setups who is more than willing to weld for beer and smoked food.  And as far as the propane plumbing goes, I have another friend who installs gas fire places and stoves/cook tops who is willing to help for the same pay scale, plus parts.  I have found a local steel company that will sell anything out of their remnant pile for .70/lbs, and they have a large supply of the bare expanded steel.

 

[dlnida]

ok, so I went and bought enough expanded metal to do (i think) all of my cooking surfaces, with 3 or maybe even 4 racks in the smoker, and came up to about what I've been able to price out for one replacement round grill at the local hardware stores. if i do this right, I might even have enough material for a charcoal basket in the grill! I'll try to get some work in on it tomorrow and get some more pics to post 

 

[raymo76]

Wow interesting build