***wanted***builder advice, Lang 84 adding cabinet doors

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The Art of Pork

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 1, 2021
44
86
A long time lurker and reader.... I posted this over in wood smokers but thought it might be better suited for this area.

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About 15 years ago I bought a Lang model 60. Kept it for a year sold it for what I had in it and bought a larger 84. Both have been excellent smokers. The 60 was my favorite, just too small for what I need.

That said, the 84 cooks wonderfully but has some design issues I’ve never been particularly fond of. Primarily, The upper rack impedes full length use of the bottom rack, rack spacing, bottom rack doesn’t slide out, small door opening and short upper rack.

We recently cooked 260 Boston butts for a fundraiser at church and I got fairly irritated with the arrangements inside the grill and decided I wanted to add cabinet style, widemouth doors to my Lang.

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I had some 3/16 diamond steel plate and have started making double door boxes for each side of the cooker.

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Now that i’ve gotten close to cutting the Lang open and mounting the boxes, I thought before I made it to the point of no return, I would seek advice and thoughts from any experienced builders.

I know it will increase interior volume slightly but I can’t see it being an issue? or maybe I’m wrong? I’ve run the Lang through the smoker calculators and according to most of them it falls short in several areas like stack length, firebox dimensions and firebox to cooker opening (that one may be debatable because of the way it’s done)

My original plan was double cabinet doors on both sides of the cooker but is it worth the extra time and effort to put doors on both sides or just a solid back on one side and doors on the other? I have the materials so I figured why not.

The cabinet boxes are 61 inches long by 19 1/2 inches tall and will stick out from the top of the smoker about 12 1/2 inches and the bottom roughly 3 inches

The pictures are not great but hopefully you can get the idea.

I welcome advice or comments as to how well my plan is thought through, design or unexpected pitfalls along the way.
 
Chris, morning... I looked at this the other day... You have put a lot of work into what you have done...
What is the diameter of the cook chamber ???
What's the length of the CC ??
What's the stack diameter and height above the CC??
Sliding racks help BUT can be a PITA when loaded with meat..
Is 260 butts at one time, something you want to make routine ?? That's like having a VW bug and transporting the little league baseball team to games...
Help me through what you expect from the smoker...
What is the FB-CC opening size....
What's the opening size at the end of the Reverse Flow plate ??

Pictures of this stuff would help....

The fix could be as simple as installing doors on both sides of the CC... Maybe double doors on both sides...
Pictures of the meat racks and how they are installed also.. depicting the problems you are having....

Dave
 
Chris, morning... I looked at this the other day... You have put a lot of work into what you have done...
What is the diameter of the cook chamber ???

29.5

What's the length of the CC ??

80

What's the stack diameter and height above the CC??

6.25x17

Sliding racks help BUT can be a PITA when loaded with meat..
Is 260 butts at one time, something you want to make routine ?? That's like having a VW bug and transporting the little league baseball team to games...

it wasn’t me alone. We had other grills and yes we do charity cooks fairly often.

Help me through what you expect from the smoker...

The smoker functions flawlessly it’s just more or less the arrangement of the racks I have not been particularly happy with. Easier access when cooking large amounts of meat would make the job much easier

What is the FB-CC opening size....

see photo
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BF260D50-F634-487A-B7CA-31D051CC0364.jpeg

What's the opening size at the end of the Reverse Flow plate ??

29.5 x 13 in the center of the cone shaped tank end


Pictures of this stuff would help....

The fix could be as simple as installing doors on both sides of the CC...

I have double doors currently the issue is access to the bottom rack. The support arms and distance to the upper rack make getting meat from the middle all but impossible without sliding the upper rack out the opposite side and or getting burned and greasy reaching underneath the rack as well as nearly impossible to reach rack ends.

there is a 10 x 27 cook area and each end of the lower rack beyond those support arms for the upper rack
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completely first world issues!

Maybe double doors on both sides...
Pictures of the meat racks and how they are installed also.. depicting the problems you are having....

Dave
 

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I think your original concept is very good... Below are some ideas you may like to consider...




1 - 250 gal smoker mods.jpg





1-1 250 gal smoker mods.jpg


Per usual, a mod like this will require lots of seat time in a lawn chair contemplating the changes... Looking at the smoker with a cold beer helps massage the changes.. The upper meat rack support might be easiest using a 2" x 1/4" angle iron for support, or similar...
Full welds can and probably will cause warping... Skip welds using a small diameter rod or wire can reduce heat..
For best results, try and envision everything that can go wrong and figure out work arounds..
I would lengthen the exhaust stack to 35" above the CC.. I would also add upper air inlets to the FB... Upper air inlets move heat from the FB to the CC, WITHOUT adding air to the fire for good temp control...

I would try and do something similar to one of the pictures....



FB air flow diagram 2.jpg





Smoker Exh and Intakes 2.jpg


An exhaust plenum helps to uniformly pull heat from the CC

Triangle Plenum 3.jpg


OK, what am I forgetting ???

Dave
 
Haven’t been that good at updating but I am making some progress. Built the bottom sliding rack today.

what do y’all like as your rack spacing? 6,7,8,9?.
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