Would you please help me to design my firebox intake damper?

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ThinBlueChaser

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2017
3
0
I have a Yoder Wichita and am facing similar challenges with enjoying my pit to various other people including this guy who detailed his journey and solution here:

http://community.yodersmokers.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1570

I have decided to be open minded to all solutions including having a replacement door fabricated so that I have the most options available to me in terms of the ideal intake damper design.

Here is the Yoder diagram of what the door currently looks like :

https://yodersmokers.com/support/wichita_loaded_dims_side.pdf

and here is the front view:

https://yodersmokers.com/support/wichita_loaded_dims_front.pdf

So essentially I would cut off the current door, and have a replacement door fabricated in the exact external dimensions out of the same thickness of steel, and would ideally purchase an alternative intake damper to be installed as part of the overall door fabrication. If it turned out that I could not purchase a suitable damper I would have the fabricator build a damper too but that isn't my preferred option.

I have looked through the following threads which has given me some ideas: https://smokingmeatforums.com/threads/intake-styles.157515/

My understanding is that my current (standard) design involves a pinwheel of 2 x 10" holes so approx 20" total intake area. However in my experience, the air will flow into the bottom damper, and out of the top damper. The reasons for this are explored in the thread above from the Yoder forum. This means that I would have a real world intake of substantially less than 20", maybe closer to 10" effective area, and this is a reason that I run my pit with the door open so often.

The solution that was specified by the user on the yoder thread involved increasing the intake area to around 26". I think ideally I would like to have an intake damper that guarantees me more than enough intake area because I sure don't want to have to go through fabricating a replacement door a 2nd time. Maybe up to 40" effective area? I am not sure exactly how much I need but I know I would want a damper that provided so much air intake that I would never again need to run the pit with the door open. I wouldn't be concerned if I even had the air intake half closed for most of the time.

Also, whatever damper style I go with I would like it to maximize the natural draft through the cooker, so my understanding is that it should be as low down as possible on the face of the door?

I like the horizontal slide style that I have seen on Lonestar Grillz etc.. would that style work? If so what would be the best dimensions for the damper given the door size I am working with and where could I buy a good quality damper?

Thanks for anyone that can point me in the right direction to solve this!!!!
 
You can add a separate piece of metal in the upper half of the pie vent...
Here's what skifreak did...
Ski Freak air inlet.jpg
 
Hi
You can add a separate piece of metal in the upper half of the pie vent...
Here's what skifreak did...
View attachment 348467

Hi, and thank you for your reply. I am actually hoping for recommendations on an a far larger door damper design that I can implement in the lower portion of a replacement door. I have provided further details above. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give me.
 
I can put you in touch with my CAD designer in Croatia. (charges $15 hr) Send him a drawing with dimensions and he can knock you up a DXF file that you can send to your local plasma cutter. (Ivan, you can find him on Skype: oly7007 ) Then all you need to do is bolt the damper on and weld some hinges on it.
 
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