TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
Ok, I THINK today is the day! After picking this tank up literally a year ago (Nov 2nd 2022, I checked my pictures!), I think we're finally going to get it finished and get to fire it up today! First cook on it maybe tomorrow? Not sure... I do have some things to cook for this week, so this might be a good time to utilize it, though it won't be the 'epic' cook this smoker deserves, it'll be ok. Pork butt, ribs and a few pork bellies.
Anyways, I realized I didn't post any pics from working on the upper racks.
Here's the sum total of my cooking space - over 34 square feet, I believe - would have to go back and get exact measurements, but that was my calculation.
I've put 'keepers' on the sliding rails so the shelves all slide out and hold - I need to do some adjustments on these today, a couple of them are a little tight.
I also patched the 6.5" hole in the top of the tank where a fill pipe used to come in. No pic of this, sorry. Also put in 2" drains, one on either side - drilling these with a 2 1/8" hole saw took some time and effort, as this tank is over 5/16" thick. My elbow has been killing me the last couple of weeks - tennis elbow type stuff, with all the grinding and drilling. Better this morning, I think. Should be good to get some plenty of work in today.
Plan for today is firebox door latch and firebox door air inlet aka 'pinwheel damper' - a look at the firebox door here:
Those two projects shouldn't take too long, I wouldn't think - the door latch I'm still thinking of, trying to decide how to do it simple but effective and solid.
Then, patch a couple small holes in the ends of the tank - one is a 1" fill pipe that is coming in at the top (you can just see it in the pics of the firebox above), have to cut this off and put a small patch there, the other end at the bottom is a 2" drain pipe that needs a patch, as well. You can see that one at the bottom of the endcap here:
Also probably add some drawer pulls on the racks today to make them easier to get in and out, at least the bottom ones.
Try'n'a think... I think that is all I need to fire this baby up and do some temp mapping today! Firebox door latch, pinwheel damper and patch the holes in the tank. The drawer pulls are no biggie, but I want to do those before I fire it up and get them all smoky and make it necessary to clean them again before I weld those on.
Later will come a few more things - a front shelf, a damper/cover for the exhaust stack (mainly to keep rain out, is all)... oh I might do some door trim insulation today, I have a couple of rolls of that. Will probably need more, but I'll do the top edges anyways.
Oh right, door handles! lol I need door handles! I've ground down spots for them two times already and haven't gotten to it, so I'll do those today, likely. Gonna be wooden dowels like my other smoker I built, at least for now. We debated pipe for the handles that will roll, but I haven't gotten around to going to get any from the supply store, and I don't really know what to buy as far as size and such... and we've got the 1½" dowel rods to use, and tung oil to coat them with - today is going be fairly warm so it might soak in ok. Hopefully there'll be some sun out to sit them in, too. They'll look like this one on my little smoker I finished in June:
Ok... so firebox door pinwheel and latch, door handles, grate pulls and some door trim insulation. Then it's ready to fire up!
IF I get to it, today will likely just be temperature mapping - using my Fireboard and my ThemoPro TP25, I have 10 spots I can measure at once, so I can get a good idea of temps and flow on both bottom and top racks simultaneously. I have 4 dial thermometers to put in later - if I want to - I just need to figure out where I'll want them. They'll just serve as general indicators, is all. The temp mapping will help me figure out hot spots, cool zones, etc., so that will be helpful.
Then, tomorrow, I THINK I'LL COOK ON IT! W00T!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!
Ok, I THINK today is the day! After picking this tank up literally a year ago (Nov 2nd 2022, I checked my pictures!), I think we're finally going to get it finished and get to fire it up today! First cook on it maybe tomorrow? Not sure... I do have some things to cook for this week, so this might be a good time to utilize it, though it won't be the 'epic' cook this smoker deserves, it'll be ok. Pork butt, ribs and a few pork bellies.
Anyways, I realized I didn't post any pics from working on the upper racks.
Here's the sum total of my cooking space - over 34 square feet, I believe - would have to go back and get exact measurements, but that was my calculation.
I've put 'keepers' on the sliding rails so the shelves all slide out and hold - I need to do some adjustments on these today, a couple of them are a little tight.
I also patched the 6.5" hole in the top of the tank where a fill pipe used to come in. No pic of this, sorry. Also put in 2" drains, one on either side - drilling these with a 2 1/8" hole saw took some time and effort, as this tank is over 5/16" thick. My elbow has been killing me the last couple of weeks - tennis elbow type stuff, with all the grinding and drilling. Better this morning, I think. Should be good to get some plenty of work in today.
Plan for today is firebox door latch and firebox door air inlet aka 'pinwheel damper' - a look at the firebox door here:
Those two projects shouldn't take too long, I wouldn't think - the door latch I'm still thinking of, trying to decide how to do it simple but effective and solid.
Then, patch a couple small holes in the ends of the tank - one is a 1" fill pipe that is coming in at the top (you can just see it in the pics of the firebox above), have to cut this off and put a small patch there, the other end at the bottom is a 2" drain pipe that needs a patch, as well. You can see that one at the bottom of the endcap here:
Also probably add some drawer pulls on the racks today to make them easier to get in and out, at least the bottom ones.
Try'n'a think... I think that is all I need to fire this baby up and do some temp mapping today! Firebox door latch, pinwheel damper and patch the holes in the tank. The drawer pulls are no biggie, but I want to do those before I fire it up and get them all smoky and make it necessary to clean them again before I weld those on.
Later will come a few more things - a front shelf, a damper/cover for the exhaust stack (mainly to keep rain out, is all)... oh I might do some door trim insulation today, I have a couple of rolls of that. Will probably need more, but I'll do the top edges anyways.
Oh right, door handles! lol I need door handles! I've ground down spots for them two times already and haven't gotten to it, so I'll do those today, likely. Gonna be wooden dowels like my other smoker I built, at least for now. We debated pipe for the handles that will roll, but I haven't gotten around to going to get any from the supply store, and I don't really know what to buy as far as size and such... and we've got the 1½" dowel rods to use, and tung oil to coat them with - today is going be fairly warm so it might soak in ok. Hopefully there'll be some sun out to sit them in, too. They'll look like this one on my little smoker I finished in June:
Ok... so firebox door pinwheel and latch, door handles, grate pulls and some door trim insulation. Then it's ready to fire up!
IF I get to it, today will likely just be temperature mapping - using my Fireboard and my ThemoPro TP25, I have 10 spots I can measure at once, so I can get a good idea of temps and flow on both bottom and top racks simultaneously. I have 4 dial thermometers to put in later - if I want to - I just need to figure out where I'll want them. They'll just serve as general indicators, is all. The temp mapping will help me figure out hot spots, cool zones, etc., so that will be helpful.
Then, tomorrow, I THINK I'LL COOK ON IT! W00T!!!
Comment