Congrats on such a great build and first cook. Looking forward to more pics.
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First cook in the Big Unit last weekend went well. Had a good time, learned a few things, noted a few things I need to do/change.
One of them was a SHELF. OMG, I will never own another cooker without a shelf.... ok, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I most definitely need a shelf on THIS cooker.
So I built some shelving out of expanded metal and 1¼" angle iron, basically just like my interior racks. I use 11g angle (1/8") and I cut the corners out to try to make everything sit flush at the corners. It is more work, but I think it works well, and then end result is nice and square racks with flush fitting corners.
Due to the size of this cooker (lengthwise) I went with 2 racks. I was originally going to make these folding, but decided against it. Size was another question - the offset I borrowed to use from my buddy has a wooden side shelf that is 14½" and myself and my partner have noted on numerous occasions cooking on it that this is just too small, too narrow, really. It'll work, but we would much prefer at least 2" more, and more like 4". Of course, with any large shelf, you have to consider accessibility to the door handles, mainly when the door is lifted and held open. If you can't reach it easily to close it, it's gonna be a PITA. Luckily, our doors are still very reachable from the ground when open, even when standing off the the side of the trailer, so this leaves us a lot of room for a nice, big and useable shelf. I decided to go with 18" deep and each of the two shelves is 50½" in length.
My 1¼" 11g angle cut to length. I've gotten pretty good at building these racks in this style now, after my first cooker with 2 internal racks and an external shelf, and now this cooker with 4 huge internal racks and 2 external shelves. I'm sure some other guys do a better job, but I am pleased with this design. Might try some someday out of 3/4" square tubing, I like the look of those, as well.
No in progress pics, but when setting the frames aside to cut the expanded metal to size, I did get an audience - no serenade from these 'partridges in a pear tree', but they have the side benefit of keeping us in eggs! I didn't know I was fabricating a stage for their performances.
The finished shelves while I was eyeballing them, trying to figure out how to mount them to the tank. Did these two shelves on Friday, so about 5 hours or so, I think it took me all told. That's just building them, not the mounting, that came Saturday. I do all the cutting and fitting with a grinder and cutoff wheels, I don't have a good space set up to use my Evolution metal saw, so I only break that out when I need to cut heavy stuff or lots of stuff at once, etc.
Next was trying to figure out how to mount these - I didn't want supports/struts going down to the trailer, for aesthetics and also due to flexing when/if I pull it down the road, etc. I wanted them just mounted to the tank. Plus, this was a challenge, these needed to be ~around 37" or so from ground level, and my adjustable sawhorses you saw above, while I love them, only extend up to about 32". I tried sitting various things ON the sawhorse, trying to make them taller, but nothing was stable with the shelves sitting on them. I used blocks of wood, Amazon shipping boxes, etc. Nothing was satisfactory. Finally came up with a different idea, suspending these from the rafters with ratchet straps!
I used my handy-dandy digital level there (Amazon: $56.97) to get it as close to the trailer and door level as possible - *caveat* I can't just measure off the tank alone, nothing on this thing is straight, as you'll see in a bit... Suspending from 2 ratchet straps, I could pivot it to horizontal, adjust height, lean against it and check level and managed to put a couple of tacks in place, and then it was all good. (Any resemblance to a bedroom 'trapeze' is strictly coincidental, so just get your minds out of the gutter here, guys!)
Even with a couple of stitch welds in place, I still didn't trust removing the ratchet straps until I had some struts for the far edge to support the weight.
So next was to find a way to support it back to the tank, as I didn't want it attached to the trailer, because it looks wonky, there aren't great attachment points where I need them, etc. This meant cutting angle iron for struts going back under the tank, and then shaping them by hand to match the curvature of the tank. Then mating up, grinding clear a spot on the tank (this thing is covered with 30-50 years of crap from being in a field) and then welding in place. A fair bit of work, doing the back and forth, trim, grind, fit, repeat - but I got it.
You can see one here on the right as I'm suspending the second shelf.
Oh, and you might wonder why I didn't stitch weld all the way across the tank... well, remember when I said this tank was wonky??? Yeah... here ya go. I was lucky this thing mated up as well as it did on the ends.
Anyways, eventually got my supports cut and welded in, and these shelves are sturdy! I'm pleased with them overall, and I think it really makes it look more like a smoker - PLUS, now I don't have to let my digital thermometers (like my Fireboard and my ThermoPro) dangle out the doors by the cables! lol
I did INTEND to leave about a 1" gap between the two shelves, but measurement and planning errors got the best of me - I should have done the one near the firebox first, as that was the one that was more critical in positioning due to it's proximity to the firebox, but, oh well. It still came out ok, and I'm pleased. For a guy with no background in any kind of fabrication and being self taught with a little tutoring from guys like Frank Cox when I could get up there to learn some tips and tricks, I am pretty amazed with what I've been able to accomplish. It's not polished, it's not 'pro quality', but it's monstrous huge and it's durable, should work fine for my buddy and me for many many years.
The final test:
I'm not as heavy as I was when I started this journey a year ago, I'm down around 70 lbs, but I'm still not a small guy. I think if it'll hold my weight on the center supports, I don't have to worry about a few briskets or pork butts giving it trouble! lol
101 inches of side shelf space - COMPLETE!
W00T!!!
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What a Grand finish! She's Beautiful!
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Is it wrong if I'm actually a little bit... 😭😭😭
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Wow! What a project! Be looking forward to pics of the BIG cooks. Well done!Comment
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Somehow I missed this entire thread until today. Sooo satisfying binging this entire “season”. This is epic!! Congrats!!Comment
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Wow, great job!!!! Now we need to see pictures proof that it’s cooking amazingness!Comment
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Looks great! I still laugh at that boat trailer every time....
So question.... how hard is it going to be to reach butts/brisket/ribs at the back of the cooker now, with that front shelf in place? I've used some big smokers before where reaching the back of the smoker was a problem, and you just had to have some seriously long tools to do so.
I was thinking about this with that trailer frame in your way in places, but without the shelf installed, you could stand inside the frame to reach into the back of the cooker. Now that isn't an option...
I laugh every time I am at the local Dreamland BBQ location here, when I see the Pitmaster saucing ribs in the back of their brick pit using an ACTUAL mop, and he can barely reach everything even then. They have serious tongs/shovels/tools to snag butts and such out of the back of the smoker.Comment
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Excellent point and something we did calculate into our plans - both reaching the back of the cooker AND reaching the door handles when the door was open.Originally posted by jfmorris View Post
Answer is, the door handles, it is no problem at all. We can reach those easily.
As for the back of the cooker, we made the shelves sliding and I put pull tabs on them, so as long as you're wearing some heat resistant gloves (which I would be doing to do much of anything INSIDE the cooker anyways), I can pull the shelf out partway or about 90% of the way if necessary and the keeper tabs I installed will keep the shelf rock steady even fully loaded down.
I'll try to post some pics of the shelves pulled out when fully loaded with meat someday to demonstrate.
But yeah, it's always a factor. Luckily, I think we've got it designed fairly ergonomically, if not overly aesthetically.
I realized I never posted any pics of the completed shelving!
There ya go!Comment
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I know that shelf looks like it's uneven in that picture. But I am sitting here staring down the length of it, and it is absolutely and totally level end to end and front to back. I ended up mounting it about 2" higher than the shelves on the other side under the doors. So, from the front it probably looks a little odd seeing both sets from the end. But oh well...
It is truly pretty well done now, except paint on this last shelf and the linseed oil finish. Prolly do that this weekend. Maybe a drain spot cut in the griddle rail, something I can hang the Blackstone-sized foil catch pans.Comment
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No, burning in the oil is what completes it. Multiple coats would be good, and repetitive application over the years - once a year or so seems to be about average. The BLO burns off/smokes off to form a semi-hard coat or barrier. It's similar to the seasoning process on cast iron or something like a Blackstone griddle. If I wanted to take a torch to it at the same time, it would do even better - I need a better application process, not sure a sprayer is a good idea, though.
And don't knock stuff off the front shelf either...
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