I've had some serious Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms lately... for those of ya'll that don't know, that means I'm tried of winter and being cooped up inside!
So yesterday was a slow afternoon, I managed to reschedule a couple of appointments and took the afternoon off.
Had my plasma table guy cut out a BUNCH of parts for me, enough to do small parts for multiple future builds. I know I'll have more things I need here and there, but these will definitely get me in the ballpark. And they came in handy yesterday on a day nearly 70ºF at the end of January. Every day this week has been 'near record' temps. W00T! So I got sick of being stuck indoors and working 12 hours and took the afternoon off.
This next smoker is going to be a small one, only a 60-gallon tank, made from an old air compressor. It'll be on some smallish 'youth' ATV wheels, I made the wheels and axles some time ago.
You can see on one end the spacer/adapter I had to buy to change the bolt pattern on the wheels to fit my idler hubs. Also had to drill out the stud holes a little, had to make some other alterations - my first experience with 2-piece wheels. I didn't know that was a thing, a rim that is 2 pieces sandwiched together. It was a bit of a pain. Anyways... thought I had some pics of the wheels/tires, but I didn't, I'll get some. They are actually a hair smaller than my golf cart tires on The Duk (my backyard home-built Ugly Duckling), but they look a little cooler, since they're "knobby" like ATV tires tend to be. They should be perfect for this smaller build.
Yesterday I decided to work on the firebox. I used a 30" piece of pipe left over from my backyard smoker build. 18" diameter, 30" long and over 5/16" thick. More like .330-340wt (wall thickness). It'll last, for sure. Used 1/4" on all the small parts and the endcaps. I got a good amount of work done, used my Harbor Frieght rotary drum surface prepping tool to strip the paint off at least 1/4" of the cook chamber tank (that takes some work) for the door, marked top-dead-center on cook chamber and firebox pipe while mocked up on my new pipe stands so I could see how everything looks. I was pleased and decided to get to work on the firebox.
One endcap:
Some welds, once I got 'warmed up' and back in the swing of it - first welds were pretty crappy. I should practiced some to figure it out again.
And at the end of the day, I got the whole firebox completed! W00T! Not a bad afternoon, and I'm ready to get on the cook chamber and the yard cart.
This one isn't going to be too elaborate, but hopefully it'll come out decent. 60-gallon air tank, about a 30-gallon firebox, yard cart, small ATV tires, 4.5" exhaust on a tiny collector.
So yesterday was a slow afternoon, I managed to reschedule a couple of appointments and took the afternoon off.
Had my plasma table guy cut out a BUNCH of parts for me, enough to do small parts for multiple future builds. I know I'll have more things I need here and there, but these will definitely get me in the ballpark. And they came in handy yesterday on a day nearly 70ºF at the end of January. Every day this week has been 'near record' temps. W00T! So I got sick of being stuck indoors and working 12 hours and took the afternoon off.
This next smoker is going to be a small one, only a 60-gallon tank, made from an old air compressor. It'll be on some smallish 'youth' ATV wheels, I made the wheels and axles some time ago.
You can see on one end the spacer/adapter I had to buy to change the bolt pattern on the wheels to fit my idler hubs. Also had to drill out the stud holes a little, had to make some other alterations - my first experience with 2-piece wheels. I didn't know that was a thing, a rim that is 2 pieces sandwiched together. It was a bit of a pain. Anyways... thought I had some pics of the wheels/tires, but I didn't, I'll get some. They are actually a hair smaller than my golf cart tires on The Duk (my backyard home-built Ugly Duckling), but they look a little cooler, since they're "knobby" like ATV tires tend to be. They should be perfect for this smaller build.
Yesterday I decided to work on the firebox. I used a 30" piece of pipe left over from my backyard smoker build. 18" diameter, 30" long and over 5/16" thick. More like .330-340wt (wall thickness). It'll last, for sure. Used 1/4" on all the small parts and the endcaps. I got a good amount of work done, used my Harbor Frieght rotary drum surface prepping tool to strip the paint off at least 1/4" of the cook chamber tank (that takes some work) for the door, marked top-dead-center on cook chamber and firebox pipe while mocked up on my new pipe stands so I could see how everything looks. I was pleased and decided to get to work on the firebox.
One endcap:
Some welds, once I got 'warmed up' and back in the swing of it - first welds were pretty crappy. I should practiced some to figure it out again.
And at the end of the day, I got the whole firebox completed! W00T! Not a bad afternoon, and I'm ready to get on the cook chamber and the yard cart.
This one isn't going to be too elaborate, but hopefully it'll come out decent. 60-gallon air tank, about a 30-gallon firebox, yard cart, small ATV tires, 4.5" exhaust on a tiny collector.
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