Starting a new smoker build... 60-callon on a yard cart, small ATV tires.

[realdocBBQ]

So I got out of the office and into the shop for the second day this week and it was great!

Did some fitting of the cutout of my cook chamber to the firebox. Now beginning to take advantage of the last year-plus of accumulating tools and gadgets. The laser level and tripod is awesome. The gantry we built combined with the pipe stands I just picked up off Ebay last month makes it all possible.



Got 'er all lined up, had to pull it all apart off and on several times to grind on the tank and get some better fitup, but it eventually worked out.

Got just enough lip on the firebox to keep things safe from grease fires, I think.



Final fitup was pretty good, I think, for working solo and being 'not a professional'.





Once I got the top side welded and the bottom tacked, I decided I wasn't going to try to weld upside down overhead again. This one is small enough that I managed (barely!) to get it flipped upside down so that my welds only look as terrible as usual and not absolutely horrific.





I'm thinking maybe I should have turned up my settings a little bit. I dunno, I'm always fiddling around, and I think I always start too low, as I always end up turning it up in the end, and I pretty much always end up thinking I still should have gone higher on the wire feed. lol. Oh well. It's joined, and it ain't goin' nowheres.

Final for the day.





Next I think I better get the axles mounted so I can pull this thing around, then the door, collector/exhaust and grates.

I think I'm gonna have this one sandblasted in the end, then decide about paint or BLO. Still not sure about that part.

It was a good day, but I'm feeling it now! lol

[RonB]

I am enjoying this project.

[Oakgrovebacon]

I had e-mail from Frank at smokerbuilder website, Your firebox is featured. nice work!

[Jim White]

Of course this would ruin your beautifully sealed system, but I can't help thinking how much fun it would be with a firebox that size if it had a flap you could flip up and then drop a grate on some rails and do a quick direct cook. You know, like some burgers and dogs for the kids while the good stuff from the smoker is resting...

[realdocBBQ]

I know a lot of people do that - like a 'cowboy grill' they add in. I do have that option if I want to cut a door in the top. Haven't ever been too into that myself, but it's an idea I could consider adding in, perhaps. If I wanted to make it more marketable.

[rlozinak]

This is nice to follow. Good work.

[bardsleyque]

Looking good! And I like the old Triumph off to the side!

[realdocBBQ]

[Stuey1515]

That is an awesome pit, that long firebox is a great idea, got me thinking of doing a cut-&-shut on mine now haha.
Love the steering & go anywhere wheels, looks like it means busines, hoping for more pics, well done bud 👍

[texastweeter]

What's the story on the triumph in the back left? Trident, right? '74?

[realdocBBQ]

Not sure, not mine. This is my buddy's shop.

[bardsleyque]

it's a 650 or 750 twin, can't quite tell if it's single or dual carb.

[rlozinak]

Nice, and now it has wheels

[realdocBBQ]

Pretty simple tonight, but I wanted to get this done while it was nice this week, before I left town for the weekend.

Did axles and wheels earlier in the week, so today (it was 71 freaking degrees today!) I needed to add a pull handle to be able to move this thing around easily. It's not a difficult project, so even though I didn't get out to the shop until nearly 6PM, I knocked it out in a couple of hours with plenty of loafing and BSing with my buddy whose shop I'm using.

Stainless ½" rod handle with 1¼" 11g tubing.




Made a little end cap and welded it on - really don't like open tubing, so I try to use 45º cuts when putting things together, and put end caps on open ends.










I'll add some spring handles on it - only had one left, need to pick up some more from Frank Cox. The eyelets welded to the axle are just 2x2 1/4" squares I had left over from previous stuff. Prolly coulda done 3/16" or even 11g, but I had these lyin' around and figured they'd work well. I used the drill press to drill 5/16" holes in the plates and the square tubing and the ½" holes for the handle. Used a 5/16" pin I got at ACE for the connection, and then the handle is easily removable for storage.

When I get the collector welded into the tank, I'll put a hook on it to hang the handle under it.

Not a major project tonight, but extremely useful - pulling this thing around is eeeeeaaaaasy.... helluva lot easier than my previous builds. lol They were way heavier than this thing.

Anyways, that's it. Simple little evening project. I like it.

[Henrik]

Very nice, good fun to see the progress. I've been thinking about swapping out my tiny wheels on my existing smoker to wheels like that. I don't move it around much, but I do need to pull it out from the garage and then back in, and depending on weather that can be easy or hard. Can you take a closeup photo of the steering "mechanism, i.e. where the front axle is bolted to the front leg frame? I assume it's just a big bolt with some washer in between ("wagon steering"), but would be good to know how you've done it.

[realdocBBQ]

You're exactly right, Henrik. This is a simple mechanism, just a simple ½" bolt, washers and a locknut. I debated about several different designs, but this worked well on my last backyard style build, so I decided to go simple. I'll take some closer-up pics when I get back to town - I'm in Rolla, MO right now with Frank Cox at his shop working/playing for the weekend.

[realdocBBQ]

Gosh, I can't believe I haven't updated in nearly 2 weeks! I didn't realize, sorry guys! It's been good weather here (mostly!) but I've been swamped with our transition at work to membership-based medicine, so even if I get a change to run out for a couple hours in the afternoon to the shop, I'm often committed to other things in the evenings (like public meetings or phone calls to patients), so I have been pretty exhausted. Also went up to Rolla one weekend to hang out with Frank Cox SmokerBuilder and play around, cook some wibs and pick up my Super 55 drum smoker. So it's been a bit chaotic for me. <sigh>

Anyways, on to today's update. You can see some of the things I've done. Door cut, door handles added, collector and 5" exhaust, and then yesterday, added door trim - to cover up a booboo I made when cutting the door.

Spent a couple hours cutting, bending and welding door trim. I had planned to do trim on the INSIDE on this little guy, but I noticed the other night I had made a little b00b00 when cutting the door - the lower left corner drooped down about 1/8-1/4" over a 4" run. DOH! Not horrible, but it was notable from standing a distance away. So I decided the door time would cover it up.

My new slicer will be here today, so cutting tanks is about to get a whole lot better! lol










Overall, I think she's coming out ok, for mostly scrap stuff and just playing around. 20x44ish, around 60 gallons. I need a new damper cut for the stack, the ones I had made were for 4.5" pipe, but I had to use 5.5" pipe at the last minute because my collector cutout was 5" - oversight on my part when ordering a zillion parts from my plasma table guy. DOH! Anyways... he's made me up a design for a new damper, so he's gonna cut that out.



Currently trying to decide on 3/16", 1/4" or 3/8" (overkill) for my internal baffle. My 3/16 is handy and a small piece, my 1/4" is buried under a bunch of stuff, and my 3/8" is... well, it's 3/8", haha. I don't want to mess with that unless there's a good reason, and I don't think using it for an internal baffle is necessary. Oh, this is for the vertical baffle in front of the firebox.

So, anywho... that's my latest update.

Needs an exhaust damper, grates and internal vertical baffle, and I'm likely going to do an external shelgf. I just really think they're handy, I hate it when not having a shelf, and even it is too small. That's gonna be my problem, deciding on shelf depth - I like BIG shelves, I put 20" on my big smoker, I think 16" on my other one similar to this. I'll probaby go for 14" or 16". And coming up with a folding mechanism would be nice, but I don't know that it's truly necessary.

We'll see... I can always second-guess myself into oblivion. That's my superpower!

[Troutman]

Sweet !!!!

[realdocBBQ]

Got a side shelf and internal rack made tonight.




May head for sandblasting tomorrow, if there's an opening for it.

Needs a stack damper, internal rack mounts and a vertical undertow baffle in front of the firebox. Then paint.

Then cook!

[Jerod Broussard]

I just started grinding down my welds to eventually paint my baby.

[realdocBBQ]

Sandblasting today -

Before:


And AFTER:



Also fabbed up some fenderwells on the big trailer for our 320-gallon smoker.




May pull the little one in in a bit and work on putting a damper flap on the stack and the inner rack mounts. Still trying to decide how I want to cut out the vertical baffle for the cook chamber. Prolly either use my plasma, or may take a plate to my friend with the plasma table for a nicer looking plate.

Tomorrow likely fire it up and bake in some oil finish!