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**realdocBBQ** · May 25, 2025, 01:10 PM

First fire already! Alright, I'm finished here, folks! Thank you, and good night!

hahaha!

Seriously, I didn't get out to work on it Friday, life got in the way, so it got rained on - and with the seams not completely welded, that means water inside, on the insulation. lol. So, I pulled it out away from the shop and loaded it up with wood and burned the hell out of it for a few hours to heat it up and hopefully evaporate any moisture inside.

Then I let it cool off and brought it back inside and welded up all the seams. Now the firebox is truly done!

While I was waiting, I went ahead and measured my wheel offset.

Ok, ok, I'll be honest. I had my wife measure the wheel offset, because I forgot to do it before I left home to go to the shop. After a few minutes of frustratingly trying to convey what I wanted her to check - including sending a picture of a Jeep wheel I measured to demonstrate - she still sent me measurements from the wrong side. <sigh> But eventually I got the right ones, which allowed me to calculate my axle length, given the spacing I want between the wheel and the firebox, and then I cut my axles and drilled 32 holes in them on the drill press (ruining one step bit in the process) and went to work hammering in my hubs and spindles, then plug welded them in place. They are NEVER coming out of those things!

So now my axles are done, just need to grind the plug welds flush, which I'll do later, since I'm going to have to clean them all up before painting anyways.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to do the frame and front axle and steering, etc. I've done it with a full hub and spindle for previous 250-gallon pits, but I am leaning more toward just a big bolt through this time, or maybe even doing something with a pillow block bearing or a tapered roller bearing or something. Gotta sit down and give that some serious thought.

<edit> Sorry, thrust needle roller bearings was what I was thinking of...

**RiverJeff** · May 26, 2025, 05:25 AM

Really looking nice at this point!

**realdocBBQ** · June 4, 2025, 12:08 PM

Been a while since I've updated this, so I'll add some things I've done lately. Been a crappy spring for working in the shop - lots of wet stuff falling from the sky, keeping the ground soft and squishy, which inhibits my ability to work, as I don't want to leave ruts in the ground from the tractor, as it's not my shop or yard.

Decided to try to get the door completed. This is going to be a bank vault style door, insulated WITH pass-through air inlets, so that makes it a bit more complicated.

Rolling a hoop out of 1/8" flatbar (1.25" wide, I think) on my band roller.

Had a buddy cut some holes in my door plates with his plasma table so they would be perfectly lined up:

Going around in small sections and taking a LOT of time in between, to try to prevent warping. The inner door face (inside the firebox) is 1/4", the outer is 1/8" - trying to save some weight.

Once the hoop is welded and the inlets are welded on the inside of the inner doorpanel, fit up the outer panel.

Now to figure out how I'm going to drill holes for the air inlet dampers. Hmmmm... maybe I should have drilled those first. But, that would have had its own challenges, as well.

Decided to level the door as best I can front to back and side to side, then used my laser level moving all around and adjusting height to be the same around all sides. This should work, I think...

Then move the laser to the sides from WAY above and mark the vertical lines - so it is even on both sides as well. Theoretically, all of these are in line and should be good to run a control rod through...

One I drill the holes. Ok... outside holes, not too much of a problem. Drilling holes in the inside edges... a bit more of an issue.

Obviously my drill bits won't reach from one side to the next. And cannot fit from inside the pipe. Decided to use my plasma cutter and burn a hole in each - ugly, rough and not perfectly lined up, but... they were holes.

After cleaning up with my right angle pneumatic grinder and a carbide burr bit, I managed to get them lined up enough for the control rod to pass through.

Now I began to worry... this door is getting HEAVY. And the outer doorskin is planned to be 1/8" plate. I worried attaching it via 2 hinge points, each about 3" long, was going to lead to sagging - either of the hinges, or the door skin itself might warp. So I decided to go with 3 hinges, each made of 1/4". That made me feel better, but still... 1/8" door skin. Maybe I should rethink that. But I didn't want to do 1/4" for the outer door plate, that's just way too much weight. Not to mention, I build the box for the door plate to inset into the face of the box and to swap that to 1/4" would mean the door face would stick out from the face of the box. Not my ideal aesthetic.

Then I had the bright idea to weld a backing plate to the inside of the outer door skin so the hinges would have a stronger attachment point. So back to my plasma guy I go and he cuts me out a cool backing plate I can weld into the inside of the door, on the backside of the outer door skin. Not just weld the edges, but also plug weld the plate to the door. Boom.

Took me a good 3-4 hours to weld this up - remember, both of these are 1/8, so I was taking a LOT of time in between doing 2-3 spots to let it cool so it wouldn't warp - warpage of this door panel would be disastrous!

But finally got it done.

**realdocBBQ** · June 4, 2025, 12:19 PM

So now to finish the door.

First - insulation.

Drill a hole in the outer plate and weld a nut on the backside (which will end up inside the door and never able to access again) for the door handle to bolt into:

Attach the front plate on, weld in place - also skipping around and allowing for lots of cooling time in between welds. Sheesh, this takes forever.

Finally done several hours later and time to go to work on the air inlet dampers:

Lot of finagling, grinding and shaping to get these right, then get them tacked in place.

And the door sitting in the face of the firebox^^^^.

This door is a BEAST. I bet it weighs 40-50 lbs. Sheisse.

Going to go out today when I leave the office and try to spend a couple of hours out there at the shop and get the door actually attached with the hinges I've had cut out. 3 hinges out of 1/4" steel, each hinge with 2 attachment blocks on the firebox, 1/4" also.

I sure hope those hold this thing up well, or I'll end up having to build a hinge 'mechanism' out of 1¼" square tubing or something, which also isn't the aesthetic I'm looking for out of this thing.

So we'll see how it all works out.

Wish me luck! lol

**realdocBBQ** · June 4, 2025, 07:35 PM

Door installed tonight!!! W00T!!!

Only one....ummmm.... Very SMALL problem...

I can't OPEN the door! Lol

Trying to open it, one small portion on the lower edge, about 5 o'clock, is catching on the inside lip of the firebox. Lol

No big deal, though. It's almost there, I'll be able to pry it open tomorrow and then I'll just grind down a tiny bit of the inner sleeve of the firebox and it should clear perfectly. I think it'll clear all the rest of the way around. So, really, just a little 'massaging' of the clearance and it'll be perfect. No biggie. I'm sure. I hope. I am pretty convinced.

We'll see. It was getting dark, so I buttoned things up and came home.

**sarredon** · June 4, 2025, 08:32 PM

I always love following these builds. Thanks for sharing! One day I will own one of these rigs!

**RiverJeff** · June 5, 2025, 06:05 AM

All your doors that fit into a frame will need a bevel on the lock side to pass by the frame opening.

**realdocBBQ** · June 5, 2025, 06:36 AM

Originally posted by RiverJeff View Post

All your doors that fit into a frame will need a bevel on the lock side to pass by the frame opening.

You are exactly right. They don't just move in and out straight like a cork in a bottle. I had to do some of this on my first build with the same bank vault style door.

Originally posted by JerodBroussard

Are you sure you running hot enough??

What is your wire bill??

Running hot? Why, whatever do you mean????

**PGH_RAM** · June 5, 2025, 12:28 PM

I absolutely love watching these builds. If you didn't live half a continent away I'd be saving up to order one from you.

**realdocBBQ** · June 11, 2025, 08:32 AM

Ok Went out Sunday and did some weedeating - about an hour and a half straight, it was hot, I was soaked, and GOD all this rain has made s*** grow like... well, like weeds! UGH! Went home and relaxed for a few hours before taking the family to see Wicked at the theater - the play, not the movie.

I got some parts cut this weekend, but haven't gotten much else done. Went out yesterday, was going to weld up my collector, have a new collector design and stack/exhaust design or idea I've come up with, but it requires attaching the exhaust with bolts. not welding it.

Well, I didn't bring bolts. So I sat around feeling sorry for myself for a while... dug out the trenches for the shops' sliding doors - all the stupid rain lately causes everything to run into them, so they have to be 'dredged' periodically to remove silt, rocks, junk, debris, etc, or the sliding doors get to be hell to open. Well, that kinda sucked, but I did it. Then after cooling off a bit, decided to run to town to get bolts at Atwood's - I really wanted socket head cap screws, so I had to hit a few places trying to AVOID going all the way to Atwood's (it's the farthest), but ended up there anyways. Got regular cap screws AND socket head cap screws, thinking I wasn't sure which 'look' I was going to prefer.

Then I get back (45 mins to an hour total round trip), and when I try them out I realize... I got the wrong. GD'd. SIZE.

You gotta be freaking KIDDING me. Nope. Wrong size. I know why, because I was THINKING 3/8" bolts, that was my intention, but when we were cutting out parts, we had a little SNAFU with the machine and had to oversize the holes and redo our design a little bit. So we ended up making them for 7/16". Aaaaaand I totally forgot. <sigh> So I went through all that and totally got the wrong size.

You ever just have one of those freaking DAYS???? Well, I did. So I gave up. Literally. I just quit. Put everything up, locked up and just left. Went home, sat on the porch, drank beer, smoked, read a book on my tablet and generally just felt sorry for myself. Actually, I pulled out 20 lbs of bacon I had resting/drying in the fridge and got it sliced and packaged up, so it wasn't a total loss.

But now... NOW I want to go back and get to work, but of course, I am stuck in the office all day. Naturally. If I can get out of here a little bit early, I might be able to get a few hours' work in this evening - tomorrow and Friday looks like rain, so I don't know if I'll get much done then or not. By the weekend, it looks like more weedeating and mowing, as well. <sigh> Plus have to do the same at MY house, as well as helping keep up at the shop. I mean... it's not like my 19-year old who is home from college for the summer is going to do a damned thing, right? Right. Of course not.

Anyways, been a little bit of a frustrating week, but I am hoping to make some progress, start the firebox/cook chamber joinery in the next couple of days and get this thing maybe on wheels this weekend. IF I can get a decent amount of time out in the shop to work. We'll see!

Wish me luck.

Gratuitous bacon pics, since I have nothing to show for my failures with the pit thus far this week. lol

Attached Files

**realdocBBQ** · June 12, 2025, 10:50 AM

OK, got a little work done last night. Finishing up at the office, hope to go out today and get some more done.

Started on the collector for this smoker. Decided to go with a removable exhaust stack instead of a folding stack. Various reasons, but I also think it goes a little more with the aesthetic of this particular smoker. That'll become more apparent as this all comes together. I think the 'look' of this particular stack will fit better than a folding hinge.

Thought about welding nuts on the underside of the collector so I could just bolt through a flange to hold the stack in place - then I thought, why not do a little more streamlined approach - we oversized the bolt holes and turned some Grade 8 nuts (now that I look, these are green, so I think they're Grade 5, not Grade 8) and pressed them into the holes so that they'll be flush on the top and we can bolt the flange right down to the top of the collector.

Then did some small welds to hold those nuts in place, but didn't want to go hot and heavy on them and end up deforming them and having to retap the threads. Something I've done before, as you might guess. lol

Then started assembling the collector and welding it out. Didn't completely weld it out last night, as it was getting pretty hot and I am trying to take my time with it, trying to make my welds look nice and don't want to deform it.

I'd love to have some really nice looking welds, it's just an aesthetic thing, people see those sweet welds and honestly, it's a selling point. I'll never have the really amazing welds some of these guys have that I've followed for a long time. Some examples - some of my idols, lol!

Lindsey Welding Services/Heirloom Pits:

Also Pig Iron Patina:

Anyways, like I said, I know I'll not get to the level those guys are, but I'm trying to put some effort into making things look nicer. I'm not in a 'production environment' where I have to turn things out on a rapid schedule in order to pay the bills, so I can take a little more time on trying to do that. Also some time with polishing things up when they don't look good that other places/people don't take the time for.

So here's how things looked when I left them last night.

Anyways, I know I'll never achieve those levels, but I can see an improvement from when I first started this. And I can keep working on getting better. And for me, these days, it's starting to be more about the creativity and the joy of the project than the production and sale. I'm enjoying the accomplishment of getting better, of making a cooler, nicer or more unique smoker, etc.

I dunno, I'm a nerd, I know.

So, gonna finish up here and head out to the shop to finish the collector and get started cutting the firebox throat opening into the tank, I think.

This one's gonna be interesting, there's kinda a theme I'm working on, and I'm getting close to the revelation of the name, I think. I wait for each pit to kind of 'name itself'. This one is getting there... we'll see what it tells me when the time comes.

**realdocBBQ** · June 13, 2025, 08:52 AM

Well, I got some work done yesterday, but I was not happy with my welds. <sigh> They're just too humped up and caterpillar-like. Often, I'll just use a flap disc and grind them down to smooth them out and give me good rounded corners and edges.

But, since I can't make sharp-looking welds, I decided to see if I could make for sharp-looking corners.

Kind of hard to see in pictures, I don't do a good job with photography. But basically I tried to give myself 45-degree edges on everything. I'll also give it a try doing something similar on the firebox when the time comes, so I have some consistency. Just a little bit different look to this one. No big deal, if it looks stupid, it'll be easy to round those off like I often end up doing.

Also cut the feet off my tank yesterday - boy that was a pain. Used my slicer at first, but it was taking forever and really hard to get into it around the feet, so I ended up using my plasma cutter to get them off, then slicer to get them lower, then flat resin discs and flap discs to smooth it out.

All don
All done.

Now I'm ready to get started mounting the firebox and collector. Collector first, so I can roll the tank around to get better welds on it. Hopefully today.

**Jerod Broussard** · June 13, 2025, 09:49 AM

Arm time will get you better welds, without a doubt. I'm welding corner joints on 14 gauge steel, start, stop, start, stop, start stop. Running a constant bead with those gaps makes what the human race calls HOLES. I took a week off and it took a few to get back looking "decent." (that word in quotations is open to interpretation)