Backyard offset builder has some interesting innovations....

[Uncle Bob]

There are lots of folks who mess around building their own rigs for smoking, and more power to them. It seems that most of the time they are taking inspiration from various manufacturers who have established positions in the marketplace. Some will make a small tweak here or there, but not take much of a risk (probably smart for most).

I stumbled across this YT vid posted by a former fireman who says he was inspired in portions of his design by what he learned about how fire operates while pursuing his life's work/career. I've come to believe that the rounded, bellish shaped ends of a typical propane tank may have some convective influence on air flow in the cook chamber, as opposed to flat plate ends, but he doesn't address that. What he has done is an interesting way of transferring heat and smoke through a plenum atop the firebox to which he has added both a throttle plate and a small dam to impose some Bernoulli affect to the air flow. This latter feature will do something similar to the scoop baffles we were discussing a week or two ago. The other nifty idea is to hinge the access lid counter weight so that he can use a more compact cover (in addition to the foldable stack). I especially appreciated his comments about managing temp and smoke level using the stack damper. I've never understood why folks play the doctrinaire game of "you're supposed to run with the stack wide open, it's the only way." There is no "only way" for just about everything. In this case the home builder rightly says, "it depends on how the design performs...." . Enjoy.................
New Design Backyard Offset Smoker . Several New Features. No Hot Spot. (youtube.com)

[Purc]

Ok, I admit that I had to look up " Bernoulli principle/effect". Interesting mods on his offset. I know nothing about offsets, but it made sense to me. I want to know what the Pit Pros and builders say about this smoker. Thanks for sharing.

[Jerod Broussard]

That is sweet. And most offsets don't have bad hot spots, they are just warmer in areas, which is nice since not all pieces of meat are the same thickness and sometimes you don't want everything coming off at the same time.

3/16" and 1/4" might be a pain to cut, but that stuff is a blast to weld.

[Oak Smoke]

I’ve learned a lot about temp management watching a Smobot work. It controls the exhaust only, no fan and no intake control. The instructions say to open the intake about half way and leave it there. I have seen graph after graph on my cooker where the temp didn’t deviate more than 7 degrees for an entire 8 hour cook. That’s just controlling the exhaust on my kamado. There’s a good chance that I’ll machine an adapter to set on top of a vent and see if it works on the PK.