500 gallon RF Build revised

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Heading out to the shop this morning and hopefully will have the vents done and the firebox stiffeners in and if it goes really well the front on and start cutting the doors! 
 
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Can't wait to see how it turns out.

I'm glad you did the math a second time just to make sure.
 
I got all the vent holes cut and the top vent finished. I am playing with several ideas on how to make the lower vent. I am going to do a guillotine type with the cover going up and down I just cant decide how I want to make it. I have come up with several ideas some very simple some very complex. I want it to work well but also have some cool factor to it.  
 
Well I did not get as far as I had hoped but I did get all the vents done. I still need to fab up handles for the bottom door but it's done and it works.
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Didn't read your entire thread yet just wanted to tell you my experience with sinking the FB into the CC. Keep in mind my build was using a small 60 gallon tank. But by burying my FB into the CC it created some space issues. My FB is insulated. To get the outer top skin on took a bit of cutting some steps into everything. Doubt this will be of a concern to you. What may be is the temperature. I mounted a thermometer wight on top of firebox...which is now part of the cook chamber. I also have a thermometer in the center and on the far side, and inch or two from the end of the plate. Once my cooker is warmed up the closest I can get the 3 thermometers to read are, firebox side, 350*....Center, 300*, opposite end of FB 285*. I have asked several folks about this....one of them a very respected commercial RF builder...and was told that this is why the FB should not be buried under the CC. Stop and think about it....your firewood will be in the cook chamber..that end is going to run hot...keep in mind my FB is insulated....including the area of the FB that is "in" the cook chamber. I am sure a person or 2 on here will disagree with me...but what I am saying is based on my own experience.....countless hours screwing around with fire placement in the FB, raising and lowering the nose...and a conversation or 2 with one of the busiest Cooker builders around....believe who you choose...should also add I bought it to that whole split I take deal...and despite my omission of this in my thread about it have not seen any benefit to the upper air intake. I have tried running the smoker with it in several different positions and have noticed 0 effect on the CC temps...nor smoke thru put...
 
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Didn't read your entire thread yet just wanted to tell you my experience with sinking the FB into the CC. Keep in mind my build was using a small 60 gallon tank. But by burying my FB into the CC it created some space issues. My FB is insulated. To get the outer top skin on took a bit of cutting some steps into everything. Doubt this will be of a concern to you. What may be is the temperature. I mounted a thermometer wight on top of firebox...which is now part of the cook chamber. I also have a thermometer in the center and on the far side, and inch or two from the end of the plate. Once my cooker is warmed up the closest I can get the 3 thermometers to read are, firebox side, 350*....Center, 300*, opposite end of FB 285*. I have asked several folks about this....one of them a very respected commercial RF builder...and was told that this is why the FB should not be buried under the CC. Stop and think about it....your firewood will be in the cook chamber..that end is going to run hot...keep in mind my FB is insulated....including the area of the FB that is "in" the cook chamber. I am sure a person or 2 on here will disagree with me...but what I am saying is based on my own experience.....countless hours screwing around with fire placement in the FB, raising and lowering the nose...and a conversation or 2 with one of the busiest Cooker builders around....believe who you choose...should also add I bought it to that whole split I take deal...and despite my omission of this in my thread about it have not seen any benefit to the upper air intake. I have tried running the smoker with it in several different positions and have noticed 0 effect on the CC temps...nor smoke thru put...
Thank you for your input. This being my first reverse flow smoker I am learning as I go and I appreciate any and all information that anyone wants to give. I am not insulating my firebox but I do plan on adding a top plate that will taper downward into the cook chamber and add a couple inches of airspace between the firebox and the reverse flow plate that is also the top of my firebox. Going into this I knew in my mind that I was not going to be able to build a fire in one end and not expect it to run hotter than the far end of my smoker. I do understand it is not a perfect science and I certainly do not expect perfection, hell that would make it boring if you ask me. For what I have into this thing in time and material I could have bought one of those computer controlled smokers with those little biscuit  things that get fed into it but I love the challenge of building something I have never done before and finding just the right recipe to make the best pulled pork and brisket and smoked salmon that I can.  

The education I have received during this build is unreal! What I thought I was gong to build and what has come to life is two completely different things. 

As far the top vent and whether or not I will use it I figure it didnt hurt to error on the safe side and if it doesn't work I wont use it no harm done. 
 
Didn't read your entire thread yet just wanted to tell you my experience with sinking the FB into the CC. Keep in mind my build was using a small 60 gallon tank. But by burying my FB into the CC it created some space issues. My FB is insulated. To get the outer top skin on took a bit of cutting some steps into everything. Doubt this will be of a concern to you. What may be is the temperature. I mounted a thermometer wight on top of firebox...which is now part of the cook chamber. I also have a thermometer in the center and on the far side, and inch or two from the end of the plate. Once my cooker is warmed up the closest I can get the 3 thermometers to read are, firebox side, 350*....Center, 300*, opposite end of FB 285*. I have asked several folks about this....one of them a very respected commercial RF builder...and was told that this is why the FB should not be buried under the CC. Stop and think about it....your firewood will be in the cook chamber..that end is going to run hot...keep in mind my FB is insulated....including the area of the FB that is "in" the cook chamber. I am sure a person or 2 on here will disagree with me...but what I am saying is based on my own experience.....countless hours screwing around with fire placement in the FB, raising and lowering the nose...and a conversation or 2 with one of the busiest Cooker builders around....believe who you choose...should also add I bought it to that whole split I take deal...and despite my omission of this in my thread about it have not seen any benefit to the upper air intake. I have tried running the smoker with it in several different positions and have noticed 0 effect on the CC temps...nor smoke thru put...
Do you still have that reverse flow? I converted my offset to reverse and initially had the same problem with temperatures. I think it was 250 on the far end and 295 on the firebox side. 45 degrees difference on a 42 inch long cook chamber. No better than before I converted. I tried several things before I finally tried reducing the opening between the end of the reverse flow plate and the cook chamber end wall. Now my temps are within 10 degrees from end to end minus 4 inches each side where it's hotter.
 
Do you still have that reverse flow? I converted my offset to reverse and initially had the same problem with temperatures. I think it was 250 on the far end and 295 on the firebox side. 45 degrees difference on a 42 inch long cook chamber. No better than before I converted. I tried several things before I finally tried reducing the opening between the end of the reverse flow plate and the cook chamber end wall. Now my temps are within 10 degrees from end to end minus 4 inches each side where it's hotter.
I do indeed still have it. Extending my Reverse Flow plate is,going to be a bit of a problem with the way I constructed it. I am in the planning stage of my next one, going to do things completely different this time. I have always wondered if the port size was right.
This time, no angle on the plate, no grease drain, not going to weld the plate in solid til I burn it once or twice.
Only way I need my grease drain is if I run the temperature way up.way over cooking temperature. I only cooked for the two of us. Have recently just foiled or put a drip pan on the plate...thanks for the advice, I will be sticking my head in it today to see about extending the plate...
 
I do indeed still have it. Extending my Reverse Flow plate is,going to be a bit of a problem with the way I constructed it. I am in the planning stage of my next one, going to do things completely different this time. I have always wondered if the port size was right.
This time, no angle on the plate, no grease drain, not going to weld the plate in solid til I burn it once or twice.
Only way I need my grease drain is if I run the temperature way up.way over cooking temperature. I only cooked for the two of us. Have recently just foiled or put a drip pan on the plate...thanks for the advice, I will be sticking my head in it today to see about extending the plate...
What I did was take another piece of steel and overlap the plate. That way you can slide it side to side to close or widen the gap until you find the right spot.
 
What I did was take another piece of steel and overlap the plate. That way you can slide it side to side to close or widen the gap until you find the right spot.
I listened to a "know it all" and welded, all the way across, a piece of angle iron to act as a grease stop....
 
Do you still have that reverse flow? I converted my offset to reverse and initially had the same problem with temperatures. I think it was 250 on the far end and 295 on the firebox side. 45 degrees difference on a 42 inch long cook chamber. No better than before I converted. I tried several things before I finally tried reducing the opening between the end of the reverse flow plate and the cook chamber end wall. Now my temps are within 10 degrees from end to end minus 4 inches each side where it's hotter.
I grabbed a tape measure and did some checking. The FB-CC port is the width of the tank by a tick or so under 5". The other port is the width of the tank by a tick over 6". And I did weld a piece of angle iron across it to act as a grease stopper....just one of many things that I did because I listened to a certain someone on here that was not necessary....I didn't just stitch this angle iron down...I welded the entire edge of it. I am going to get my angle grinder in there when I get a chance and try to remove it.....and bolt an extension on to the plate to see if it helps...Thanks again....
 
I grabbed a tape measure and did some checking. The FB-CC port is the width of the tank by a tick or so under 5". The other port is the width of the tank by a tick over 6". And I did weld a piece of angle iron across it to act as a grease stopper....just one of many things that I did because I listened to a certain someone on here that was not necessary....I didn't just stitch this angle iron down...I welded the entire edge of it. I am going to get my angle grinder in there when I get a chance and try to remove it.....and bolt an extension on to the plate to see if it helps...Thanks again....
No problem. Hope it works like it did for me. I'm not 100% sure why it works but I think it has something to do with the back pressure of a smaller opening. It causes the heat to build up more at the end of the plate. After my experience, I ssuggest all reverse flow builders should have an adjustable plate in order to take advantage of all that hard work. It's an easy adjustment with big effects.
 
No problem. Hope it works like it did for me. I'm not 100% sure why it works but I think it has something to do with the back pressure of a smaller opening. It causes the heat to build up more at the end of the plate. After my experience, I ssuggest all reverse flow builders should have an adjustable plate in order to take advantage of all that hard work. It's an easy adjustment with big effects.
Learned a lot from my build. Going to do things quite a bit different on the next. One of them will be ano adjustable end on the plate. Plate is going to be completely flat. Far easier to put a drip pan to catch the drippings,than all that angle crap. The only way I can get the grease to come pit the drain on mine is to run the temperature WAAAAAAYYYYY up. No,drain on the next one. Definitely not going to weld the plate in completely until I do a few test burns...
 
I made some progress today. Needed to get my truck on my lift so I needed to move the cook chamber and get the firebox off the welding table and move them out of the way as well. Everything is now in the final assembly area! I put on a temporary set of caster's so I could move the cook chamber. These will be permanently in place later after I figure out what the final height will be. It moves very easily on these wheels. Now it's all done but the finishing!
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I am sure glad I had my tractor to pick the firebox off the welding table!
 
Hoss, morning......   The two plates, under the fire grate, is going to be a problem.....   I would remove them now, before the FB is welded up...  
 
Hoss, morning......   The two plates, under the fire grate, is going to be a problem.....   I would remove them now, before the FB is welded up...  

What do see as a problem? Air flow? I have an open space from where air enters the vents that is 4 inches tall and runs the length of the firebox. Do you think that is not enough room to move the air in? I actually had both plates right at the level of the ash drawer and realized that I was blocking all the air from entering through my vents so I removed it and added this one making as much room as I could for air flow.
If it won't work I will cut it out.
 
Just let the ash work it's way to the bottom of the FB...  When needed, scrape it out in a steel bucket...  The deflector plates are totally unusual...   Did you see that design somewhere ??   I'm afraid they will contribute to problems unforeseen in the future....  They will definitely contribute to uneven airflow inside the smoker...  That in itself could be a big problem when it comes to the burn pattern of the wood... 

You are welcome to use that design...   I would stick with what works myself...   trying to reinvent the wheel, when building my first smoker, would not be a good idea....

........Proven firebox design......

 
I understand about not messing with what works. I came up with that all by my lonesome the idea I had was just to direct the ash into the ash drawer for easy cleaning. I will have to cut my wood grate in half so it can be removed for access to the bottom to clean. I am thinking though since I have it all in place maybe I should test it out to see how it does? I can always fire up the plasma cutter and yard it out if it causes any problems?
 
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