distance between cooking surface and tunung plates?

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offset grillin

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 23, 2011
57
10
south carolina
I searched through a lot of pages trying to find out how far below the cooking surface the tuning plates need to be for my cbss. I found one reply which stated about 2 3/4 to 3 inches below the cooking surface. I was going to start out at 2 3/4 and trim the plates smaller if I need to go lower. Can anyone confirm this or comment on it. My uncle is a sheet metal fabricator and I wanted to give him the measurments to cut them this weekend.

Thanks
 
It depends on the opening from the fire box. Your tuning plates need to be around 1/2 inch abpve the top of the fire box.
 
You want the plates low enough to fit Drip pans for things like Turkeys and Beef Roasts. Maybe 4-4.5 inches? Measure a pan you would use, I don't remember how deep Disposables are...JJ
 
I do not know how to answer your question....... but.... Here is the theory and a schematic..... Someone may have numbers that are cast in stone but this should help figure it out...... on another thread , HoityToity suggested using an infrared therm to adjust the plates for even heat distribution...... What a great idea..... Dave

offsetfireboxhorizontalsc0.png


 
 
Chefrob

Thnks for the reply. Do the lower grates work well as heatsinks? I had thought about using firebricks for heatsinks in mine but i made my baffles and plates out of 1/4 in steel and was going to try that first.
i think the do since they are thick heavy metal. 1/4" steel should help as well as the fire bricks...........
 
I had one too many plates cut so I'll eaither place it in the bottom or on the opposite side of the firebox to help temps recover faster when i have to open it. Each plate weighs a few pounds so they should work great for holding the heat.
 
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