Baffle/Tuning Plate Idea

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rj2316

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 27, 2008
53
10
Dallas, OR
I just did my first smoke today with a modded Silver Smoker (chimney, baffle, sealed chimney, lowered thermometer). I smoked two racks of beef ribs, one rack of spare ribs, and two loads of thighs/drumsticks. The beef ribs turned and chicken turned out fantastic, the spare ribs were good, but not what I expected (due to what I did, I'll fix that next time). My idea came to me while I was smoking...I was looking at the extra flash I had lying around and thought that cutting it into four sections and running on the bottom of the cooking chamber would create an excellent baffle and set of tuning plates. The circular shape fits perfectly and in my head I think it would be a great way to manipulate heat and gain more usable cooking area. My only concern is the lack of thickness with the flash, but if it's just directing air, that shouldn't be a big deal. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts on whether this will work? It seems to easy to me to be truly effective.
 
rj,

One of the benefits of the heavier material is that it helps retain and distribute heat which helps with temp recovery after you open the lid to spritz/mop. Mine are 1/8" plate and after those babies warm up you can really feel the heat radiating from them.

The thinner material is definitely easier to work with but I would suggest that after you experiment with the thin stuff and get it the way you want it, you duplicate the pieces in heavier material. If your smoker is thin-walled like my SnP, it can really use the help with temp recovery.

Hope this helps.

Dave
 
I understand what your saying. What would be the best way to get my hands on some thicker curved material? My initial thought was pipe cut in half, but I have no idea how much that would cost or how I would do that.
 
Oh yeah. Thanks for the help. And mine is thin walled too, so any extra metal in there will probably help.
 
Why would you want it curved? The baffle and tuning plates that folks here have made (including myself) are flat plate that lay across the bottom half of the cook chamber. Here is a picture of mine.



Certainly not the only way to do it but just to give you an example of what I am talking about. Lots of other examples on this site -- that's where I copied mine from.
wink.gif


As far as a source for thicker curved material -- you got me there. Maybe have a small barrel cut if you could find one the right diameter or blowpipe like the mills use for handling sawdust.

Dave
 
I've seen those. I know they work. I wanted to try something different. The flash covers the firebox opening pretty well and I thought it would be interesting to try it and see what the effects of a curved baffle/tuning plate would be. I was curious if anyone else had tried this or even had this idea before. Thanks again.
 
If that flashing is aluminum, you MAY be in for a surprise if you have it right at the firebox opening... But it's easy to remove the puddles after it cools ;{)
 
That pretty much answers the question I had. I knew there was a reason that nobody had tried that. Thanks guys. I'll be getting some steel plate now.
 
Okay. Firequy posted a thread where he flipped his charcoal pan over and used it as a baffle. It is a little more curved that most.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...168#post188168

Maybe he'll be along and tell you if he was happy with the results. Or you could PM him.

If you are using really thin material though you will want to heed what Richtee and WD said. It can get pretty &^%*& hot at the firebox opening.

Dave
 
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