Help with modification

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soundguy

Newbie
Original poster
May 22, 2014
6
10
Gulf Coast Alabama
Hi all.

This is my first post and I figure you all will have some good insight on what I'm trying to do.

I want to turn a grill that a welder friend of my dad's built into an all in one cooker.

All in one means:

Smoker

Charcoal grill

Gas grill

Here is the grill.


The cooker portion is a combination of 1/8" and 1/4" plate steel. 

The smoke box on the side is 1/4" and 1/2" plate.

I'd bet this thing weighs between 350 and 400 lbs.

I'm going to sand and paint it soon.  The rust is very surface and the grill is prob 15 years old.

Here is the inside


There is a lip around the middle that the cooking grate rests on


This pic shows 2 things.

1.  A way to lower the cooking grate.  Notice the lip at the top of the pic then the square steel bar set at different levels below.

2. The grate in the back is welded in.  I'm not really sure what this is for, but it is sort of v shaped.  There is a 2" gap between the cooker bottom and where the vertical plate steel starts then it gets wider as it goes toward the grate.

Another shot for size



The smoker box:




I'm thinking the smoker box is small which will make it difficult to do any meaningful smoking.

Now, on to my questions.

1.

I want to add this double venturi control valve to the right side of the cooker box:

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/562a-double-burner-valve-brass-manifold.htm

And these for the burners:

http://www.grillparts.com/firemagic/grillparts.asp?product_id=CIF

The burners will be easily removable when I want to smoke.

My question is, can I sit the burners in front of the venturi just as they are?

Given, of coarse, the venturi is center of the burner mouth.

Will there be proper air flow for the gas mixture if they are on the inside of the grill.

The smoker box door can be left open to let more air in.

I will also add this fire screen:

http://www.grillparts.com/firemagic/grillparts.asp?product_id=fmhp3

2.

What would be the best way to make the smoker box useable?

Do I need to add a cast iron burner of some sort?

Or, is the box big enough to handle a medium sized smoking session using charcoal?

3.

I'm going to build a removable pan and grate for charcoal grilling.  Similar in effect to what is in the 2nd pic.

I don't really have any questions about that part.

Here is a pic of the other side:


Sorry this was so long.

Thanks for any comments or suggestions.

edited to add:

Here is another shot of the inside:


 
Last edited:
Well,

I smoked for the first time ever this weekend.

4 chicken quarters.

I brined for 2 hours then smoked.

It was easy to get the temp to maintain 225 on the right side, but I feel like the fire box side was way hotter.

The chicken was in the middle and smoked at 225 for 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes I opened the fire box vent all the way to get the temp to 300.

5 minutes later the fire box was crazy hot and the temp on the right side was only just above 250 and never got any hotter.

I'm sure the left side was well over 300.

The chicken smoked for another hour.

Total cook time was 2.5 hrs

Even so, the chicken turned out really good.  Perfectly smokey and moist.

The skin was not crispy though.

This smoker seems to be extremely inefficient.

I may just turn it into a gas grill.
 
sg, morning...... the first 2 things I would do are......

1... Add an adjustable inlet, above the fire, to move heat into the Cook Chamber..... "click on pics to enlarge"



2... Add tuning plates.... Add them above the Fire Box to Cook Chamber opening... Space them about1/4" apart for heat to rise... Then the Cooking Grate is placed above that.... The tuning plates are supposed to evenly distribute the heat the length of the smoker... leave them loose so they can be adjusted... they need to fit, side to side, and only allow smoke/heat/air to come through the spaces.....






Looks like you will need a new cooking grate built to fit above the tuning plates....

Do those mods and check the results.... The FB may need to be enlarged to make smoking enjoyable.....

Tuning Plates explained.....
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/54542/building-an-italian-offset-smoker
 
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