Horizonal Offset Smoker Mods

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I'm just a year late to this thread....!!!
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But I too am a Mac user. I had no problem downloading and opening the xls file. Do you have Microsoft Office (I do), or one of the open-source office suites (Like OpenOffice)?
 
  1. Rivet, thanks for the pics of the charcoal box, gonna have a friend in the weld shop make one for me also gonna make the damper and tuner for me. Should be ready for a try next weekend. Also I think perhaps finding some way to tighten up the fire box door and lid, and perhaps also maybe something on the smoke chamber door to keep it all tight. The exhaust vent is the easy part. Thanks for the tips and pics. Gonna have to try my first pics for you guys to view.
 
Here is another option for the exhaust...this is a 4" exhaust stack; I made this mod several years ago and it works great! I started to cut off the stock exhaust and weld the hole, but discovered it is nice to have it as an option, especially when getting the fire started-once cooking it stays closed most of the time.
By the way, if you look on the shelf below, you can see the sad remains of the original firebox grate! not sure why I still have it around!!!
(and yes, I smoke with split hickory! I only use the charcoal to get the hickory started...)
 
Well I thought I would treat myself and order a Horizon 20" convection plate and give that a try but I'm up in Canada and I cant get one shipped up here! Does anyone know what diameter holes they use? If I had that info I would make my own.
 
Great thread, y'all have talked me off the ledge in regards to scraping my Silver Smoker.

What are you guys doing about air gaps from the lids?
Is there a food safe way to seal the <1/8" gaps in the edges and points of contact?

I don't know if my personal welding skill and patience level are up to deal with this project in my shop (everyones always got something to say), I might have to make a few phone calls. I really appreciate the hard work done by many of you guys, my smoker appreciates the 11 o'clock stay of execution.

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I did nothing about it. There's a big 3" hole in the top. I didn't think 1/8" around the sides was going to be a real issue. Some folks that added to the thread after I started it seemed to be bothered by them. Maybe they're using theirs in much colder country than I am but I didn't think it was a big enough deal to worry about.

You can get food safe silicone and some folks have used wood stove gasket rope. Whle technically probably not food safe, if the food doesn't come in contact with it, it should be fine. I have a length of wood stove gasket between the inner ring on my UDS and the drum itself where the Weber lid fits. You can't see it now and food never touches it.

I had a local fab shop cut the pieces for my mods. Again, folks that added stuff later in the thread got a little fancier and welding may be required. I tried to keep it simple for the "no weld" folks like myself.
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Dave
 
You guys have just saved the life of another Brinkman and saved me a ton of money too! This is way cheaper than a Horizon or Yoder!
 
My new Charbroils looks identical to your brinkmann, except mine doesn't have any mods done yet. How do you keep from losing all that heat when checking on the meat? I like all the space that having the whole top half as a lid allows, but I don't like how it allows so much heat to escape. Is there anything to help with this?
 
The tuning plate help with temp recovery if there's some mass to them. Mine are 1/8" thick and they help quite a bit. The ones Taz did are 1/4" I believe and would help with heat recovery. Sometimes I'll put a pan full of sand at the stack end for more mass.

There's really no way to get around it. When you open the lid you'll lose heat. Having something with some mass in the chamber helps but I think the big thing is don't open the lid unless you need to. Only open to spritz, mop, foil, insert temp probe, etc. And do what you need to do quickly and close it up. Mine recovers in 5 or 10 minutes at ambient temps of 40° and above. If you smoke where it's really cold, then it may take longer.

Dave
 
ok...I built a charcoal basket, extended the exhaust down, and built a convection plate. I did the burn in last night. BUMMER! It never made it over 225*at grate level. I think maybe the cp is to restrictive. I started with a Weber chimney full of charcoal and added a half full load later. Is this enough? I am going to add pics when I figure out why my pc wont read the SD card. Any suggestions?
 
I have some questions about fixing my smoker. I can't keep a good heat on it more than an hour, and the firebox was red fricking hot, well the side door, and the charcoal grill rack. Would anyone happen to be able to tell me how thick the metal has to be for the baffle and heat/tuning plates? I was thinking of cutting some metal out of an old washer, dryer or stove, or would that be too thin? Also where, and what would be the easiest thing to use and find to seal off between the firebox and the base of the smoker? Every time it heats up they warp apart from each other making a noticable gap.
 
I watch the craigslist all the time, and I am always seeing people giving away stove, washers. and dryers for free. I was thinking of getting one and using the metal from one to cut up into a baffle and tuning plates, and maybe use the gasket out of a stove to seal off my firebox. I'm just not sure if that would be thick enough?
 
I looked it up once and think they start off at 1/2" at the inlet and step up to 1 1/2" at the far end. Just space them out evenly.

I made an attempt from on old cookie sheet but got better results using fire bricks as tuning plates and varying the gaps between the bricks from narrow to wide.
Since the brick also acts as a heat sink and increases the thermal mass of my small pit, it really helps to keep the temps even across the smoke chamber.

I foil wrapped the bricks to keep them from getting greasy from drippings should the drip pan shift.
 
I had the same problem with the uber cheapo Char Broil I got from Wally World. The attractive part was it's small size and I wanted a horizontal offset so I could use it as a grill from time to time.

I took care of it by doing all the usual mods that you'll find on the web and here for the off sets. On top of that, I also took the thing apart and added some metal to it.

I used a combination of aluminum flashing and both 22 gauge and 16 gauge sheet metal from the corner hardware store. I used flashing and 22 gauge to beef up the top of the cooking chamber, the bottom got flashing only but two layers at the inlet end where the deflector plate now is.

The fire box got flashing and 16 gauge in the top half with flashing 22 gauge in the bottom half.

I also changed the bottom of the fire box to have a slide out tray that I fashioned from 22 gauge to make dumping ash easy.

It helps to perform the sheet metal some with a dead blow hammer and a crack or gap of some sort. A rubber mallet would work just as well. I used a space in my Workmate for the forming gap. Just move the sheet metal back and forth as you whack it over and over with the hammer or mallet. It will soon take on the shape you want.

To hold it all in place, I used steel pop rivets.

The flashing and 22 gauge you can cut with tin snips. For the 16 gauge and the semicircular end pieces I used my saber saw with a fine tooth metal cutting blade.

Put the aluminum flashing between the steel sheet metal. This helps spread out the temps and insulate the whole thing.

Now I can hold my hand on top of the smoke chamber when it is at 225, my target cooking temp. The fire box no longer burns the paint off, not even the top.

Adding the extra metal along with the other mods helped a great deal and it also did a lot to reduce fuel consumption and a lot of trips back and forth to add fuel.

BTW I simply moved the stack from the top to the side using a 3" elbow and piece of stove pipe with a rain cap I also got at the hardware store. The sheet metal I added also blocked off the big hole in the top where the stack once was.

Using a piece of scrape, I also fashioned a damper inside the vertical stack to aid in keeping the temp where I want it.
 
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i think i am going to give up on snp. I did different mods on it and still dosent seem to cook even enough. i still get a 50 to 75 degree difference from end to end. I am new to smoking and i love bbq but this damn snp makes me want to give up allready
 
I don't think you'll ever be able to make the temps completely even from end to end. I used some 16 gauge steel for a deflector/plates and the best I can get is about a 25* difference from end to end. Maybe with a 1/4" thick deflector, it would be less, but all the heat is coming from the one side...just the nature of the beast.

edit: I have an SnP as well.
 
does any one have an idea on how long of a burn i will get using the minion method on my snp. i will b usibg kingsford, with a charcoal basket that is 12x12x6 inches.
 
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