Opinions on mini reverse flow vs. mini standard offset The SCUBA-Q

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tobycat

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Mar 20, 2013
151
13
Santa Cruz Ca.
So the best thing about building a Mini  23" x 6 3/4"  is you can have it sitting on the coffee table and stare at it while thinking about the design. I have the cook chamber door built and the firebox plate cut to size and ready to weld but am wondering if on a build this small it would cook better as a  regular offset vs. a very small reverse flow? The baffle plate will end up being within an inch or so of the cooking grate, I don't plan on cooking contests with this thing but I'd like it to function decently. Thanks for any advice or input - Tobycat.

 
1" clearance from the grate to the plate does seem a bit tight...can't get much flow through that gap to allow the reverse flow design to work very effectively. I think you'd have quite a hot spot near the fire box...might be better going single flow with tuning plates...probably 2" straps so you can move them where you need to allow heat to flow where grate temp variances dictate.

Interesting base-design concept...should hold heat very well, as the old (non-composite) breathing air cylinders are freaking heavy, especially the 4,500 psi units (speaking from experience...I used to service them and operate/maintain high pressure air compressor/purification systems for grade D [SAR/SCBA] and grade E [SCUBA] air). You know, once you get this thing hot, I doubt a RF design would perform much better than single-flow with proper tuning, as it's a lot of thermal mass for it's size.

Is this going to be a single-slab baby back rib and other smaller meat (steak, chops, short ribs, chix pieces) smoker?

Eric
 
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1" clearance from the grate to the plate does seem a bit tight...can't get much flow through that gap to allow the reverse flow design to work very effectively. I think you'd have quite a hot spot near the fire box...might be better going single flow with tuning plates...probably 2" straps so you can move them where you need to allow heat to flow where grate temp variances dictate.

Interesting base-design concept...should hold heat very well, as the old (non-composite) breathing air cylinders are freaking heavy, especially the 4,500 psi units (speaking from experience...I used to service them and operate/maintain high pressure air compressor/purification systems for grade D [SAR/SCBA] and grade E [SCUBA] air). You know, once you get this thing hot, I doubt a RF design would perform much better than single-flow with proper tuning, as it's a lot of thermal mass for it's size.

Is this going to be a single-slab baby back rib and other smaller meat (steak, chops, short ribs, chix pieces) smoker?

Eric
Is this going to be a single-slab baby back rib and other smaller meat (steak, chops, short ribs, chix pieces) smoker?
Eric, yeah I thought it would be cool to be able to do just a a single slab of ribs. I ended up using the reverse flow plate but as a single piece of steel acting as the top of the firebox. Check my build post for the update pics.
 
 
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