planning stage now............

[bob1961]

i'm thinking on a 25" dia 150 gal propane tank for my SFB bullet smoker with a 48" cooking chamber with a 18" fire box....in the calc it says for a 441.56 cu inch exhaust chimney volume, for a 6" round stack it needs to be 15.63" long....i'm looking at a 6" circle and no way is there 441 cu inches there, is it talking the whole 15,63" length of exhaust stack volume holds 441 cu inches of smoke.............bob

....

 

[raptor700]

Yes, It's for the length of the exhaust stack 

 

[bob1961]

ok so the total volume of 441 cu inches fits inside the 6" x 15.63" long exhaust stack, gotch ya now.........bob

....

 

[bob1961]

ok i took some measurements of my smoker i have now and ran them in the calc to see if the size of the fire box and cook chamber right close, dead nutz on with each other....now the part i can't grasp is the air intake opening, it says i need 8.48 sq in of area....the size it has is 7.63 sq in....but everytime i have smoked with it i just bout had it closed or bout open an 1/8"....here is a pic of the end of my fire box with the air intake....

the bottom right is the tab that is used to open it, that is where i have it open only an 1/8" to get and maintain 225 to 240 degrees....when i had some steaks in there to smoke the other day i had it wide open to cook with a higher temp and reached 300 degrees in the cooking chamber....steaks came out great in only an hour....is there that much air creeping/sucking in with all those cracks/openings i have in picture...........bob

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[bob1961]

well i called the place i used to work for repairing old outdated PP tanks....asked bout the 150 gal i want to do up and they said it was an old style no longer used really....there are some out in use but will be sraped when they need to be re dated/re paired....well i asked bout a 250 gal and they have one i can get now, but not ready now for 50.00 bucks

 but not sure i want to deal with the 500 lb weight of it yet to get 32" dia tank, the 120 is 24" dia and only bout 290 lb....so the scrap metal price will be cheaper then 50 bucks yet for the 120

 ....looks like spring time will be fun time for me with a brand new RF smoker

 ..........bob

....

 

[tom37]

Glad to hear of a plan in action.

Just my 2 cents here but I would go with the larger tank, Its not gonna take much time and fuel for the larger and it will offer alot more real estate for good eats, maybe even a slide out shelf.

My scrap is going for .30 a lb making the small tank cost 87 bucks, and the 500 would be about 150.00.  I would think the 50 bucks for a 500 is an awesome deal. I bet the 500 is a much thicker wall tank as well.

I have been wanting an enclosed trailer for awhile now but after further research I really can't afford that until the all mighty child support is over. Gotta love that. But since I collect 1 1/4" square tube from work by the 100's of feet. I am planning a switch over for my RF from the trailer its on, too a heavy tandem trailer. I really only need a 7000 lb tandem but I can get a 14000 lb'er for less. Do I need it that heavy? No. Will I be able to load it with no regard as to which side I put more weight on? Yes, to a point anyways. My point is, I always try to buy or build heavier then I think I will ever need. Heck if I was to run across one of those way cool off road golf carts, I would have to haul that too.

 

[bob1961]

yeah i'm looking to do a whole pig in the future with it....i'll see what size meats are to see if i want/need to go 24" dia or 32" plus front to back in cooking chamber....120 gal is 24", 250 gal is 32" and 500 gal is 37" dia, but i'm wanting at least 48" long chamber...........bob

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[bamaboy]

Man i wish i could find a 250 or 500.I am in the planning and scrounging stage to build a rf with a 80 gal compressor tank

 

[2bears]

well i called the place i used to work for repairing old outdated PP tanks....asked bout the 150 gal i want to do up and they said it was an old style no longer used really....there are some out in use but will be sraped when they need to be re dated/re paired....well i asked bout a 250 gal and they have one i can get now, but not ready now for 50.00 bucks

 but not sure i want to deal with the 500 lb weight of it yet to get 32" dia tank, the 120 is 24" dia and only bout 290 lb....so the scrap metal price will be cheaper then 50 bucks yet for the 120

 ....looks like spring time will be fun time for me with a brand new RF smoker

 ..........bob

....

I paid $40 bucks for a 120 that is 45 X 30is dia.

AND I just bought a 500 gal PP tank for $125 so their prices are good, If you go to the scrap yard they will charge you more for it because they want to make money on them.