- Mar 23, 2009
- 436
- 325
So it's been ages since I have posted or even been on SMF, and wow the site is looking great. I moved into an 4th floor apartment, a couple years ago and haven't been able to smoke because 1) fire regulations and 2) I'm on the damn fourth floor :P. However for father's day I headed back home and fired up my Grandpa's old(older than me) smoker which has always served us well, and cooked up brisket, ribs, and loin for a small(15-20) get-together. Have to say, that's all it took. Smoke in my nose and eyes, barbeque and beer in my belly and I haven't stopped thinking about Q since. I made the mistake of watching some pitmaster competition marathon(I was hungry), during which I spotted one of the competitors using a reverse flow smoker. Curiousity got me, and I found my way online back here to SMF and other old sites to discover the secrets of RF.
Before I moved into my new place I had intentions on building a smoker of my own, taking some of the features I liked about my Grandpa's and mixing it with ideas I had researched and thought up in my crazy distorted smoke-filled mind. However after seeing the RF smokers, and plenty of research I have decided to build a RF smoker. Taking a spare few minutes that I have at my desk I sketched up these crappy drawings, which I took crappy cell pics with, and then did a crappy job in MSPaint to make the text more visible.
http://i.imgur.com/2o89M.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Y8siN.jpg
Now I'm not sure how much you can make out from my crude scribbles, but there it is. I'm going to use a tank as the main body, but the size is still undecided. I'd like the ability to smoke a whole hog if need be, but never having done a hog I'm not sure as to how large of an area I'm looking at. The firebox in the drawing is just a simple square box that I roughed in, it will likely be different after some more thoughts. In the interior shot, I want to be able to build a full length drip pan/water pan underneath the cooking area that I can also use as a charcoal box if I wanna cook up a mess of grilled goodies. This pan will also serve as the divider between to keep the smoke down as it passes to the other end. I added two drain plugs, one that is attached to the drip pan and is like a 1in piece of pipe to the exterior of the smoker. The other is on the tank itself, for easy drainings if/when I need to wash the entire smoker out.
As far as materials and thicknesses go I'm really looking for suggestions. Actually I'm open to all suggestions and criticisms on my design. Any and all ideas are acceptable, and you can expect me to have more questions along the way. Hopefully after a little more time spent thinking, and with everyone's help I can get to work of fabrication.
-KRJ
Before I moved into my new place I had intentions on building a smoker of my own, taking some of the features I liked about my Grandpa's and mixing it with ideas I had researched and thought up in my crazy distorted smoke-filled mind. However after seeing the RF smokers, and plenty of research I have decided to build a RF smoker. Taking a spare few minutes that I have at my desk I sketched up these crappy drawings, which I took crappy cell pics with, and then did a crappy job in MSPaint to make the text more visible.
http://i.imgur.com/2o89M.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Y8siN.jpg
Now I'm not sure how much you can make out from my crude scribbles, but there it is. I'm going to use a tank as the main body, but the size is still undecided. I'd like the ability to smoke a whole hog if need be, but never having done a hog I'm not sure as to how large of an area I'm looking at. The firebox in the drawing is just a simple square box that I roughed in, it will likely be different after some more thoughts. In the interior shot, I want to be able to build a full length drip pan/water pan underneath the cooking area that I can also use as a charcoal box if I wanna cook up a mess of grilled goodies. This pan will also serve as the divider between to keep the smoke down as it passes to the other end. I added two drain plugs, one that is attached to the drip pan and is like a 1in piece of pipe to the exterior of the smoker. The other is on the tank itself, for easy drainings if/when I need to wash the entire smoker out.
As far as materials and thicknesses go I'm really looking for suggestions. Actually I'm open to all suggestions and criticisms on my design. Any and all ideas are acceptable, and you can expect me to have more questions along the way. Hopefully after a little more time spent thinking, and with everyone's help I can get to work of fabrication.
-KRJ
