Reverse flow build, just getting started

[real57vetteguy]

Hey man looks sweet,nice handle by the way,where did you get that idea

Just had some alluminum stock laying around and thought it would be a cool looking damnper handle, so we machined, honed it out and now its a dampner handle, might continue that theme for all the handles!

 

[real57vetteguy]

The progress will continue tonight, I am looking for some crafty ideas for a positive stop for the door, rather than just a exterior metal stop that will skin the door? There are some awesome fab guys in here, shoot me some ideas!

 

[real57vetteguy]

Just went and picked up about 200 LF of 3/8 cold roll stock. We opted to build the grates, etc out of that instead of expanded metal! Its time to head to the shop again! I'll hopefully have some new pics tonight!

 

[real57vetteguy]

We got the 1/8 SS plate and SS angle iron together to make the flow/deflection/drip plate today. It fit like a glove, was amazing how well it fit, I've got to pick up a 1" SS weld cross and some SS 1" pipe tomorrow and the work continues!

 

[tom37]

All I can say at this point is I want a shop and more tools. Shezzzz I would settle for a 40 x 60 building, a 350P and a trailblazer just incase, might as well toss in the 5x10 plasma table tooooo. 

 

[real57vetteguy]

haha, my buddy thats doing the fabwork is incredible. the by FAR best fab guy I have ever met! He built a helicopter from scratch, learned to fly it him self, and totaled it also haha, has built two 230+ mph nitro harleys, a jet engine powered 4 wheeler, a sea doo powered 120 hp gokart, several award wining pulling tractors, and I would say if you have a Lamborghini and a tractor he could build you the fastest ditch digger on earth! he is reparing sterling silver pots from the Biltmore house made in the 1700's right now. its madness every day at the shop!

 

[tom37]

Sounds like an awesome friend to have. You better have him first on the list to share good food with.  

Ya just gotta love having good friends.

 

[real57vetteguy]

We trade business alot, Awesome friend to have isnt the word. He is the best buddy a person could have! but our ideas flow like cold beer, it just keeps going!

 

[real57vetteguy]

A little more progress tonight, we ran out of 3/8 cold roll steel for the grate, I never would have thought it would have taken more than 80 ft, I am going to have to pick up a 4" stainless short radius 90 for the stack, and  a little more angle. I have all my propane parts ordered for the 1-1/2 SS propane rail. Pretty soon we will drag the axle in and start building the trailer. By the way the handle is a temp opening device, haha

 

[real57vetteguy]

It will, and since the heat is entering the center, there may be enough convection heat to balance it all out. Even if it has a hot spot, that my be the perfect spot to cook chicken. 

And if nobody ever tries anything different we would all be smoking on a bed of coals over a camp fire.

Tom,

I think your message is right on, after looking at the build more, I think after preheat I can close the dampner almost all the way and let the smoke roll, I may be wrong, but if you look at the heat transfer area, I believe the transfer/convection will be awesome you will have center heat but with both ends open drawing towards the center I thing it might be a pretty even heat. What are your thoughts? Where can I get some good rope seal?

 

[tom37]

I tell ya what, the more I look at this the more I believe it will work fabulous. The heat is gonna rise giving the heat in the center, the smoke is gonna come out from under the plate and make a nice roll against the dome end causing a nice roll across the meat then exit the stack. I think this is one to put on the todo list.

I will make another post with a pic of my coal maze. This has worked wonders for me in the past.

 

[tom37]

Here is what I have used in the past. My rig used to be a center feed with heat deflector plates. 

When this rig began its life there was no round firebox on the left, my only fire was where you see the maze. 

And here is a shot of what I believe the smoke is going to do for ya. 

The rope is an easy one. About any hardware store that sells wood stove parts will have the gray rope used on wood stove doors. And I use rutland high temp silicon. I lay a wide bead every place I want the seal. Then just press it in place, lay down painters tape over the rope, this is to prevent any sticking where the silicon dont belong. I close the door snug to squish the rope into the silicon then prop the door open till it dries. 

I have some that is still in place since 2006. Actually on the rig in these pics. 

 

[real57vetteguy]

Tom,

That is one wicked rig! love it! ya know I have a DCS grill that was about 7k and I think I will use this smoker more than that. This is my personal first attempt at building a smoker, but I have been researching it for 5 years. I agree with you on the flow of smoke/heat. Im jumping to see the end result. I'm glad i decided to go with the cold roll steel rather than expanded metal, we are going to do the same in the firebox, i used the calculator to get my firebox/stack size but I am really excited to see the heat transfer through the plate with the dampner almost closed. My project may fail terribly or it will be Jam up the days will tell

 

[real57vetteguy]

We got a little more done tonight. Stopped early due to everyone just being tired, Long week! My propane parts come in, so next we are going to fab the 1-1/2 Stainless rail.

 

[real57vetteguy]

We have gotten a little more progress done, its inching along right now, and I am having a terrible time finding rope seal, I went to every hardware store I could find! I think I'll be breaking down and ordering that via the internet!

 

[real57vetteguy]

Snails pace the last few days. We are going to start on the propane rail tomorrow, then mounting to the trailer, we will probably fire it in the next couple days to see if it will actually be able to cook something. I think its turning out ok for a bunch of junk laying

            around.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

[tom37]

Good things come to those who wait!!!!!!!

Sittin here I'm thinkin I like the prop rod on your doors. Nice work.

 

[real57vetteguy]

Good things come to those who wait!!!!!!!

Sittin here I'm thinkin I like the prop rod on your doors. Nice work.

Thanks,

We have pondered that for a while and tonight just grabbed a scrap piece of 3/8 cold roll and literally he took on end i took the other and we manually bent it around the outside ov the tank until we got the correct radius, welded in two tabs of cold roll, bent the prop rod, milled a bushing and it worked wonderful! What i really do NOT look forward to is painting. I have 20 cans of 2000F primer coming, as the air compressor tank is so old it is pitted on the exterior, I would really like to get a decent finish but i dont see it possible without a massive amount of time! Any suggestions?

 

[randya]

Thanks,

We have pondered that for a while and tonight just grabbed a scrap piece of 3/8 cold roll and literally he took on end i took the other and we manually bent it around the outside ov the tank until we got the correct radius, welded in two tabs of cold roll, bent the prop rod, milled a bushing and it worked wonderful! What i really do NOT look forward to is painting. I have 20 cans of 2000F primer coming, as the air compressor tank is so old it is pitted on the exterior, I would really like to get a decent finish but i dont see it possible without a massive amount of time! Any suggestions?

First of all what a build!  Workmanship is outstanding.  On the pits on the exterior, I had the same problem and just could not see away to clean it up.  I sand blasted it and painted it with Black Stain Heat paint and it really looked neat.  The sand blasting smooth the pits and it look good to me.

Good luck!

 

[real57vetteguy]

We test fired it tonight using only propane. It was extremly easy to maintain temps of 150, 175, 200, 225 consistantly. closing the dampner from the fire box to cooking chamber down to 3/4 closed really INCREASED the temps. We were able to obtain 150 in about 3 minutes with the dampner open fully, once it was at 200 we closed it to 1/4 open and the temp shot to 400 within about 2 minutes and was climbing when we backed off the propane. We used a laser thermometer to check internal and external temps, at 200 on the smoker thermomoter the cooking surface was 206 on the left side, 202 in the center and 212 on the right side, the right side is consistantly about 4-9 debrees warmer and I feel its due to the fact that the stainless plate in the center of the smoker is ever so slightly higher so that the fluids run to the left and drain. I dont think variances like I saw tonight are going to cause any cooking problems. The stack theory works perfectly as far as drafting heaet from to the sides over the cooking chamber and out the center. I am overly happy with the first trial run.