Who's smoking on a Bellfab smoker?

[jcbigler]

I want to buy a new smoker. Have been looking hard at the Bellfab smokers. And since I'm in the Tulsa area I can pick it up myself and save on the shipping.

http://www.bellfab.com/

I know there were some members here that were using them, but all those posts seems to be from '09-10. If you guys are still here, how well have they held up?

I'm looking at the 24x36 model. Talked to him yesterday and he said that they are running $500 now. I will have him move the stack to the side of the cook chamber and add an expanded steel wrap around utility shelf instead of the tubular shelf and a deflector plate over the firebox opening. So I'll probably be in the $600 range.

Can you guy post some pics of the interior of the cook chamber? And the cooking grates? The pics online make it hard to tell how deep the main cooking grate is and whether it can be pulled out for cleaning.

Also, how many briskets can you fit on the 24x36 model? He said you could fit 6 or 7 including the top shelf. Do you think that's accurate?

 

[joe black]

I have a Bell and I love it. I have had it about a year and it works great for me. I don't think you'd have any trouble putting 6 average sized briskets on a 24"x36". I will say that after everything else, the extra length is not that much more money. If he has a longer piece of pipe on his yard, I would seriously check to see how much more it would cost. Mine is 48" and one of the best things about that is that it has 2 doors. I have a baffle at my FB end and a convection plate. I am running a little hotter at the stack and I'm going to add a row of holes at the FB end. This should give a little more heat on that end. My stack is at grate level and drafts very well. I also have the expanded metal front shelf and lower shelf. I have a warmer plate on the FB and it works well for sauce, etc. Mostly, I use it to pre-heat splits. If you will enlarge my avatar, you will see that I have 4 therms (2 on each door). I had Craig put the 1/2" outlets in and I bought River Country therms and put those in myself. There is also a 1/2" outlet next to the stack. I put a cable conduit connector there to run probes thru. I got it at Lowe's in the electrical dept. One other thing that I asked Craig for was a small damper at the top of the FB end. This lets air in at the top to help it push heat and smoke into the CC.

If you click on my avatar and enlarge it you will get a better look at the outside. I don't have any inside pics, but there is nothing really special in there except the convection plate. While you have clicked on the avatar, you are at my personal info. Click on "threads started" and scroll down to "Labor Day cook" and "Memorial Day cook". You can't see much about the inside, but you can see the grates, etc. Also, it will show the amount of meat on the grates. Yes, the grates come out for cleaning. Ask Craig to leave the convection plate loose instead of welding it in. Then, you can take it out for cleaning beneath.

Good luck with your adventure. If you have any particular other questions, PM me and I will respond direct. Joe