Another somewhat related question for you guys. How do you measure the area for the throat? I ask because I am looking at another smoker, a traditional flow offset and want to make sure everything is sufficient, with no restrictions. This is not to replace my current smoker which I still want to figure out, I just really want to also have a traditional flow.... best of both worlds.
This is a 24x48, made of 3/8" steel in the cook chamber and fire box. End caps and stack are 1/4".
The dimensdions are as follows:
Cook Chamber internals are 23.25 x 47.5
Fire box is 23.25 x 23.5 (round)
Stack is 6" internal and 40" tall (builder said it may be 48, he wasn't at his shop and cant remember off hand and said it was either 40" or 48" so I'm being conservative saying its 40")
The throat is football shaped and is 6" tall by 13" wide. I have no idea how to calculate area on this part though or if that is sufficient.
The firebox is designed to crack the door for air flow, so no door damper.
This is from a well respected commercial pit builder who has been building pits for years and is in several restaurants etc., although I don't want to mention names.
<Edit>
This pit builder just sent me measurements of the throat area which look like they are from some kind of file and it's bigger than he first told me. It is elipse shaped and is 15.093" wide by 7.458" Tall. It does have sharp rather than totally rounded ends so I don't know how much that throws the calculation off. By calculating as an elipse that looks like the area is 88.41 Square inches which if using the info above posted by civilsmoker for a 24x48 it should be ok, its 106.5% of the base calc of 83 SI from the tutorial and 97.2% of the desired calc.
www.smokingmeatforums.com
