Yay, made some progress today! And more pictures!!
Hinges tacked on. Top and sides of door cutout.
Better view of the hinges we fabricated. We chose to offset the hinges towards the tank so when the door pivots up the trim around the door would lift off of the tank instead of bending into it.
Used this thing (looks like its used for doing large scale piping fabrication) that was laying with the welding stuff to mark up the cutting line for the front of the fire box. It was almost like a rigid felt or dense cardboard material but flexible. I would think similar materials with a nice edge would work similarly.
Door finally cut out and the front of the fire box. Had some warping at the top left and right corners. We may pop the door off and try to beat them straight. We chose not to cut the back off of the fire box just yet. Thinking of leaving the back rounded to give a little more volume and save some work.
I got these old speaker grills from work. Turns out they are the perfect size for the bottom rack. And they have a cool perf! We can cut up a few more to do the top rack and the lower shelf. We are actually going to make a rack that can sit down below the bottom rack (right off the rf plate) for pig rousting. This will give us more height inside the smoker.
Next weekend we are planning on getting the right side of the main chamber notched out for the fire box and maybe even getting it attached if all goes well.
Oh! And be sure to congratulate cororumrex on his new baby girl!! That's probably why he hasn't posted lately.