My 500 gallon pit build

[pitbuilder88]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum but have drawn a lot of ideas from posts on here over the years, so I thought I would share the story of my new smoker build. It is a 500 reverse flow made from a propane tank, with a warming cabinet/second cook chamber. The warming cabinet and fire box are fully insulated, I am not done with it yet but getting closer. I have had the tank for several years and had it bled out for a long time, and began by thoroughly cleansing the tank (lots of water and dish soap, again, and again, and again). After cleaning I cut the end caps off and had the tank blasted to get clean iron to work with, even after all the cleaning and blasting you could still get a faint whiff of mercaptan.

The baffle plate is broke from 3/16 plate with a 5 degree pitch for grease flow into a 2” stainless drain pipe. The firebox is 34” wide x 36” long x 30” high with the inside liner made of 3/8” plate, wrapped with 2” of 1200-C insulation and then sheet with 12 gauge on the outside. The warming cabinet has a controllable flue between it and the firebox to allow temperature control inside of it and is made from 10 gauge inside and out with 1” of insulation. We broke the floor of it to feed to a grease tube that feeds into the grease trough of the main cook chamber.

When finished I plan to do a linseed oil finish on it

 

[bmudd14474]

Looks like a great job so far. Cant wait to see the finish

 

[JLeonard]

That thing is a beast! Cant wait to see the finished product.

Jim

 

[Newglide]

That thing is a beast!

You got that right!
Great lookin welds too

 

[JC in GB]

Some darn nice work there so far sir. Can't wait to see more.

I can no longer choose font and color?!?!? Oh the humanity....

JC

 

[SmokinAl]

You have some serious skills & an awesome shop to work in too!!
Al

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Some darn nice work there so far sir. Can't wait to see more.

I can no longer choose font and color?!?!? Oh the humanity....

JC

They're still there. Over to the right of the "Font Size" icon there are 3 dots. Click on that and "More Options". Color pallet and font family are there along with a couple of other options...

 

[Bearcarver]

WOW !!!
Be Back!

Bear

 

[bauchjw]

Incredible! That is so impressive!

 

[Winterrider]

Very nice work, will follow !

 

[Brokenhandle]

Can't wait to see the finish! Looks awesome so far!

Ryan

 

[48°North]

Looking good! I like all the rack space in the main cook chamber.

 

[culpepersmoke]

Really nice craftsmanship. Hope you post finished pics.

 

[pitbuilder88]

Looking good! I like all the rack space in the main cook chamber.

Thank you, it is designed too give the ability to run several cooking configurations. You can run all four of them or if you want too run 3 equally spaced racks you can remove the 3rd one up from the bottom, or if you have something taller to cook you can remove the second rack up and the top rack and have 2 equally spaced racks. If you cook with all 4 the spacing from bottom is 9”-4”-5”-9” if you cook with 3 racks is 9”-9”-9” or on the two rack configuration is 13 1/2”-13 1/2”

 

[Ringer]

Thank you, it is designed too give the ability to run several cooking configurations. You can run all four of them or if you want too run 3 equally spaced racks you can remove the 3rd one up from the bottom, or if you have something taller to cook you can remove the second rack up and the top rack and have 2 equally spaced racks. If you cook with all 4 the spacing from bottom is 9”-4”-5”-9” if you cook with 3 racks is 9”-9”-9” or on the two rack configuration is 13 1/2”-13 1/2”

I want to see it full of meat.

Great job on a beautiful smoker.

 

[Sven Svensson]

That’s incredible. You could smoke an entire herd in that beast.

 

[Fueling Around]

Impressive! Well planned design especially the grease trough.
Are you going for catering or competition?

 

[pitbuilder88]

Impressive! Well planned design especially the grease trough.
Are you going for catering or competition?

Right now just personal use, but I do a few local cook offs nothing big. I would like to work my way into catering

 

[pitbuilder88]

It’s is finally done after 2 1/2 months, minus still need to put in the taillights

 

[Fueling Around]

Awesome.
Waiting for the first few cooks. Don't expect the blue ribbon until you learn the beast.