Smoker Build

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by JBFab

That'll be a fun build! Is he doing a traditional offset, or a reverse flow?

Here's a big reverse flow I built a couple of years ago:

https://www.customdesignandfab.com/project-portfolio

Traditional offset pit. Yours looks awesome!

[Scratch]

Once the fireboxes were done, we mounted one of the tanks on its rotisserie and used a laser to mark out where the doors were going to get cut, then we cut them out using a cutoff wheel on a grinder.

[Scratch]

Then we welded on the door bands, and hinges.

[Scratch]

The next step is called the collector. I guess the smoother the airflow is the better, and you want the smoke to exit the smoker nice and easily so he sells this laser cut 4 piece kit that you weld together to help the smoke flow better to the stack

[Scratch]

Then using the laser again, we marked, placed and welded where the collector will go.

[Scratch]

Next we lined up the firebox and raised it into position, then cut out the hole where it would slide in, and finally welded it in place.

[Scratch]

The rotisserie made it easy to rotate the firebox to the top so we could make a template, then cut out an end to be welded on. Again we used 1/4" steel here.

[Scratch]

Since the smoker was upside down, we decided to work on the front axle.

There are basically 2 kinds of smoker builds like these. Portable or not.
He wanted his to be portable so he had two choices for that...

1. Trailer hitch towable with two highway speed tires,
2. Or meant to be trailered with four golf cart style tires.

He really likes the "off road look" and chose the four golf cart style tires, so we had to build a steerable front axle. Ours will pivot like a kids wagon.
We cut a 4" long section of square tubing and welded a flange on it to be our axle mount. That flange had a bolt pattern that would match up to a trailer hub kit that we bought on Amazon. We will use a total of five of these kits per smoker, one for each wheel and one for the front axle mount. We'll get back to the front axle later...

[randydupree]

Originally Posted by Scratch

No my buddy isn't from Texas. We both grew up in Minnesota. He's just one of those guys that when he decides to get something, he goes all out. Fine by me, I'm not paying for it.

The guy in Georgia is called mysticsmokers.com (There you can also see what ours will kind of look like) He's a small shop that mostly just makes parts for smoker builds now. He does build complete smokers but he's retired now and focuses mostly on just the parts. He's been doing it for 30 years and at the time we were there, he had built 192 smokers over the last 30 years. Great guy. Spent the whole day with us giving us tips and showing us around.

1/2" thick tank would be nice! Our tank is about 1/4". One thing that wouldn't be nice is the weight of those doors, unless you added counterweights. You'd probably want counterweights for doors that thick, but they are easy to do and actually a great thing to have on a smoker.

A quick look at his website to where in Ga he was,and i did not see a town listed.
Ohh yeah,i was thinking aboutthe weight of the doors,for sure.
Seeing your build take place is great,nice,very nice,and the fixture to roll the tank is a great idea.
Now what city is he in?

[JohnBoy]

Originally Posted by Scratch

First step was to build a rotisserie for the propane tank. This way we could set it on there and rotate it completely around to make it easier to cut, grind, and weld. We put wheels on it so we can move it around the shop easily. We also built one for the firebox. We put that one on a pallet jack so we could easily raise it into position

How come I'm getting a feeling that if this goes well you boys plan on making a few more of these?


Looks a great build so far. keep the pics coming