Smoker Build

[Scratch]

Mike from Mystic Smokers is near Covington Georgia and yes, if this goes well I’ll be building more of them.

[Scotts]

Originally Posted by randydupree

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?

Social circle GA.

Took some digging it is on the returns page.

Scott

[Scratch]

With the front axle mount installed, it was time to build the front axle. The square spindles are meant to slide inside a 1/4" wall, 2"x2" tube and get welded, so that's what we did.

I cut a length of 2x2 tube and welded on the spindles. I also cut a square hole in the very center for the center spindle, then welded that vertically. We were slightly concerned about strength and my motto is "overbuilding is under-rated" so we added another piece of 2x2 tubing underneath it, then installed the hubs and jacked it into position.

[Scratch]

The rear axle didn't have to steer so it was much easier, but built the same way. We wanted the firebox to be lower so we cut the rear axle in half and welded it to each side of the firebox. We added gussets with a "SoCal speed hole" in it to make the cooking go faster.

[Scratch]

Next job is the racks. I don't have a fixture table so we welded blocks to my table as a jig and built the racks out of 3/16" angle. Then we welded in the expanded metal for them. Since we had the jig setup, we built all 8 racks, enough for both smokers at this time.

[Scratch]

We welded in the bottom rail flush with the opening of the doors and level. Then we slid in a rack, put some 6" blocks of wood on them to locate the top racks rails. We also welded on the rack handles.

[Scratch]

It's starting to look like a smoker now!

[midmosandblasting]

The racks will be removable ,correct . From experience of blasting commercial smokers during yearly cleanup ,or the frequent burnouts . It is much easier to sandblast the accumulated grease and fire damage off if it can be disassembled . Besides the shop smells lovely for a couple of days .

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by midmosandblasting

The racks will be removable ,correct . From experience of blasting commercial smokers during yearly cleanup ,or the frequent burnouts . It is much easier to sandblast the accumulated grease and fire damage off if it can be disassembled . Besides the shop smells lovely for a couple of days .

Yes, they’re removable. The keepers just keep the racks from tipping when you slide them out to flip the meat. There’s nothing to stop them from coming all the way out.

[dubby]

I notice you've added little "door bumpers" on there, I'm guessing they'll just be temporary until you get it all fitted up and then replaced with a permanent gasket strip on the doors?

Also, seems like a lot of wasted space below the door-level racks. Any plans to put stuff in there too? I'm not much of a smoker-dude, mainly because I lack patience, persistence, and fondness of all-day beer drinking . LadyD and the kids bought me a rig from HD back in '17 and I've never used the smoker section to it's potential.