Refurbishing An Offset Smoker - Updates

WeberWho

Here's the back story of picking up The Good One smoker:

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1201512/eleven-hundred-miles-in-22-5-hours/p1

I'm not sure if there's any interest here about me throwing up some pics of an offset smoker refurb but I figure it's better than a political thread.

I started the project off easy and sandblasted anything that would fit in my Dad's sandblasting cabinet. Which ended up being minimal. A few vents, handles, and side tables.



My wife thought it looked "fun" so she sandblasted one of the side tables.





Parts getting hung to be painted.



Here's a few pics of the actual smoker that's going to be sandblasted.



I started by removing the lids for sandblasting. To remove the lower lid we had to grid off one of the latch pins since it was welded together after the lid was placed on the smoker.



We had to take the grinder to the upper lid pins. The Good One shop had spot welded the ends of the pins so they couldn't be punched out. 



The next step was to remove the grate in the firebox so I could sandblast in there. The grate was welded to a couple cross support bars. I had to use a small die grinder to get around the grate and firebox. This was a pain. They built this smoker to never come apart. A crowbar came into play.



Here's the first couple hours of 20 or so hours I've done sandblasting.



This is what I'm working with. Way too small for a job like this but I'm making it work. I'm on the second regulator on the sand blaster. I'm also fortunate my dad has a 100+ gallon air compressor. No way my 20 gallon air compressor would keep up. So really shouldn't complain too much. 



I'm not sure where I'm going with this picture but it looks like I blasted most of the upper smoke box and part of the damper.



I'll have to get some more pictures of it when I stop over at my parents place today. The smoker itself I finished sandblasting yesterday. I still need to sandblast the firebox drawer, firebox insert, and the stand. Hoping to paint this weekend.....

Thanks for checking out the first part 

ryantt

Glad to see it's coming along, hope to see it fired up and loaded down with BBQ goodness soon. 

bgebrent

Quite the refurb you've undertaken brother. Coming along nicely. 

blasting

@WeberWho. You've got a knack for these step by step threads.  Watching with interest. 

tarheelmatt

I enjoy your threads too.  

Standing by  on this one and looking forward to it.  

Jeremiah

I was hoping you'd update this. Agreed on the political crap too.

epcotisbest

Looks like you are making good progress. I will be interesting to see how this turns out. Restoration is a fun, yet quite time-consuming, process.

JohnnyTarheel

Awesome progress brother.... keep the updates coming

Hntnhrd

I too was wondering how this was coming along!! Good work so far 

WeberWho

Thanks for all the nice comments above!

I'm officially done sandblasting. I hope so anyways. That was quite the process. Much more time consuming than I planned. The actual blasting didn't take too much time. Here's how the process went to get 3-4 minutes of actual blasting time. This is why it took me around 20 hours to blast:

1. Remove cloth face mask
2. Remove safety glasses 
3. Remove respirator 
4. Remove parts from table
5. Remove work gloves
6. Fold up table and remove (Old fold up closet doors. They work awesome as tables. Don't toss them if you have a couple sets available and they store easy)
7. Move saw horses off tarp 
8. Remove sledgehammers (Held down the tarp from blowing away)
9. Remove sandblaster off tarp
10. Grab corners of the tarp to move the media in the center of the tarp
11. Collect the media
12. Sift the media back into the bucket 
13. Pour the media back in the sand blaster
14. Connect the air hose to the sandblaster
15. Fold the tarp back out
16. Put sledgehammers back on tarp
17. Place saw horses back on tarp.
18. Put table on sawhorses
19. Put on gloves
20. Put parts back on table
21. Put on respirator 
22. Put on safety glasses
23. Put on cloth mask

Than repeat this process 20 more times. Did I mention I'm glad I'm done sandblasting? This doesn't even include replacing the sandblaster regulator, adjusting the valve 40+ times to adjust the volume of media being blasted, and finding the issue everytime the sandblaster acted up. Did I mention I'm happy I'm done sandblasting?

I'm cheap and can't afford $300+ plus in media so I collected as much as I could after blasting each time. Every time I went to collect the media I had to sift it into a bucket so it wouldn't clog up the sandblaster. I felt like I was 5 again playing in the sand. I think all said and done it went through 8 - 50lb bags of material. I maybe saved $175+ from getting it sandblasted professionally but what a pain.



Here's what I accomplished yesterday:



Here's a few shots of the smoker before and after. 




I'm hoping to get some paint on it today. I still need to find some expanded steel to replace the grate I ground out. I'd also like to replace the Fisher Price looking wheels with something a little better. I'll have to do a little research on that.

Thanks for looking!

lousubcap

Great recovery project and documentation.  Much more patience and skill-set than I have.  Drastic change in appearance for sure.  Enjoy the home stretch and then the cooks.  

Hntnhrd

Wow looks brand new already 

DoubleEgger

Nice. Your sweat equity is paying dividends. 

WeberWho

Here's a couple pics I took yesterday when painting:



The high heat paint is supposed to be heat cured an hour after being painted. I don't exactly have an oven to fit the smoker so the weed torch came in handy.



I spent around 30 minutes with the torch and would check the temp with the infrared thermometer. Not the perfect solution but it should strengthen the paint a little. I'm done painting the smoker portion but the stand, shelves, trays and lids will need some more coats today.

Hntnhrd

Lookin Purty!! I love seeing projects like this. I have rebuilt old houses , campers and a barrel pit. Now I'll have to keep an eye out for something like this.

WeberWho

I sprayed a few more coats on the lids today. I heated the lids the best I could with the weed torch. I did sneak some of the smaller parts in the oven this afternoon when the wife was gone. The first time I've ever used my oven! 

I ran to Harbor Freight to look at pneumatic wheels for the smoker. I grabbed a couple wheels and went out to test fit them since I had the stand in back of the truck. No dice. The wheel was a 5/8 bore. I threw my caliper on the axle when I got home and it's 3/4. Dang. Going to get a little more tricky coming up with a 10" wheel with a 3/4 bore

Here's the pics of the lids getting torched:

Jeremiah

I for one am seriously impressed. (Whatever that matters) when I was giving you advise earlier, I thought you'd half ass the sandblasting, and have a mess. Not that I should have though, after your intensive mixer rebuilds. Again, really impressed with the rebuild. 

Focker

Looking nice V!

Between the drive, and restoration, and future restoration, a labor of love no doubt.  

Ozzie_Isaac

Very cool, not much else to say, but enjoying the progress.

Cashfan

Nice work, looks great!!  

I enjoy your restoration threads a lot, you have a knack for it, thats for sure!!

If I tried that, I would take it all apart and then quit.....

tarheelmatt

Jeremiah said:

I for one am seriously impressed. (Whatever that matters) when I was giving you advise earlier, I thought you'd half ass the sandblasting, and have a mess. Not that I should have though, after your intensive mixer rebuilds. Again, really impressed with the rebuild. 

Shame on you for grouping him in with the rest of us hacks.  

WeberWho

Thanks guys. The sandblasting was a pain in the arse. The process sucked to be honest. The painting is much more enjoyable but I'm a hack at that. If I would have took two seconds to think I would have ordered a couple quarts of paint and sprayed it with a gun. I have a Easter deadline on the smoker so it gives me some ambition to finish it. Cashfan I have tons of projects that still need to be finished. I'm good at doing projects that keep me from doing any of the real projects that need to get done. I desperately need to scrap, power wash, and paint my house this summer. I've been putting that off and it's starting to show. I plan on running to downtown Minneapolis this evening and getting a 4x8 sheet of expanded sheet metal for new grill grates. I thought about sanding the old ones down and reseasoning them but I still need a new grate for the one I ground out. So I'm thinking I'll get all new grill grates to save time. The list goes on....

sheetmetalpete

WeberWho said:

I'm hoping to get some paint on it today. I still need to find some expanded steel to replace the grate I ground out. I'd also like to replace the Fisher Price looking wheels with something a little better. I'll have to do a little research on that.

Did you find expanded steel yet?  If not Discount Steel in Minneapolis (off 94 north of Broadway) could hook you up.  If you don't have a way of cutting a piece to size they can do it for you.  I try to stay away from there or at least not drive my truck or else I fill it up and it costs me too much. 

WeberWho

sheetmetalpete said:

WeberWho said:

I'm hoping to get some paint on it today. I still need to find some expanded steel to replace the grate I ground out. I'd also like to replace the Fisher Price looking wheels with something a little better. I'll have to do a little research on that.

Did you find expanded steel yet?  If not Discount Steel in Minneapolis (off 94 north of Broadway) could hook you up.  If you don't have a way of cutting a piece to size they can do it for you.  I try to stay away from there or at least not drive my truck or else I fill it up and it costs me too much. 

Thans Pete. That's exactly where I'm going. They seem to have the best prices in town. The downfall is that they close early. Going to try and sneak down there during work today. Good to know about them cutting it to size. My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy. So I'm sure he'd love the excuse to fire it up and make some cuts. 

RRP

WeberWho said:

 My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy.  

LOL - and just what all does your Dad cut justifying a plasma cutter? BTW I'm always looking for good excuses to buy new tools so that's why I'm asking!

WeberWho

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

 My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy.  

LOL - and just what all does your Dad cut justifying a plasma cutter? BTW I'm always looking for good excuses to buy new tools so that's why I'm asking!

He was sick of his acetylene torches. The plasma is more powerful and percise

blasting

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

 My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy.  

LOL - and just what all does your Dad cut justifying a plasma cutter? BTW I'm always looking for good excuses to buy new tools so that's why I'm asking!

Remember that pizza steel you were trying to do a group purchase on last year? 

WeberWho

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

 My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy.  

I'm always looking for good excuses to buy new tools so that's why I'm asking!

I believe this is what he picked up:

HYPERTHERM POWERMAX 45 

RRP

blasting said:

RRP said:

WeberWho said:

 My Dad picked up a plasma cutter last year and it's been his new toy.  

LOL - and just what all does your Dad cut justifying a plasma cutter? BTW I'm always looking for good excuses to buy new tools so that's why I'm asking!

Remember that pizza steel you were trying to do a group purchase on last year? 

Yes - and BTW there was no "trying to do" - I got the job done!

Hntnhrd

Will it look like this when done??

WeberWho

Hntnhrd said:

Will it look like this when done??

I wish I could say so but the only thing mine has in common with that rig is the thermometer and black paint. That thing is more of a Cadillac with it's stainless features and boat size mentality. Mine is more of a Mazda Miata. Smaller, not overpowering, but hopefully still fun.