OT: Building a smoker way off topic

ryantt

ok my buddy Paul wants to help build a new cooker for me, and by help I mean he will be doing the work.  I'm thinking we want to build a 30x30 box on the outside and a 28x28 box on the inside.  The question I have is what thickness of material should we be using?  He has the ability to bend 1/4 inch steel sheet upto 6 feet wide I think. I just do not know what to tell him to build it out of.  

I honestly have no clue.....but we are thinking 16ga steel should be good enough.  this is basically going to be a big insulated drum style cooker, that looks kind of like a giant trash can.  He's thinking the lid will have 18 inches in height so that we could have 3 racks without a problem.  Idk things are in the "lets figure this out stage".  Any and all advise welcome.   

Canugghead

Sorry I have no clue but @SGH is your best bet!

SGH

@ryantt
Brother, it's almost 2:00am and I don't feel like writing a book (had a hard day). With that said and aside, feel free to give me a call tomorrow afternoon and I will gladly answer any question that you may have. For optimum performance, I will even run design calculations for you if you like. My number is 228-627-5400. My name is Scottie. I only charge 10 bucks a minute for advice But it comes with a money back guarantee  

ryantt

Wow $10 bucks a minute, what a deal. 

Firemanyz

This may also help. 

http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

RedSkip

I'd build a double wall with 2" Roxul in between for the main cooking chamber with the same design around the firebox.  Gravity feed style.

BYS1981

Excellent link @Firemanyz

ryantt

Thank you to @SGH for returning my call today, it was a pleasure to speak with you.  What you've said makes a lot of sense.  

SGH

ryantt said:

Wow $10 bucks a minute, what a deal. 

It's the best deal in town my friend
It was a pleasure speaking with you. If I can ever help, feel free to call or text. And good luck with the smoker. Look forward to seeing it. 

SGH

Firemanyz said:

This may also help. 

http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

Feldons is a great building aid. However there are a couple of times that it leaves much desired. When? For one, when using hemispherical baffles/deflectors. Second, when your length exceeds diameter (or width if building square) by more than 6 to 1. It does not take pressure drop into account for such extended ratios. That aside, it's a great tool for sure. 

SGH

ryantt said:

Thank you to @SGH for returning my call today, it was a pleasure to speak with you.  What you've said makes a lot of sense.  

My pleasure brother. Always glad to help a friend if I can.  

BYS1981

Anyone websites that could provide build information? @SGH

Jeremiah

There are several other forums that have a wealth of info on building smokers, they're not as trafficked as this one but the archives are great. Smokerbuilder.com and bbqbrethern are good resources. Just like cooking on the egg, a little Google research answers a lot of questions., and once you've got the basics, people are more than willing to answer the harder technicals questions. 

SGH

BYS1981 said:

Anyone websites that could provide build information? @SGH

I'm not sure if there are any "how to" sites out there or not. I have never looked or researched it. However there is certainly a plethora of solid info out there. Many builders contribute info on various sites as mentioned above. 

SGH

BYS1981 said:

Anyone websites that could provide build information? @SGH

One of the most knowledgeable independent pit builders that I know posts on the Smoke Ring under the user name: KAM. He is as sharp as a razor. He use to post there very frequently. 

Jeremiah

SGH said:

BYS1981 said:

Anyone websites that could provide build information? @SGH

One of the most knowledgeable independent pit builders that I know posts on the Smoke Ring under the user name: KAM. He is as sharp as a razor. He use to post very frequently. 

Agreed. I've got a near book of pages of his posts printed and highlighted off of the forums. 

BYS1981

Ok cool.. I'm in the beginning, extremely beginning stages of designing one. 

SkinnyV

Wow fellas, I just typed "KAM The smoke ring" in Google and landed on the man. Just reading a few posts and I can see why he appears , to be a legend.

even saw a post of the guy from Shirley Fabrication singing his praises  and we see where they are now. Jeremiah and SGH spot on, this bbq and smoking world is vast and I think I like it!

SGH

SkinnyV said:

 this bbq and smoking world is vast and I think I like it!

It is indeed vast my friend. And the more you look the bigger it gets. 

SGH

BYS1981 said:

Ok cool.. I'm in the beginning, extremely beginning stages of designing one. 

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Tinkering with smokers is kind of a hobby for me. 

BYS1981

So far my thoughts are doing a brick pit, offset  (assuming that's possible with brick and the heat properties etc), big enough for a butterflied hog -70ish lbs, and I am hoping to also have an adapter to rotisserie a hog.

I am still in the extremely early stages, so I haven't designed dimensions etc. I know I'll have to have enough space in the cook chamber for a bed of coals if I rotisserie style a pig.  I'm thinking a possible false floor of that would put my indirect cook chamber out of whack too.

@SGH

SGH

BYS1981 said:

I'm thinking a possible false floor of that would put my indirect cook chamber out of whack too.

This can be over came. All you would need to do is build the pit 4 inches deeper than your initial plan. This would give you room for a 2" false floor with a 2" dead space as well. The dead space and false floor would sit just below the lowest point of your inlet. The only thing affected would be that the pit is now 4 inches deeper than what you had planned. Also you are not stuck with 4 inches. I used that as a mere example. Depending on your false floor and dead space, it can be any size that you want. You just have to keep adjusting your firebox height as well as the bottom of your inlet upwards to make up for the increased height. However on a standard size pit, my suggestion of a 2" dead space and a 2" false floor would work perfect and it would only increase your total height by 4 inches. This in turn would keep your cooking grid at a comfortable level. Just remember the bigger the false floor and dead space gets, the higher your inlet, firebox and cooking grid will ultimately be. The 2x2 above will work great and will not affect the cosmetics or the function of the pit. Why? You have 2 inches of clearance (dead space) between your false floor and the lowest point of your inlet.