What's a smoker...? -First Time Build- (pics)

[Kyle]

Hello all,

Arrived at work this morning to my boss with a huge 1/4" wall tube and two circular plates. Without any plans, drawings or anything, he told me "Build me a smoker." Apparently he wants a smoker for the shop! No complaints from me!

So, since I've never even SEEN a smoker, let alone built one, my coworker and I started googling. He searched for "meat smokers" and went straight to images... After a good chuckle and some brainstorming, we found some ideas that we'd like to do:

- Dual, removable grilling surfaces
- Badass 3" smoke stack
- Radial counterweights for the door
- Possibly an open grilling surface on top of the woodbox thing

Got started on the tank today. Trimmed 8" off one end for the smoke/heat entry and then capped the tank:






So then I cut my door out... with a zipdisk/cut off wheel. That wasn't fun:




Then I started working on the trim to keep heat and smoke in (yes, I know it's not straight in this picture, but I fixed that :




And here's where I'm at now. Trimmed all the way around, and it all sits nicely in it's cutout:




Tomorrow:
- Hinges
- Radial Counterweights
- Hopefully start on the woodbox

Any tips or suggestions would be great! I don't know a thing about smoking, but I do know a thing or two about building!


-Kyle

[Richtee]

gonna go reverse flow? Or..really "long flow"? Pan underneath the grill routes smoke/heat up to the "front" theen it pops up to the food, across and over to the stack at the firebox end.

Google "Lang". Very successful design.

And welcome to smoked-meat. You get 'er built and we got ya covered.

[Fishawn]

WoW Cool!... Jump right in eh?.... Great start and your ideas, plus Rich's suggestions sound like you headed in the right direction. Keep us posted..... Tell yer boss, he rocks!!

[Kyle]

gonna go reverse flow? Or..really "long flow"? Pan underneath the grill routes smoke/heat up to the "front" theen it pops up to the food, across and over to the stack at the firebox end.

Google "Lang". Very successful design.

And welcome to smoked-meat. You get 'er built and we got ya covered.

Okay, so after some googling of Lang smokers, I came up with the following question and attempted to draw it out... From what I understand, reverse flow would be where the heat flows from the smokebox, under a baffle that opens up at the opposite side of the smokebox, and into the cooking area. Now my question is, do I need one big hole at the end of the baffle for the smoke and heat to come out of, or do I need a bunch of holes?

Here's my crappy drawing:



Red: Heat/Smoke
Yellow Arrows: Heat Flow
Brown: Log

Now, long-flow would be where the stack is at the opposite side of the smokebox, and the heat and smoke flows freely through the cooking area and out the stack, right?

I think I'm going to end up going with long-flow, simply because it'll be quite a bit more simple and quick to build. My boss doesn't want to spend a lot on this project, and quite honestly, I don't think he'd even notice the difference. However, if the difference is quite significant, or it's as simple as cutting a plate a little shy of the width of the cooking drum, I may do it.

-Kyle

[new smoke]

I prefer reverse flow (RF) to long flow. More even heat across the chamber/cooking grate. My $0.02

Way to just go after it. Nice.

Welcome! And best of luck. You came to the right place. Lot of people here know a lot of stuff, especially when it comes to all things smoking.

[Wingman]

to the forum! I have to say that cooker is looking outstanding so far. nicely done. Long flow with a good heat management plate is what I have coming. But this is another preference thing. I say go with what feels good. Done right iether way will produce great slow cooked meats.

[Richtee]

The lang is open at the far end, and the hole is the "curve" of the tank end...they are more like propane tanks with round ends. The plate is installed with a slight decline away from the firebox and has a "lip" with a grease drain pipe that goes thru the bottom of the outer tank thru an external valve you can shut down to prevent dripping when not in use.

[Zeeker]

Very nice start. Kudos...

[aczeller]

The lang is open at the far end, and the hole is the "curve" of the tank end...they are more like propane tanks with round ends. The plate is installed with a slight decline away from the firebox and has a "lip" with a grease drain pipe that goes thru the bottom of the outer tank thru an external valve you can shut down to prevent dripping when not in use.

another way to go would be to go cheap (like i did) and angle the RF plate away from the fire, and the rest of the tank towards the fire... it's a very slight slope, but a slope none the less. that way, the grease drains off the plate, down the smoker, and into the fire box. not good if you have a major load in there, pouring drippings into the firebox, but it works for me and my little guy/girl.

if there is a choice, go with the RF. you still need to cut a plate, you still need to install a flue, you still need to do the welding... RF is just more even (in theory).

Later,
Andy

[northern greenhorn]

This is a smoker...



Or this...



but this is a smoker for sure...

[WALLE]

Kyle,

My smoker is more of a cabinet smoker rather than "Lang", how ever, if you check out some of BBQ Engineer's posts on his small smokers or his Iron Maiden, the "reverse flow" concept is the key only he has them going vertical rather than horizontal. I modified my stack to achieve the same principle.

Point being - like Acz said, a reverse flow isn't going to slow you down on the build time - rather, it will save you a lot of time not drilling holes, and I think you will be very happy with it as the "Lang" design is sound.

Awesome job on what you've built so far - looking forward to more updates.

Tracey

[Kyle]

Wow, sorry for the lack of updates guys!

Got the door on hinges and managed to get it to sit and seal the opening a bit better. Still some gaps, but I'm thinking about sealing it with high-temp RTV after sandblasting and paint. Is this a good idea?




Simply used some weld on, heavy duty hinges:




Then I got started on the smoke-box. We couldn't find anything good enough to use, so we ended up having to make something. Since we don't have access to a break or a sheer, this ended up being a real pain in the butt. Using a torch to cut small pieces of relatively thin plate tends to warp the crap out of it...

To lessen some of the cutting and welding, we decided to bend a U shape by doing some relief cuts and then heating up with the torch. This ended up being a horrible idea, but it's the only thing we could do:






Like I said, horrible idea. None of the bends turned out right, and nothing was really square.




I had to make it work somehow, so I used bessy clamps everywhere and just cut the remaining pieces individually.




Managed to get it to at least look half decent, and somewhat square. Not a big deal, it's not like we're building a damn piano here, it's a smoker:




Well, because of our lack of forethought, it ended up being really really big. We really should have though about it some more, because this is so unproportionate and ugly. But again, it's not a piano.




So now that you've seen the worse of my fabrication skills, hopefully things will brighten up with the smaller touches.

Next up for Tuesday:
- Door and hinges on the smoke-box
- Legs and frame
- Get started on the cooking grates


-Kyle

[ALX]

Keep us updated....I wanna see her roll...

I hang lotta weekends with all kinds wild smokers etc...Get her done...

[Richtee]

Yeah...she got a big box allrighty

But on the plus side, you'll be able to crank her up, and probably get a long time on a load too. Dampers will be the key there. You might need to do some bracing inside that box tho...it's kinda light gauge. Heck..many smokers have an option for a .5" thick box.

[Kyle]

Yeah...she got a big box allrighty :eel:

But on the plus side, you'll be able to crank her up, and probably get a long time on a load too. Dampers will be the key there. You might need to do some bracing inside that box tho...it's kinda light gauge. Heck..many smokers have an option for a .5" thick box.

What the heck. .5" thick?! That's ridiculous. We used 3/16" stuff, figuring that it'd be plenty thick enough. Won't it only see about 450 degrees max?