my first try at scrap metal smoker

[jluke]

Ok, just got me a stick welder and teaching myself how to weld. I have an abundance of 16 inch schedule 40 and 4 inch schedule 60 scrap pipe at work.

this being my first project I decided to give it away to a friend of mine that is a comercial fisherman here in arkansas. He wants to do fish but yet grill and smoke other meat. I am still trying to figure out what to use for the firebox door on the bottom. Any ideas?

[Richtee]

Hia JLuke welcome to Smoked-Meat! Man that's a toughie fish and grilling... because fish are pretty delicate, and need lower temps typically. Hmmm let me look at that pit again...got any more pix?

[jluke]

other pics of the scrap metal smoker aka SMS

thought i would name it the SMS for scrap metal smoker.
here a few other pics of the progress.

[Richtee]

As far as the door... cut a panel out of the firebox, weld in .125 steel stock on the back side of the box for a seal, and hinge the cut out plate... Hmmm my Beast smoker has this setup...lemme dig up a pict.

[jluke]

Richtee

I will get some better pics this weekend, i have some pipe that i need to cut and weld on to make the frame more stable. this thing weighs about 250lbs now already.

[Richtee]

OK not the best view... and yes, that's a visegrip sacrificed for a latch on the keg LOL

You can see the "tack-in" weld marks for the steel bar behind the lid for the seal...

Notice also the ashing door in the bottom of the box..

[jluke]

the scrap metal smoker is done! took longer than i wanted but it was my first attempt at learning to weld along with my 13yr old. She works too well. Now I am going to use the same design to make a stove to put in my shop.

[Slanted88]

Man...ya done a fine job!

[Richtee]

Appears to be working well! Nice work!

[Zeeker]

Nice work jluke. All the best...

[ALX]

Thanks for sharing...Nice work on that rig.Never seen that and it looks like its working good....

[Texas-Hunter]

Looks good... Do you have a baffle in the smoke chamber??

[JimmyJoeBob]

looks good, bottom line is how does it smoke and is it a problem to maintain temps other than that it looks outstanding!

[etcher1]

Mighty fine job!

[jluke]

Ok, just got back online and saw the questions.

I made the firebox with 1/2 inch plate (all from scrap ward) on the outsides. There are three 4 inch square holes cut in the bottom centered across. I welded three 5 inch chuncks of the same diamiter pipe to a piece of rebar that sticks out on the left side. This sits on angle iron welded onto the bottom to slide left to right to open for air flow or ashing.

Inside the cook chamber, I had to cut two 10 inch piecs and weld 1 inch legs on them to serve as heat disapators since there was so much heat coming up through the two pipes.

It heats and holds the heat very well, I got a small bed of coals going and then just used 3 pieces of hickory and that was it for about 2.5 hours. Had to put some more on for the coals for the last half hour to finish the ribs up. But man, it is easy to use.

this was just a design that I came up with out of the blue, if I would do anything different it would be to make the smoke stacks out of a larger diamiter pipe for more out flow. The whole thing weighs around 250+ lbs. I needed wheels so my son had the idea to cut them out of pipe and make them. for $25 of purchesed items, we fabbed it all (the fish hook handle is my sons) and have found a new hobby - and we are learning together.