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One of the biggest improvements/mods you can do for most any charcoal smoker is make a coal basket. It helps air flow thru the coals, and really cuts down on "ash choke"- where built up ash smothers the coals. Most are made out of expanded metal, and stand a bit up off the standard coal grate.
Mr. Solar has some construction details for a custom basket to pass along below:
This idea will work with any type firebox.
Remember that when you measure the top inside diam of your firebox, that you keep in mind, that as you go deeper in to the firebox, the curved radius as you measure down will make your measurements less. That’s why I made a cardboard template first; because the price of a piece of 24”x24” expanded metal from Home Depot costs about $20; so you don’t want to screw this part up.
First thing I did was fab a template out of cardboard and fit it in the fire box. I roughly measured the inside diam and figured I'd add 3" for the sides, and ended up with something like this.
Then tape up the sides and see how well it fits, you can use the mounting brackets in the firebox that were for the grill racks.
After you find a good fitting template, carefully take it apart and lay it on your sheet of expanded metal.
Then trace out your pattern and use whatever you have that can make clean cuts. I used a 4" die grinder with a diamond blade that worked very well. Don't forget the ear and eye protection!!
Then if you're lucky enough to have access to a Press Brake, bend the sides up on your lines. If you're like the rest of us you'll have to use some muscle and a bit of backyard engineering. I used a couple pieces of plywood and a gloved hand to bend the sides.
You'll have to work at it a while because ¾" expanded metal is really tough to bend, if you don't bend it right on your "line" you'll end up with a bowl instead of a basket.
Once you get the sides bent, use "L" brackets and nuts, bolts and washers to fasten the sides, Once the sides are secure I flipped the basket upside down and tweaked the bottom by lightly pushing on it with my foot. Then test fit.
Should look similar to this when you're done.
Here is a update 8/31/13 on "solar's" basket: It's been many years and the basket was the best mod I have done !
Here's a pic of the basket after a long smoke. I'm letting it burnout, I used one bag of 10lb lump charcoal and it lasted over 6 hours.
IMPORTANT WORD TO THE WISE!!
Make sure you run a couple batches of charcoal through your basket to burn off the machine oils and such before you add any food to your smoker. It'll smell the first 30 minutes or so then go away.
__________________
Nicely done Solar!
points
Gypsyseagod purchased a grill basket, suitable for smaller smokers like a vertical:
i bought a grill basket for my brink vertical. it fit perfectly & raises the fuel above the airflow.the coal pan that comes standard has no holes & sits below the airflow which is virtually worthless but now it sits in the very bottom to catch the ash.
You'd be surprised how the metal can soften up after a few 800° days. Expanded metal is usually pretty "cold worked" (hardend) by it's manufacturing process. Prolonged high heat will remove this "stiffness".
Don't want it dumping a load of hot coals when ya grab it one day!
What Richtee said, and if you don't have a press brake, you can't get clean bends and the sides tend to want to return to their natural flat state. If you look at the picture of the basket that has the sides bent but no brackets, you'll see the corners are pulling away from each other. The "L" brackets keep the corners from pulling away.
BBQ Bubba, the sides are the size they are because the basket isn't "square" one side is about 2" longer than the other side. I would've made them higher, but that was all the expanded metal I had, but for my SnP, the basket holds plenty of charcoal. It's a huge inprovement from the old rack and shaker basket.
Mr. Solar has some construction details for a custom basket to pass along below:
This idea will work with any type firebox.
Remember that when you measure the top inside diam of your firebox, that you keep in mind, that as you go deeper in to the firebox, the curved radius as you measure down will make your measurements less. That’s why I made a cardboard template first; because the price of a piece of 24”x24” expanded metal from Home Depot costs about $20; so you don’t want to screw this part up.
First thing I did was fab a template out of cardboard and fit it in the fire box. I roughly measured the inside diam and figured I'd add 3" for the sides, and ended up with something like this.
Then tape up the sides and see how well it fits, you can use the mounting brackets in the firebox that were for the grill racks.
After you find a good fitting template, carefully take it apart and lay it on your sheet of expanded metal.
Then trace out your pattern and use whatever you have that can make clean cuts. I used a 4" die grinder with a diamond blade that worked very well. Don't forget the ear and eye protection!!
Then if you're lucky enough to have access to a Press Brake, bend the sides up on your lines. If you're like the rest of us you'll have to use some muscle and a bit of backyard engineering. I used a couple pieces of plywood and a gloved hand to bend the sides.
You'll have to work at it a while because ¾" expanded metal is really tough to bend, if you don't bend it right on your "line" you'll end up with a bowl instead of a basket.
Once you get the sides bent, use "L" brackets and nuts, bolts and washers to fasten the sides, Once the sides are secure I flipped the basket upside down and tweaked the bottom by lightly pushing on it with my foot. Then test fit.
Should look similar to this when you're done.
Here is a update 8/31/13 on "solar's" basket: It's been many years and the basket was the best mod I have done !
Here's a pic of the basket after a long smoke. I'm letting it burnout, I used one bag of 10lb lump charcoal and it lasted over 6 hours.
IMPORTANT WORD TO THE WISE!!
Make sure you run a couple batches of charcoal through your basket to burn off the machine oils and such before you add any food to your smoker. It'll smell the first 30 minutes or so then go away.
__________________
Nicely done Solar!
points
Gypsyseagod purchased a grill basket, suitable for smaller smokers like a vertical:
i bought a grill basket for my brink vertical. it fit perfectly & raises the fuel above the airflow.the coal pan that comes standard has no holes & sits below the airflow which is virtually worthless but now it sits in the very bottom to catch the ash.
Originally posted by Kingudaroad
Don't want it dumping a load of hot coals when ya grab it one day!
What Richtee said, and if you don't have a press brake, you can't get clean bends and the sides tend to want to return to their natural flat state. If you look at the picture of the basket that has the sides bent but no brackets, you'll see the corners are pulling away from each other. The "L" brackets keep the corners from pulling away.
BBQ Bubba, the sides are the size they are because the basket isn't "square" one side is about 2" longer than the other side. I would've made them higher, but that was all the expanded metal I had, but for my SnP, the basket holds plenty of charcoal. It's a huge inprovement from the old rack and shaker basket.
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