Smoker Build/1st Post!

[Kevin Opp]

I've learned lot by reading this board over the last couple of months so I thought I would join and ask some questions myself!

My dad and I in the process of coming up with a design for an horizontal offset smoker. The cooking chamber will be 30" diameter x 6' long. I have read alot about reverse flow, tuning plates, and traditional methods.

My question is: If you were starting from scratch, and could build virtually anything you wanted to all over again, what design would you go with? Any help/pics would be muchly appreciated!

Thanks,
Kevin Opp
Greenville, KY

[Kevin Opp]

Perhaps I should ask this another way. I am an idiot and need all of the help building a smoker that I can get. Do any of you bbq specialist have any suggestions on firebox size, etc for a 30" diameter, 6' long smoker? What is the ideal method, traditional design, reverse flow, or tuning plates?

Thanks,

[JoeD]

I'm building a 7 footer, 30" offset with a 27"x24" fire box, tuning plates and a 6" round stack, the only thing I might regret is to build such a large smoker...NOT


I'm not sure if I can help you, either way let me know. You can look at the pics by clicking on my signature "updates" link.
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Updates

two smokers in one

Life's too short to drink bad wine!

[Hell Fire Grill]

The last guy that claimed to be an idiot was, for a few reasons other than actually being an idiot, the first ringer to be banned. I'm sure your not really an idiot and welcome to the ring.

Alien BBQ started a thread here about pit building ratios. If I remember correctly several pit builders have used it with success. Heres a link to that thread.

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5350&highlight=fire+box+size

Thanks for the usefull information Alien.

If I was going to start building another cooker and had any materials I wanted to use, and deep pockets, I would build a stainless steel Diomond Plate Prod. style cooker with cast iron grates. Travis has the best design on the market IMO. Heres a link to DPP.

http://www.diamondplateproducts.com/index.php

[coal miner]

Kevin, they're several people that have built that size of smoker. JoeD and I are building the same size , also maybe TomC. .I used Alien BBQ pit size calculations {thank you very much} plus looked at a lot of pics of ones that have been built. My pit is 30" x 72" cooking area, o'all 7' long, fire box 24"x 24" w/ 3-4" air inlets , 2-4" exhaust stacks. I built it to use tuning plates and glad I did because it helps so much to balance out the temps across the cooking area. You can pull up my past posts for pics my build. Bunch of good guys here that have a lot more knowledge than I, so ask away! By the way Allien BBQ has some very informative posts on tuning plate vrs reverse flow and explains everything quite well !

[Kevin Opp]

Hey guys thinks for the help!

[Reggae Q]

I have a 30 x 60 Lonestar. My firebox is 30x30x30...It eats a bit more wood but can keep temps with EASE!!!

Click on my signature link to see pics

[Tom C]

Kevin,
First off, welcome!

My cooker is smaller than the others listed above at 24X48. My firebox is 23.5x22x22. By most accounts the firebox may be a little bigger than needed but it's worked out great.
I also used tuning plates and they do make a big difference. When I have them in place the smoker comes up to temp fairly evenly across the cooker. I took them out yesterday mainly to see what would happen and saw a 50* plus difference during heat up. Once I reached my cooking temperature 400* (for cooking pizza) it evened out. Still saw some spikes in temp on the firebox side when adding additional wood. One other thing I noticed was that without the plates, the damper on the stack had a bigger effect on the temps. When I closed it some, it pushed the temps on the firebox side up 15* or more. It was interesting to see the difference. This is my first and only smoker so I have no experience with other smokers to compair to but I'm really happy with how it works!
I too used Alien's ratios and am very grateful that he shared the information with us! Along with the ratios I spent a lot of time looking at some of the awesome pits that others Ring members have made and used many of the ideas on my pit.
If you can't decide between tuning plates or reverse flow I would suggest using plates and just put two stacks on your smoker. Then you can have it either way. Space the plates and close the stack on the firebox side and you have a standard off set. By pushing the plates together and closing the stack on the opposite side from the firebox you would have reverse flow.
Good luck on your cooker! Have fun!
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Homemade offset smoker 24"x48"
Charbroil CB900 grill

[bob-a-que]

i say you build it on the fly
i had a blast with mine. without goofy specs and stuff


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