Firebox size?

[Rubit]

I thought I would start a new thread just for this design consideration. The more I think about this subject, the more I am convienced, a firebox might work well that is just big enough to hold one split piece of wood, say eight inches tall and eight inches wide with enough length to accomodate a typical log. This thought comes from the little, high-efficancy, wood stoves. The heat reflecing off the walls would help keep a log going and with the higher air velocity it should clear well. For a pit that requires a small fire it might just work.

Will run a test when the weather clears. I think a top loader whould be better for a small box.
Might work.
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[Rub N Smoke]

I think it will depend on the length of time you are going to be cooking any given piece of meat. If its a large Brisket you'll be visiting the single log firebox alot. But if you were going to cook say Chicken it may work okay because then you would have an extreme amount of control over the amount of smoke. Happy Q-ing!!
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[zilla]

You should consider that for a pit to hold temp and sustain a fire you have to have a good coal bed. Sounds like there wouldn't be enough room for that. I think a small firebox like that would cause the wood to smoulder.

As far as design goes consider the price of steel these days. If the big pit makers could get away with a tiny fire box they would do it just to save materials. You have to have enough airflow, headspace for the fire, air gap under the wood, room for a coal bed, room to move and flip the wood, room to add a new stick on top of one almost burned down to help maintain temps.

The fire box should hold heat. A combination of a coal bed, live fire, and the steel retaining heat are all factors in keeping your pit up to temp.

You might get away with a smallish FB but I think there is a limit. It is good to hear the someone is still thinking about improvements though.
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[phoneman]

Do you recommend putting firebrick in the firebox

[Rubit]

Zilla, I agree with you on the coal bed for sure having run many test on the height of the grate over the coals. This small forebox will require less coals because of the closeness of the coals.

I may be wrong but I think the big fireboxs by the venders have increased only as a selling point as well as to use as a cooking surface.

But it is a therory and only testing will tell.
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[adolpho]

[Alien BBQ]

Bigger pits require bigger fires. The size of the box should be proportionate to the size of the pit.
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[mrcustomsteel]

Rubit, the thing about those small wood stoves like you are talking about is that they have pretty big temperature swings. You get a fire going to warm them up then you feel it start to get cold you throw on another log. I don't think you get as much flexibility or forgiveness when you are trying to cook meat.

I do understand the challenge though of building a firebox that is JUST big enough. Verticals and cabinets don't have much room for a fire so with those types of cookers a small firebox will work. But then you don't really build a fire like you do in an offset.
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[Rubit]

I find myself always questiong the obvious and pressing assumptions with test to confirm or myth them.

Adolph, I didn't mean to cry foul with the pit vendors since they build what the people want and do it very well, much better than I can. Any one that I have seen seem well worth the price.

Customsteel, that point may have taken away my argument. Still it will be fun to run a test ot two.
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[Danny80]

Rubit,
From my experience...a larger FB will work better. I had a small backyard pit with a smallish box on it. I was constantly feeding it to keep the heat up. As Dillo mentioned ...coals, flame room, etc. all come into play. On my large pit I have now, I built a 24 x 30" box and it works very well. Which leads to....

Phoneman
On the above mentioned pit. When built, I started using it and it worked fine but I used a good bit of wood in it and the heat was burning the paint off the outside so I lined it on 5 sides with firebrick. I cut my wood usage by 2/3s once the box was heated up. I would definitely recommend lining the box if you can. Also, with the box lined the heat stays much more constant therefore keeping my pit at a constant temp without having to monitor it as often.

[adolpho]

[Rubit]

Adolph, i thought I had a lot of cookers but I think you got me beat.
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[ClayBBQ]

I just mad a charcoal basket 1 foot square. I hope it helps my bandera use less charcoal and wood!!

[Rubit]

Here are the pictures from the first small firebox test. The box inside dimensions were !4" long, 9" wide and 11" deep. I used cut in half split wood so each piece was 8 to 9" long. I tried seasoned hickory and oak and not so seasoned pecan. I started the fire with a small chimney of lump.

The first thing I noticed that the air vent was wider than I would have thought but as the bricks heated up the vent size went back to a few square inches.

O f course the most important part of the test was, what was the quality of the smoke. It was exceptional. Never a single moment of white smoke. I found this exciting. Even if I closed down on the inlet air vent to lower the temperature, no white smoke or smoldering wood.

Is a bigger firebox always better, if the fire box can meet the temperature requirements of the cooking chamber? I will have to say no.


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[mrcustomsteel]

Hey Rubit, that's really cool. Do you have pics of the inside? How is the temp in the smoking chamber from bottom to top?

It looks like you could disassemble it and take it wherever you wanted, like a competition, and set it back up.
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[Rubit]

The temps are dead even. I sold these for awhile until brick peices went out of site. I built this one in two days with the steel alread prepared. A young man could build it a day You can't see it but next to this one is another with a full size firebox and custum thread 3/8" rod instead of althread in this one, but this one was a test fixture.
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[mrcustomsteel]

I guess then it's more complicated to re-assemble than it looks. I count about 200 bricks on the outside. Is there more than one layer? Those don't appear to be fire bricks like go in a kiln. I'm surprised they are so expensive.

It would be quite a conversation piece at a competition but if it really takes a day to set up then it wouldn't work. Roll up, find a flat spot, stack your smoker, build a fire and smoke meat just about anywhere. Not as easy as trailering around a DiamondPlate but a fun way to Q.
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[Rubit]

With more steel parts it could with two people be set up a lot quicker but after you move a ton of bricks it will start catching up on ya. Another problem is transporting the bricks. Bricks ore not always the same size even in the same batch.
I designed the smoker so I could change the configuration very quickly for testing. I have rebuilt it many many times in differant ways
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[skybob]

I"m still a little befuddled today, it seems. The Jan 05 posting got me started I guess.
My question and it's probably obvious to everyone but me is: How do you get to the meat in there? I don't see a door anywhere, and it could get a bit dicey to unstack the bricks every time you need to spritz.

[Rubit]

The other side.

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