peppasawce
is one Smokin' Farker
ditto Chaddie great job man
I posted this a couple hundred pages ago-but it still works.
I welded a chickens foot of rebar (imagine 3 horizontal bars for feet, and one vertical to grab. On top of that I have a large pizza pan (with a small hole in the center for the vertical rebar. On top of that I drop my basket (the rebar just slide through one of the holes in the basket bottoms expanded mesh).
Now my basket is a tube of expanded, with a floor of expanded about 2 inches from the bottom. I used hog rings to hold the basket together (welded the first - but welds broke).
Ash tends to fall strait down, and is somewhat contained within the bottom 2" of the basket. The pizza pan provides a bottom. I can grab the upright rebar and left the whole thing strait out. Oh and the feet keep the heat off the drum bottom. The assembly comes apart for easy cleaning.
-----
Now version 2 of my drum has a 12 guage plate under all of that with 1"x1" tabs around the outside (every other one bent down - someone else's idea - and they posted pics). Since I am using an electric blower and a BBQ Guru - the diffuser allows me to keep a much more even burn, regardless of what temp I am shooting for. With the newer blower I think I can set the temp anywhere between 175 and probably 400-500 and walk away
Smoker,
Keep us up to speed on your design. Definitely like where you're going with it. Don't have a nice cutter like you, but definitely helps w/ ideas.
Considered using a pizza pan, with the holes in it, and leave them small near the center and as you go out, progressively drill them out larger. Not sure if that will work or not, but just in my head, that was where I was heading. Your design sort of supports that theory too, just not a fancy cut like yours!
i never thought about shelving channel for grate supports. how does it work out for you?