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My home made baffle

BayoustateBBQ

BayoustateBBQ

Knows what a fatty is.
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I have a Oklahoma Joe longhorn. Although I know the sweet spot in the pit i decided to just go ahead and try to get even temps. I was getting 50-75 degree difference between the chimney side and firebox side. Sometime next to the fire box I was reading temps of 400+ degrees.
I had some 12"x36"x 18 gauge sheets in my shop so here is what I did.
I have the 20" version I took 2 sheets and overlapped them and tack welded the seams on both sides. Added a 45 degree angle, and painted it with high temp paint. It fits like a glove and the length is about half my smoker. Not sure yet if I will have to shorten it and add tuning plates. My ET 732 is arriving today so we will see what difference it makes.
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You do NOT want paint inside your pit, so that needs to come off.

I think you will find that you need some holes so you can some smoke and heat on that side .
 
Well hell I'll try to get the paint off. Thanks for pointing that out. I figured after a few dry runs anything in the paint will be gone.
You really think it needs to come off? My smoker is powder coated but those cheap offsets are painted inside.
 
well with the thin metal, high heat, humidity etc will probably rust it or weaken the metal pretty quick. Don't forget high temp paint will extend the life of the surface.
 
BayoustateBBQ said:
well with the thin metal, high heat, humidity etc will probably rust it or weaken the metal pretty quick. Don't forget high temp paint will extend the life of the surface.
Click to expand...

I'd rather throw it away after a couple years than eat paint chemicals, but that's just me.
 
J-Rod said:
I'd rather throw it away after a couple years than eat paint chemicals, but that's just me.
Click to expand...

I agree. That paint isnt going to extend the life of the baffle, it will be in your lungs before the baffle dies

I am making one now for my OK Joe. I am using 1/4 plate and making tuning plates out of it
 
I'm just going to have to agree to disagree with y'all. I think anything bad will burn off and dissipate after the several dry runs. You talk about bad chems from it, how many of you reheat your resturant to go boxes in your microwave. Heating that is bad, how many of you cook in aluminum pans? You do know what comes from heating that right?
 
BayoustateBBQ said:
I'm just going to have to agree to disagree with y'all. I think anything bad will burn off and dissipate after the several dry runs. You talk about bad chems from it, how many of you reheat your resturant to go boxes in your microwave. Heating that is bad, how many of you cook in aluminum pans? You do know what comes from heating that right?
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I dont do either of those.
 
Fair enough. We're only concerned for your safety and that of anyone who eats food cooked on your smoker.

Perhaps as a survey of sorts, ask some of the competition/professional pitmasters here about painting any internal part on a smoker and see what they say.
 
BayoustateBBQ said:
I'm just going to have to agree to disagree with y'all. I think anything bad will burn off and dissipate after the several dry runs. You talk about bad chems from it, how many of you reheat your resturant to go boxes in your microwave. Heating that is bad, how many of you cook in aluminum pans? You do know what comes from heating that right?
Click to expand...

Negative to both of those. That's just common sense.
 
Spraying your pantry with insecticide probably won't kill you, but is generally not a good idea. Paint on the inside of your cooker is probably kinda like that. Unless the paint burns off during the seasoning cooks, and then you don't have to worry about it anyways.

The brethren have kept me from doing a number of unwise things since I joined a couple of years ago.
 
Ok paint came off easy in the sandblaster (note to self). Just not sure how long mine needs to be until i start taking temps. dual probe thermo came in today so we will see. ButtBurner is that 1/4"? Looking good
 
BayoustateBBQ said:
Well hell I'll try to get the paint off. Thanks for pointing that out. I figured after a few dry runs anything in the paint will be gone.
You really think it needs to come off? My smoker is powder coated but those cheap offsets are painted inside.
Click to expand...
I had a cheap offset (Silver Smoker) and there was no paint inside.
 
BayoustateBBQ said:
Ok paint came off easy in the sandblaster (note to self). Just not sure how long mine needs to be until i start taking temps. dual probe thermo came in today so we will see. ButtBurner is that 1/4"? Looking good
Click to expand...

yes I got real lucky on that. At work we have a scrap metal bin that they sell to a recycle when it fills up. Its full of odds and ends, I work for an auto parts supplier and we have a lot of junk castings that we collect.

I was back by it a few days ago, here is this wire basket full of real nice stock like this.

It was going to the recycler the next morning!

So I snagged it all and put it in my office. We have a tool room at work so today I chopped some to size with our power hack saw. I have lots left. A lot of different sizes, angle iron etc.

I am going to season mine like cast iron, wipe it down with Crisco and let it burn in a few times.
 
BayoustateBBQ, I would cut the bottom flat part of your baffle into 3rds. That way, you can use the extra 2 pieces as tuning plates like ButtBurner's to dial in your temps.
 
Yes that is what I was thinking about cutting it. Really would have preferred some thicker stock but I used what I had. This 18 guage really conducts the heat, kind like putting a pie plate on a burner. Conduction in this instance may not work in my favor. Might still have more heat towards the firebox. Anyway, gotta start somewhere. Got my dual probe remote thermo yesterday so we will see what has changed today.
 
Ok guys got every thing set up and starting testing. Right off the bat I noticed the firebox side was still 50 degrees different. So I noticed some gaps along side the baffle and I welded in the plates to block the airflow. Now keep in mind before using the dial thermos I was easily getting a 100 degree difference. For a bench mark can you get the temps perfect all the way across or is there a range that is acceptable?
 
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