First real smoker.....

RT · Oct 21, 2013

Great find.....

ButtBurner · Oct 21, 2013

good deal

but tri tip?

I would go for a pork butt. easy, long smoke, will give you time to fiddle with the fire.

peeps · Oct 21, 2013

ButtBurner said:
good deal

but tri tip?

I would go for a pork butt. easy, long smoke, will give you time to fiddle with the fire.

...and gives everything a nice seasoning since you are cleaning it up a bit!

charrederhead · Oct 21, 2013

Good deal if it's 1/4" and all-welded. What brand is that?

Good luck and have fun!

davefan360 · Oct 21, 2013

well did you buy it?

BBQ_MAFIA · Oct 21, 2013

good luck with your new toy.

jshull · Oct 23, 2013

I bought it!!

I finally got it picked up, sick kids and work held me back Monday but I got it picked up last night. It is indeed 1/4" steel, it's a solid built unit but leave's some to be desired. For some reason the soap box and the fine box has hinged ends, there's no latches. Unless I can figure out a real good reason I'm welding them shut. The smoke box door is tweeted just a bit, I'll fix that too. But the biggest issue I see is this.

Now my thoughts are to weld a plate/baffle to bring that hole down and over, then tuning plates. The problem I'm having is how far down and over?

CtTradArcher · Oct 23, 2013

Any chance of actually moving the firebox down? Would be good to get the opening below the grate in the smoke chamber, but still have the heat flowing out the top of the firebox. Plus you would have less radiant heat from the firebox on that end of the smoke chamber. I did a similar mod on my NBBD, but the firebox was bolted on, not welded.

If it is possible, figure out your firebox to smoke chamber opening size using the offset pit calculator and drop the firebox as far as you can while maintaining the correct opening.

Here is the calculator: http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

Of course, this is just my opinion...

You have a great starting place with that smoker. Especially for $60.00...

HankB · Oct 23, 2013

jshull said:
For some reason the soap box and the fine box has hinged ends, there's no latches. Unless I can figure out a real good reason I'm welding them shut.

I use the door on the end of the fire box on my NBBD to stoke the fire. The top door has a platform that I use to preheat wood. You might consider doing that rather than welding that door shut.

Terry The Toad · Oct 23, 2013

1/4 inch steel should hold the temps pretty nicely. Nice find! :-D

ButtBurner · Oct 23, 2013

If you mean the smoke box has a hinged door, you could seal that up.

I would not weld up the firebox door, thats how I empty the ashes.

I would try blocking off the upper part of the firebox opening with something temporary like a cut foil pan to see if that helps. it might choke off your air flow

I think that opening is way too high, I dont know how well it works like that

Of course if you could cut the firebox off and lower it that would be good, but i would experiement with blocking part of it off first

jshull · Oct 23, 2013

Compared to other smokers I've looked at that hole is huge! I'll get some measurements tonight.

DickQ · Oct 23, 2013

Tuning plates would be great, but since its your first smoker that's a lot of work. Start with just a heat deflector where the heat enters the smoking chamber. It can be as simple as a throw away tin pan cut up just to keep the fire end from getting to hot. I hope that makes sense, I had pretty much the exact smoker as my first smoker years ago and that helped me a lot.

jshull · Oct 25, 2013

I've been so busy getting ready for duck season (opens 10/26) I haven't messed with the smoker yet. Tonight though we are going to fire it up untouched and do some grate temp measurements.

jshull · Oct 27, 2013

Well killed a quick couple limits of ducks and decided to play with the smoker. First off I've relized this Might be a bigger project than first thought. None of the doors are square. Needs a bit more tlc also. Here's some pictures of the ends and the HUGE chamber hole.

I fired it up today with 1 full chimney of briquettes. With three evenly spaced thermometers I'm at starting closes to fire box 400f, 275f, 300f, that's with the smoke stack 1/2 open and the fire vent closed. Since I fired it I'm gonna give a run with my first fatty right now. Updates soon!

jshull · Oct 27, 2013

Well I've got it leveled off and cooking decent seems to use a lot of fuel. Once I let the first round come down to 350-245-250 I'm burning about 24 briquettes an hour. I've been stoking 12 every 30 minuets. that's keeping the burn pretty even.

jshull · Oct 27, 2013

And finished! Family loved it.

SmittyJonz · Oct 27, 2013

Food Looks Good.

SmittyJonz · Oct 27, 2013

Weld that flap under smoke stack shut, put a latch on other one ( it for ash clean out) plate off top half of that opening from firebox. Running it with exhaust 3/4-full open, get a bed of hot charcoal coals then add a split log (1/4 log) every 45 minutes - 1 hr . Wood Burns Hotter than Charcoal. :mrgreen: this can be a decent smoker with minor work. :thumb:

Check out tuning plates on YouTube - several styles to try

SmittyJonz · Oct 28, 2013

Actually I'd Plate top 1/4 and bottom 1/4 and use middle 1/2 of hole between FB And Cook Chamber.

First real smoker.....

Full Fledged Farker

Babbling Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

Take a breath!

somebody shut me the fark up.

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

is Blowin Smoke!

is one Smokin' Farker

Babbling Farker

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

Knows what a fatty is.

somebody shut me the fark up.

somebody shut me the fark up.

somebody shut me the fark up.

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