Hankerdaddy
Found some matches.
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2012
- Location
- San...
I wanted to thank everyone who has posted their previous experiences and tips restoring smokers on this site. I gained so much knowledge prior to going out and getting a smoker to restore on my own. In return I'm posting some pics of my New Braunfels offset smoker I just finished restoring. I stalked craigslist for a couple of months trying to get my hands on one of these. I was thoroughly surprised at how fast these things were getting snatched up on there. However with persistence I got lucky and scored a unit in pretty good shape for being about 8 years old. I picked it up for $60 dollars from a guy who had kept it covered most of the time and had only smoked on it three times. So here are some pics and descriptions of what I did.
Here are some before pics of the smoker.
First Task was to get everything rust free or at least as much as i could. I used a drill and a couple different sizes of wire brush to get most of the rust off of the Barrel and Firebox. If I had an angle grinder I would of probably went with that. The sanding took about a day to get done. It was a lot more work than I thought. I used some naval jelly to get the last thin layer off. It worked fairly well, although I wouldn't say it was better than some elbow grease.
After I had everything cleaned up I used a sandpaper to roughen and smooth both the firebox and barrel before painting. Along with a good wash with the hose and dish soap to remove all the grit.
As soon as I received the smoker I removed all the hardware and carefully noted where everything went. I also removed the handles and made new ones out of dowel rod I picked up at home depot.
I painted it with two layers of rustoleum 1200* grill paint. The paint went on well, although it does have a tendency to show all hand prints and slightly comes off every time you touch it. I still need to fire it up and let the paint harden off. Anyways here is a pic of the finished product.
In the process I also sealed the gaps between the barrel and chimney with 2000* black fireplace mortar. I also used this to seal the firebox and barrel to each other. I realized there was a larger gap for air to get into even when the bolts were tightened. Seemed to work well, and will harden when i fire it up to form a complete seal.
You'll also notice a full board as the front table. I didn't like the cheap look of the three boards, so i picked up a cheap piece of wood and sanded it down to be more visual appealing. Added some red oak stain and sealed it up. Also did the same to the handles. I was pretty happy with look when it was finished. I have more pics and would be happy to answer any questions you may have!
Things still yet to be done:
I'm adding two more thermometer probes down towards the grate. Just ran out of light yesterday to put them in.
Also having a metal shop making my convection plate to the exact details of the one horizon smoker offers. I would have ordered it from them, but it's expensive to ship and fairly easy to show a metal shop a pic and have them make it. http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-307/Convection-Plate--dsh--For/Detail
Enjoy!
Here are some before pics of the smoker.
First Task was to get everything rust free or at least as much as i could. I used a drill and a couple different sizes of wire brush to get most of the rust off of the Barrel and Firebox. If I had an angle grinder I would of probably went with that. The sanding took about a day to get done. It was a lot more work than I thought. I used some naval jelly to get the last thin layer off. It worked fairly well, although I wouldn't say it was better than some elbow grease.
After I had everything cleaned up I used a sandpaper to roughen and smooth both the firebox and barrel before painting. Along with a good wash with the hose and dish soap to remove all the grit.
As soon as I received the smoker I removed all the hardware and carefully noted where everything went. I also removed the handles and made new ones out of dowel rod I picked up at home depot.
I painted it with two layers of rustoleum 1200* grill paint. The paint went on well, although it does have a tendency to show all hand prints and slightly comes off every time you touch it. I still need to fire it up and let the paint harden off. Anyways here is a pic of the finished product.
In the process I also sealed the gaps between the barrel and chimney with 2000* black fireplace mortar. I also used this to seal the firebox and barrel to each other. I realized there was a larger gap for air to get into even when the bolts were tightened. Seemed to work well, and will harden when i fire it up to form a complete seal.
You'll also notice a full board as the front table. I didn't like the cheap look of the three boards, so i picked up a cheap piece of wood and sanded it down to be more visual appealing. Added some red oak stain and sealed it up. Also did the same to the handles. I was pretty happy with look when it was finished. I have more pics and would be happy to answer any questions you may have!
Things still yet to be done:
I'm adding two more thermometer probes down towards the grate. Just ran out of light yesterday to put them in.
Also having a metal shop making my convection plate to the exact details of the one horizon smoker offers. I would have ordered it from them, but it's expensive to ship and fairly easy to show a metal shop a pic and have them make it. http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-307/Convection-Plate--dsh--For/Detail
Enjoy!
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