Started my "Northwoods Amateur" build tonight (BWS Pro Clone)

Just got back from spending two weeks in Chicago so no updates lately. Plan to get over and work on it once or twice this week. I'm close to the point where I'm going to either bend the sheet for the interior or find someone close to do it. I'm hoping Storms in Victoria or Cologne will be able to do it. I'm hoping to bring the whole unit in and have them bend the interior and exterior sheeting all at once.



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Finally got a chance to spend some quality time with my build today and had a really good day. Made a lot of progress and was real happy with the fit of the panels I cut out. It's almost like I knew what I was doing.

Got the floor of the firebox welded in along with all 3 panels of the meat chamber. I still need to weld the bottom of the panels to the floor but I ran out of time. Everything was cut with Zip Wheels and while they do a great job it takes a bit of time making straight 4ft long cuts.



Welds are getting better too I think. I really love the MIG welder, makes it so easy.



Starting to look like a smoker almost.



Been thinking about the firebox and have a couple ideas.

One idea is to have the firebox attached to the door and have the whole thing on sliders so it pulls out all as one piece. Would make it nice and easy for filling and cleaning and the handle would be on the outside so even when the fire has been going for hours it would be easy to slide out far enough to add more lump or whatever.

The other idea is to have a normal hinged door and a firebox separate that still is on sliders and pulls out. May be easier to build and seems like the more standard approach but I'm not sure if there are some benefits to it that I'm not thinking of or what. One advantage would be for keeping the door open while starting the fire to let it breathe, but even with the first option I think I would be fine if I just left it slid out an inch or two, that would be quite a bit of air. I'm also going to have a 25CFM Stoker fan hooked up to it so air shouldn't be a problem.

Thoughts? And thanks for looking.

Trent

Thanks guys.

Was good to see you yesterday Ryan.

Dan, your build is still an inspiration for this one. I assume you got your cooker sold?

cpw said:

I would think you'd want to keep the door and the firebox separate, just so you don't have to slide out the firebox every time you want to peek at the fire. I would definitely put it on rails so you can slide it out easily, and add a handle. That's one thing my backwoods doesn't have, so it's a bit of a pain to slide in and out to add charcoal or chunks of wood.

Also, you may want to check on the size of the fan for the stoker. I have a fatboy and use the 5cfm with no issue. 25cfm may be overkill.

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Good point, I didn't take into account the times I'll just want to look at the fire. I think I'll order hinges and latches and keep them separate.

I agree that the 25CFM fan might be overkill. I'm hoping it will work but if I have to bump it down a size I'll be fine with that too. I figured with as expensive as the fans are I might as well get the big one to start instead of having to buy it later.

Little more progress today. Got the bottom of the interior panels welded up. The smoke stack cut, fit and welded into place. And the interior top panel cut, trimmed, hammered, persuaded and finally welded into place.







Top it all off with a UPS delivery of the 25' roll of insulation, 25' of door gasket, and latches for both doors. I hope the hinges aren't far behind.




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Wasn't happy with my welds tonight. Was some tricky spots welding the edges of two sheets together and had to keep adjusting the power to keep from burning through. But I got it done and it won't look half bad once finished.



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Thanks guys. I got over there again last night and got the two interior side walls cut and welded into place. Forgot the camera again so no pictures, not that there is much to look at. Funny how you go at it for 4 hours or so, come out drenched in sweat with a sore back because you worked your arse off and then you look and all you got done were two panels that don't look like much. Can get frustrating if you let it. On the plus side each panel was 5'x2' in size so there was about 28 feet of welding involved so it wasn't a small task by any means.