120 Gallon Tank Build (lots of pics)

TTNuge said:

More great work Ryan, you're going to have that thing done before I even get a chance to come see it.

I have all of next week off so maybe I'll have a chance...

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I will be able to work on it quite a bit on Tuesday and Wednesday, you should come by! Did you get the metal for your project ordered?

A few more hours on the cooker today let me get the exhaust welded on and the gaps next to fire box filled in.

A view of the exhaust pipe from the front, I used a square 6X6 tube. I will still be putting a rotating cover on the exhaust so I can keep the rain out.



Here is a view of the exhaust from the firebox side.



Here is a view looking into the firebox from inside the cooking chamber.
My cooking chamber is 30" wide, but I only wanted my firebox to be 22" wide, so that left me with around a 4" gap on each side. So in this shot I have welded in the inserts/patches on each side of the firebox. You can also see the bottom of the exhaust pipe, once the cooking racks are installed the bottom of the exhaust will be in between the two racks. I did this because I wanted to hold some of the heat and smoke in the cooking chamber before it escaped. On my previous build I put the exhaust at the top, and I feel like a lot of my heat and smoke are escaping without doing much work.


Here is a exterior view of one of the sides insert/patch. I had been dreading this step but it turned out to be pretty simple.

morgaj1 said:

Looking good Ryan! Are you going to cross-brace the legs?

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I will be putting a shelf towards the bottom that will connect from the legs to the firebox.

tish said:

Where'd you learn your welding skills? :thumb:

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My grandpa gave me a 2 minute demonstration about 10 years ago, then he said the only way to learn is to do it. Since then I've just been doing it. I should point out that I don't weld on anything that would be critical, like a vehicle or trailer. Although, at this point I wouldn't be afraid too, I just haven't needed to.

It's not difficult to get metal to stick together, the tricky part is doing it so that it looks decent. For that I checked out a welding book at the library and asked some questions of members on this forum and on a welding forum.

I've only ever welded with a stick welder, but in the next couple of weeks I think I will have an opportunity to give a MIG welder a try. I have heard that if you learn stick first then MIG comes really easy, but we shall see!

Got to work on the cooker today for almost 7 uninterupted hours! That doesn't happen very often with two little kids.

Started off by welding the deflector plate in place and then moved onto the rail slides.


A closer view of the rail slids and the anti-tip shelf holder.


Next I got to work on my door stop, as you can see I just couldn't go with a simple one! I am going to paint these silhouettes to give my cooker a little flair.


I just had to incorporate my favorite college football team, this is how I was planning on covering up the valve holes.


Got my exhaust cover made. The actual cover is just some steel plate, the handle is 1/2" rod, and i used 1" angle to hold the rod in place but still allow me to open and close it. Pretty much the same thing I did to build the door hinges.


Exhaust cover open. I want to put something on top of the cover, but I don't think I can because I won't have enough clearance to roll it under my deck.


Got the bottom rack put together, it fits nicely. Still need to put the handles/pulls on the shelf but I ran out of time.


Bottom rack out, side view


Bottom rack out, front view.


Right side view of the cooker


Left side view of cooker


Getting to the point that there isn't to much fabrication left to do:
Upper Rack
Leg Bracing
Shelf On Cooker (opposite the firebox end)
Firebox Door (hinges, strapping, handle)
Air Intakes
Wood Grate

morgaj1 said:

Looking good Ryan. Where does the heat come in on the right side? I know it's there, but I just can't see it.

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I had a better picture of it before I had put the rails in, but I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera so I just deleted it. I just kind of diagramed it in the following picture:

The deflector plate ends basically where the seam in the tank is, so the entire domed part of the tank is where the heat/smoke rises and reverses.


Hope this helps, I went back out and tried to get a better picture, but with the rails in there now, you can barely see the edge of the deflector plate!