>Bluehawg's 120 Gallon Smoker Build

[Bluehawg]

I decided to go with the twisting round type air inlet vents. They look NICE... I like the whole "radiation" warning look they have... BTW, this sucker is HEAVY!!! I would have never have guessed it would be this heavy. I knew it wasn't going to be light but daggum... I nearly pulled my back out, ruptured a hernia and damn near gave myself a dang hemmorhoid just trying to lift one end of it!!! I ended up just getting several of the big youngins in the class to DRAG it cause they dang sure couldn't pick it up.

 

[Bluehawg]

Here's a pic of the air inlets in the firebox door.

 

[Bluehawg]

Firebox latches fabricated. I will weld a notched plate to the side of the firebox and the pipe to the firebox door. The washer will be welded to the rod to hold tension against the rod and the notched plate to hold the door shut. It will all make sense once I get it all put together on the box. I'm going to add a couple of spring handles to the rod later on for heat dissipation.

 

[speers90]

I tell you what, it looks even better than what I had imagined!

 

[morgaj1]

Looks great Blue!

 

[Bluehawg]

Got it somewhat finished and gave it a test run on Saturday and cooked two spatchcock chickens and a loin. Tasted great! Temp was the same within 2-4 degrees on each side... Did find out that I won't be able to afford charcoal for this beast and will have to go to burning straight wood. I went through about 20 lbs of charcoal in 2 hours on the test cook!!! Which may not sound like much but I can cook 8-10 hours on 20 lbs of charcoal cooking 1-4 pork butts on my smaller cooker so it was definitely a LOT more charcoal burning that I'm used to.

Got it painted and entered the 4th of July cook off here. An amateur first timer in a contest using a pit only cooked on for two hours before the contest but I wanted to try my hand on it anyway... Placed 4th in chicken and I believe it was 6th in pork... Surprised me tremendously because I thought my pork was WAY better than my chicken, but they must have liked the bird.

Got pics and will post up as soon as I get a chance.