Zombie Pit Returns, pt 2!!

So almost 6 years ago I started working on turning a 275 gallon heating oil tank into a pit.



Here's the original thread: https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154533


Then, I hit a couple of setbacks and had to stop working on it. A year and a half later, I was able to start working on it again and made a little progress.


The new thread is here: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213056


But not too long after that, life got weird and I had to stop working on it for a while.


Now, following several prompts from friends at work, I'm working on it again!


My boss told me to bring it in and work on it there after hours (I work in a welding & fab shop now).



After much discussion and debate, work on the smoker recently kicked-off with plenty of pros around to ask for advice and help.



A couple weeks ago I welded a frame for the new door design (flat instead of curved and cut out the center strip for the old doors.


A couple days ago I was able to weld around the smoke transfer tube inside the cooking chamber and tack up the door frame to the opening.









The flat doors will be easier to get a good seal on.


I'm staying late again next week to get some more done.



I'm hoping to be able to cook on this thing in the spring, so I've got to keep at it.


After 6 years, it will be good to finally get this thing done. I was initially just going to sell it on craigslist when it was done, but now there are some potentially interested buyers at work, so we'll see how things pan out.


More pics coming soon.


Thanks for looking!

Progress

Stayed late after work yesterday with a buddy and got some stuff done.
Welded all the way around the new door frame.


Ground down the welds (not me in the pic).




Tacked up the center post.



Welded it in (still have to do the seams up the middle where the 2 pieces of angle attach to the flat bar).



All-in-all, it was a good day.

More to come next week!

Unfortunately I've been sick all week so no progress to report.



I'm planning to get some stuff done weds or thurs. I'll update asap.


Cheers!

Finally got some work-time in yesterday.

I had a buddy of mine chop up what used to be the doors into pieces to build the hood around door frame and got them tacked up.





Then made a template for the corner pieces and got one of them tacked on too.



Got a little welding done, but not much before I ran out of time. Welding this thin plate is a PITA, but I'm happy with how things are progressing so far.

Thanks for looking! More pics next week.

2/13 Update

I stayed late today but didn't get much done.


Welded the front of the top plate.








Then started grinding the welds flat.





That one little section on the left took almost an hour to grind down.


It was getting late, so I decided to focus just on welding for the rest of the time.


I got almost the entire way around the top and the 2 cross seams before I had to quit for the day.








Still have a couple of spots to get yet. Wish I could have worked on it longer, but duty calls.


Next time I want to finish the welding the hood around the door frame and cut and mount some of the rails for the cooking grates.


Thanks for looking!

My work was closed today for the holiday and I had nothing going on, so snuck in for a few hrs of welding!


Cut the side piece for the other end of the hood.





Got it welded up and did a bunch of grinding on the welds along the top of the hood.





Then decided to weld the seams going up the middle of the door frame.





And got those ground flat.





Still have a few voids/holes to fix, but all the long stretches of welding are pretty much done at this point.



The rest should come together pretty quick, but I still have a few decisions to make ad have to pick up some more metal from somewhere.


I'll have another update next week sometime.


Thanks for looking!

One of my welder buddies from work offered to stay late with me yesterday and get some stuff done.

Shockingly, he said most of my welds looked pretty good for an amateur.

I swapped out the rotted out, pneumatic tires for some solid rubber wheels I picked up at HF. My buddy cut some spacers to make them fit the existing caster better.

Then I started cutting some metal pieces for the rails the cooking grates will slide on, the tabs to keep them from flipping when pulled out and some flat bars to hold up the back ends of the rails.



While I was doing that, my buddy welded the casters back on (properly, not how I did them).



Made some brackets for the handle on the shear and started welding that up.







Then, he tacked up the supports for the back ends of the rails.



And we test-fit one of the cooking grates and rails.



All-in-all, it was a pretty productive session. We got some small, but very important things accomplished, and now I can actually wheel this thing around when I need to work on it.

Thanks for looking! I'll have another update next week.

Got some more stuff done yesterday.


My buddy got the outside rails all tacked up.








While he was doing that, I figured out where the holes needed to be cut for the drain in the bottom and the exhaust stacks on both sides and marked them.


I started to cut out some handles to weld to the cooking racks.



Then we figured out how to mount the diffuser plate, cut it and got it installed. Then he tacked up the rest of the rails.









Then we test-fit the cooking grates to make sure everything lined up and worked good.





Everything looked good, so my buddy finished welding all the rails in.






Simple handles (not welded on yet).





So another very productive day.



I almost wish I was doing a little more welding, but I don't want to slow down the progress.



That's all I got for this week. Thanks for looking!

I have some 3.5" pipe I'm going to cut angles on and weld to make 90* elbows and go up about a foot on both sides, a few inches down from the top.