500 gal offset build

[Militant83]

Well here is the beginning of my 500 gal standard offset build. The guy offered to cut the doors for me and I knew I should have passed on the offer. It looks like he made them about 6" too tall. But Oh well we can weld that back up and fix it pretty easily. The top of the may also be a little low on the tank but oh well we will deal with that. Tomorrow I will begin cutting out the areas where the valves where and patching them up if I have time. This may be a rather slow build as I will work on it as time and money allow so bare with me and I will update as much as possible.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but the bottom of the doors should be at the center point of the tank?

When looking for pipe for a stack all I can find around here is sch 40 steel pipe and it is stupid expensive. The guy I bought the tank off of had one built with a square stack which from what I have seen is cheaper than the round pipe. Will a square stack work just as well?

If I'm using the pitcalc correctly it looks like I should need the following dimensions for the rest of the build

Square firebox- 34x34x34" 39304 in³ ( slightly bigger than recommended but not much)
Square Stack- 8 X 8 X 30.71" 1965.44 in³ (This seems awfully short)
Firebox air intake 3x10 120 in²

If I was to use a round stack it calls for this- 8 X 39.12
Says I should have a throat size of 314.43 in² but I didn't see a section to put calculations in to figure out measurements to get to the 314.43.

 

[Mikhail]

Gonna be a beast.

 

[Militant83]

Mikhail , yes it will be future catering setup so it should do us well.

 

[Muscrat]

Looks like fun. I might leave the doors alone. This may allow you to have multiple racks.

 

[mike243]

I'm in the leave doors as is, multiple racks would be great for doing different stuff with different temps, also make 2 stacks set at different heights to help control the heat at different levels.

 

[LloydQ]

I wonder if the doors might be extremely hard to open starting down that low?

 

[redchaserron]

I wonder if the doors might be extremely hard to open starting down that low?

After 3 or 4 cooks he'll look like this

 

[LloydQ]

That is grotesque!

 

[pjtexas1]

I'd leave the doors as-is and add counter weights. Unless there's more to it than aesthetics.

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[Militant83]

I wonder if the doors might be extremely hard to open starting down that low?

That was my thought, With them being that big I don't think my arms would even be able to fully open them with out getting them to a certain point and then pushing them from the inside of the door. Everything I have seen on building this type of cooker the bottom of the door comes to the center line of the cooking chamber or 1" below center if having your bottom rack a slide out rack.. The way he cut them was about 5" below center.

So I think we are going to just weld them up inside and out grind it all down on the outside to make it look like it never happen and cut the doors according to a set of plans from smokerbuilder.com on the other side, which is what I should have done in the first place however, I was trying to cut a corner and of course it backfired. Cutting them according to the plans will still allow me to have a bottom rack and upper rack.

 

[Militant83]

Took a little road trip today and scored me a trailer for the build. The trailer is a lot longer than I had intended on getting but for $400 I couldn't pass it up. The extra length will allow me to add some other things that I would like to have and have room to move around on it. I am probably going to bump each side out to widen it a bit though. Later on down the road it would be nice to add a roof system with fold out awnings.

 

[pjtexas1]

Better to have too much than not enough.

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[SmokinAussie]

Good luck with it. I find these builds fascinating.

Cheers!

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

A roof system is such a nice thing to have...not an absolute necessity, but certainly worth the time / money. I'm looking forward to seeing progress on this build as it sounds like you're pretty well skilled with this kind of thing. Good luck and hope everything works out well!

 

[redchaserron]

That trailer look very similar to the one I scored for my pit. Mine was used for a generator previously and is also too narrow for me to move around on with the pit so I just built a platform that sits next to it.

 

[kls44]

I'm with you on shorting the doors up to about the center. A little more work than planned
but you didn't have to worry about making that first cut on a propane tank.
Going to be a nice project.

 

[Militant83]

Better to have too much than not enough.

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That was my thought as well especially for the price. They are typically going for $800-$1500 for similar trailers. I lucked out with this one.

A roof system is such a nice thing to have...not an absolute necessity, but certainly worth the time / money. I'm looking forward to seeing progress on this build as it sounds like you're pretty well skilled with this kind of thing. Good luck and hope everything works out well!

I agree when the time comes a roof system is definitely worth the money especially with a walk on pit. Can be hard to put tents over something that sits so high.

That trailer look very similar to the one I scored for my pit. Mine was used for a generator previously and is also too narrow for me to move around on with the pit so I just built a platform that sits next to it.

I'm going to do one of two things either weld on some frame extensions on each side to expand it to around 7-8' wide or make extensions that are on hinges and can fold up when in transport but fold down for added floor space when stationary.

Going to try to knock the doors out tomorrow so hopefully I will have some progress pics on the tank soon.

 

[Randy3269]

Could you just rotate the tank back until the bottom cut on the door is at centerline? The doors seem to be the right size otherwise.

 

[Militant83]

Could you just rotate the tank back until the bottom cut on the door is at centerline? The doors seem to be the right size otherwise.

That possibly would have worked if I had some more tools at my disposal such as a gantry I think it could change the way it looks some as the tanks are oblong vertically in the current position they sit in. Every one I have seen built is the standard position as they would sit in your yard so that is the way I'm doing it.

Well get got a little more done on the build today. Just have to make a trip to the metal store to get some flat stock for the doors and material to make the handles. Any suggestions on handles? I was thinking taking some bar stock cutting one end on a 45 to use as end pieces then use 1" square or round stock as the handle part. We got the hinges on, the doors welded up on the outside to where we wanted the new door bottom to be then cut the remaining parts of the door out. Now it looks like we are getting somewhere.

 

[Randy3269]

Looking good! I love to watch a build come together.:eusa_clap