Building smoker - Firebox Size Question

[Methos]

Hi all

You guys have inspired me to start building my own smoker.
I got my hands on a 225l (60 gal) water heater.
I am currently working on attaching the door. I have very little experience in welding so it is quite a learning curve but I watched a few videos on youtube and after I got the arch going - which can take so time - I quite OK.

My question is this. The smoker will be reverse flow. The steel I got for the firebox is 5mm thick. They are cut 70 cm by 70 cm - ie 27 inch.
According to Feldon's calculator The required size is 4620.00. But the fire box I specified is 19683.00. So a size difference of 426 percent.

So the firebox is much too large. I want to know if I have to reduce the firebox size? Not looking forward to cutting the 6 plates though....

Thanks a lot.

Cheers

 

[Ron_L]

I'm not an expert, so hopefully one of the guys with more experience will come along soon, but that sounds like too much of a difference to me. It seems that you'll spend way too much time heating the firebox and not get much heat into the cook chamber.

But, don't rely on me :-D That's just my not-so-educated guess :becky:

 

[dwfisk]

I try to get my fireboxes to about 115%-125% of the Feldon recommendation and I've gone as large as 150% to accomodate a wood rack and allow for ash accumulation on long cooks without compromising the firebox volume. For a 60 gallon tank, an 18"X18"X18" works out to about 126%. A serious issue with a firebox as large as you have cut out (27" cubed) is it will be extremely heavy and with only a 60 gallon cook chamber it will be really difficult to get it balanced on a stand or trailer. I would have it cut down to make an 18"-20" cube.

Best of luck.