Started my "Northwoods Amateur" build tonight (BWS Pro Clone)

TTNuge

Full Fledged Farker
Joined
Nov 22, 2011
Location
Waconia, MN
Well after drooling over many different smokers including a few BWS Fatboys, Stumps, some clone builds and many more I decided to bite the bullet and try to build one myself. A lot of the inspiration comes from Winemaster and his clone, another BWS build I found at a different site as well as Ryan (speers90) and his build since he lives less than a mile from me and I got to see a bit of the action with his build thanks to this site.

I first started by buying my wife a Welder for Christmas. I got away with it and she actually liked it as she has mentioned an interest in welding in the past. I originally got a Hobart 140 but after some roundy round and some "advice" from my Dad who also was interested in a wire feed welder to go with his stick unit I ended up upgrading to a Hobart 190 with spool gun. I don't plan on using the spool gun for this build but I figured what the heck, why not get it anyways.

Then I made a trip to a local steel dealer and picked up a load of steel. Between the tubing and sheets it was just over 700#s so it's going to be a monster. I started with the thought of putting it on wheels but I may just end up with a dedicated trailer.... I'll figure that out later.

The unit is going to be just over 5' tall on wheels, 28" wide and 27" deep. The smoking chamber itself is going to be 48"x24"x24" with at least 5 shelves and at least 12 shelf locations. I have a 1/4" heat diffuser plate to go above the fire box and it will be set up with an intake dedicated for Stoker use.

Not much to look at right now but considering I only had a few hours, I have never welded two pieces of metal together before and I was alone I was pretty happy with my progress. I'll only get a few nights a week to work on it and I'll be losing a couple weeks the end of this month to business travel but I hope to have it done soon so I can practice and enter a few comps this spring with it.

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Hopefully I'll have some more progress pics later this week. Also looking forward to my new Stoker w/25cfm fan to arrive, hopefully with the wi-fi code. :shock:

Thanks for looking,
Trent
 
Very cool. Looks good so far. Just make sure that a full size aluminum pan will fit on the racks. You wont regret that tip. Good luck. Keep us updated.

Dan
 
Sitting here looking at my pics I realized I welded a cross bar on the top in the back where it should have been in the front. The one in back needs to be split for the exhaust to go up. Oh well, it can be cut to fit but I can't believe I did that and didn't realize until just now.

Reserve those "talented" comments until the end, we don't know how this is going to come out yet! :) Like I said, this is pretty much the first time I've ever picked up a welder, I've got more guts than brains I'm sure.
 
Finally got a bit more time to get over and work on the smoker again. Slow going so far but that's what happens with a demanding job, a wife and three kids. And now I leave on Sunday for 2 weeks in Chicago so progress will be slow once again.

Got the two cross braces on the front of the smoker, one across the top and the lower one that will be for the top of the firebox door and the bottom of the meat compartment door. Also welded in a couple angle brackets and finally the 1/4" diffuser plate that separates the firebox from the smoke chamber. Was pretty happy with the fit and the weld, first time welding 1/4" plate and there was a lot to weld. Welds may not look professional but they'll do the job.

Front View:

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Side View:

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Close up of the diffuser plate:

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Thanks for looking.

Trent
 
Looking good so far! If I could give you a little beginner's advice: Take the extra time and grind off the mill scale on the surfaces to be welded. You will get much better penetration and a prettier bead.
 
Looking good so far! If I could give you a little beginner's advice: Take the extra time and grind off the mill scale on the surfaces to be welded. You will get much better penetration and a prettier bead.

All advice is welcome! I've been trying to clean up the pieces before I weld them but I'll admit to being spotty at it at best. And for the large 1/4" I definitely just dropped it in and started welding without giving it another thought. Thanks for the reminder.
 
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