X2 Rob, it's funny that you said that because I was thinking the exact same thing. My friend owns Paterson Sheet Metal and has a roller that could straighten that out in less time than it takes to talk about it..... or... he could make a brand new one out of stainless for that really classy look. :head:

Just use your hands to straighten the door out :party:

Great looking smoker build ya got there Ferm, like the design. You'll get er done and be smoking in no time.

If only my hands could do it. I already welded a brace on the back, atatched it to a table, and put 2 pipe wrenches on it and hung from them to try and tweak it, but it wasn't enough pressure(guess that 60 pounds I lost actually hurt me for a change). Haven't been able to work on it for a week now as I got sick on Thanksgiving with the flu. And if that wasn't bad enough, my 2 year old got sick within an hour of me getting sick. So all weekend my poor wife had to take care of me because my fever got so bad I couldn't stand up because I was dizzy, but she also had to help out with our 2 year old being just as sick. Fortunately about all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep on my chest on the couch, so at least we were together and she didn't have to go across the house. Just now getting better, but my son is still down.

Holy Toledo, I feel for all of you.
Black Cloud Hangs over us too--Thanksgiving Day was OK, mealtime was nice and I even landed a few redfish in the afternoon. All turned south that evening when my 82 yr old dad went to sleep and couldn't catch his breath. Congestive Heart Failure complicated by a bad chest cold/bronchitis. Off to the ER in Gainesville at 12:45 am Friday, Black Friday no less and the main entrance to the Oaks Mall on Newberry Rd. just so happens to share the same stoplight as North Florida Regional Medical Center... I could watch the frackus from my dad's hospital room.
Thankfully they were able to dry him out and he was released Sunday morning. The entire time my mom has been fighting off the same chest cold and with her COPD and other breathing issues I was just as concerned with her as I was my dad. Back and forth from Suwannee to Gainesville is a trek and I didn't sleep much. But it really wasn't about me-- could have been worse, we still counted the many blessings bestowed upon us..we are family and I was glad to be there to help for a change.. They are both resting at home this morning and expected to make a full recovery.

ridge glad to here your parents are ok!!!!! visit them often and share memories. there will come a day when you want to but cant. I know been there done this!!!!!!!!!!

I hate to poo poo on Ferman's smoker thread but you are so right Daydreamer. I hate it that I can't be closer to them, makes me feel guilty at times. The daily routine leaves little time for anything else. That is the problem with hustle bustle, no time to enjoy the roses.
We make time to go see a sick friend in the end, we should have taken time to enjoy the same friend while they are still with us.. Situational awareness reveals there is not enough hours in the day, so we do our best and pray.

so true ridge,lost both of mine 4-6 years ago, not a day goes by i don't think of 10 things i wish i could ask them.

I'm with yall. Tomorrow is promised to none of us. It's good to work hard and plan for the future, but take a little of your retirement early every few days even if just for a few minutes.

When we're all old and in the nursing home crapping our pants we'll wish we were out in the shop twisting on a smoker door that won't shut right.

After 10 days of being sick, I felt ALMOST human today(ALMOST, but not quite yet) and did a little more work on it. Got the firebox all finished up, and ready for a fire to be lit.

Heres the firebox basket finished up and my fandangled rod I made for pulling the fire tray out.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps307e285c.jpg

The firebox door all finished up with my own latch design.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps989dc35a.jpg

And the air intake for the firebox is all done as well. Installed some grating to help prevent any chunks from falling out that may stray out of the tray.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps53e45149.jpg

And forgot to mention earlier, this cooker is part DURABURB. My smokestack is made from my old driveshaft that I twisted in the BURB. Still gotta get the friggen door straightened out and laying down semi straight, then it's pretty much done.

Haven't gotten much time to work on the smoker lately, but I have gotten an hour or two here and there to work on it. It's starting to look like a smoker, and getting close.

The cooking grates. They come out in 2 pieces for cleaning. Decided to go with conventional grating instead of the stainless for the cooking grates.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf0e3bbc8.jpg

The grate on the outlet side goes all the way over, and you can see how far in I made the stack protrude in.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps35a76ab6.jpg

Got the door on, hinges welded on, and the handle mounted up.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps397d249c.jpg

Starting to look like a smoker.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps2724bedc.jpg

You can see the water fill pipe I added for filling the water tray(had an extra piece of 1/2" pipe, figured what the heck).
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psb1fb4906.jpg

Still have to decide if I want to leave the door as is, or add a counter balance to it so I don't have to open it so far to keep it open. Also need to add on end racks, and build my 2nd rack to go inside the cooking chamber. Hoping to maybe light a fire in it tommorrow to get some smoke in it.

Ferm, that thing is a piece of work. Simply a beautiful smoker. Fine work there, well done. :clap:

Great work!

That's one bad mofo Ferm! Great work!

Getting close. Didn't light a fire in it today, but I'm pretty close to doing so. Just have to finish up the right side table, figure out how I'm going to hang the 2nd cooking tray, and I'm also building a diverter for the smoke stack.

Left side table is on and finished. It might not look stout, but I put my 250 pounds on it and it held me up just fine.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psd0efad70.jpg

And the 2nd cooking tray.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps6e257723.jpg

Man, some black outdoor grill paint on that thing and it's going to look like something that sells for $$$$$$$$$$!! Maybe some black krinkle paint on the non-heated areas for that extra touch?...
Just don't let Mr. Krinkle hear about it, or he'll be wanting to hang glow sticks all over the thing.

I'd be proud of that. Nice job Like Like Like.. Push the button..:money:

I've already got some flat black high temp grill paint for it. Just waiting to burn it in for the 1st time to get all the loose paint off, and oil residue burned off of it before I spray it.

:beer: nice tradesman ship hurry up an show off the grill skills.

Well it's about time to go get some wood, and fire her up. Got it all finished up tonight except for cleaning and painting which will happen after the 1st fire is lit in it to burn off any residue on it.

It's hard to make out, but you can see my diverter in the upper right to redirect the smoke out to the side. Had to add this on after I did some checking and seen where the smoke would be hitting under the back porch.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps6e163847.jpg

And the 2nd cooking rack installed. Got it setup so it can be removed fairly easily, and tilted up while cooking to access the meats on the lower rack easier.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psae5bfe38.jpg

Awesome!!!

Got a chance today to pop her cherry, and lit the 1st fire in her. It sure takes alot more wood than I thought it would to get it hot, but I could get it up to 300 on my temp gauge with the water pan about half full. Unfortunately my temp gauge must be reading way low though(more on that later).

1st fire lit in her.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps099fe858.jpg

Decided to put the 1st coat of paint down on it while she was burning in.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...pscd0d7252.jpg

And I couldn't resist the urge to cook something on it. Found a pack of chicken breasts in the deep freezer, promptly thawed em out and slapped em on her.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps75d74da5.jpg

Sure is a pretty glow coming out of the firebox at night.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf08063cf.jpg

Still have a few things to finish up on her, but all and all pretty happy. 1st order of business is a GOOD thermometer. I was cooking the breasts around 225-250 on it, but they cooked in under an hour and half and were over done in that time. 2nd is I need to add a heat deflector inside just above the halfway mark because I found a cold spot in the cooker. When I put the breasts in, I put one in each corner of the cookign area, and judged how they were cooking to jusge the temp. The lower left side cooked quite a bit slower with less smoke than the other 3 zones did. Hopefully a deflector will take care of this. 3rd, going to add a post on the side of it to hold a crescent wrench for taking the water fill plug out with, and removing the water drain plug. 4th going to add a tube to hold the wooden prop rod I made for the 2nd shelf. And lastly put another coat of paint on it.

Very nice my friend, going to be some nice meals coming out of that smoker

Looks great Ferm!

Does this count as a truckload? I'm just not physically able to split wood with a splitting maul anymore. I ended up cutting most of it with a chainsaw, and only split some of the laurel oak I had. Then again, live oak is harder to split than concrete. To those who haven't had the pleasure of trying to split it, your lucky. I REALLY need to find a log splitter, but I don't have the funds right now for a new one, so I'll keep watching craigslist and wait for something to turn up. And hopefully I don't have another guy do me like yesterday where he promised to hold it for me until I got there as I was driving 25 miles to come look at it, and he calls me when I was less than 2 miles from his house and said he just sold it. I was less than thrilled to say the least.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps7d1df270.jpg

Ferm, I split and sold firewood for a few years and you aren't kidding about the live oak..I used to say it was like trying to split an anvil. Especially if it was 300 year old stuff. I actually charged 25% more for it, but eventually just quit messing with it it was so hard and so much extra work. I use a 27 ton splitter. Red oak and water oak is where it's at for firewood if you ask me. Now I loan out my splitter to close friends and neighbors and get any wood I want for free.

I have laurel oak, live oak, and some blackjack oak, but mostly(probably 90%) live oak in my wood pile. It's a good heavy long burning wood with a mild flavor for smoking(little salty, but not bad at all), but man is it hard to split. Guys up north have it easy with there wood from what I have heard and read. Theres a 35 ton log splitter for sale as well, but the guy is hem hawing around and I don't know if he really wants to sell it or not. He's been telling me since Monday it's 150 miles away and he's going to pick it up that night, but here I am Friday and he still hasn't even got pictures of it, let alone got it some where where I can go look at it. Or theres a few smaller ones that they want $850 for, the kicker is I can buy a brand new one of the same model for $950 at TSC. Don't really want to spend the money, but it might be cheaper than $100 for a load of wood that won't last but 3 or 4 smokes.

Well, I got her finished out and going to try her out for awhile before I make anymore changes. My thermometer is supposed to be in Monday, but other than that all I didn't do was add the baffle. I decided to hold off on that and I'm going to try adding on an extension to the chimney to bring it down furthur first and see what that does. I'll make it adjusteable so I can move it to allow all of the smoke to go in through the bottom, or part through the bottom and part through the joint. I also added in some toggle clamps to hold the center of the lid down because it was bowing out when hot, added on a hanger for my crescent wrench, and put a piece of tubing in to hold my prop rod for the 2nd shelf.

I did run into a problem with it today though. The 1st time I lit it off it took me over an hour to get it up to 300, and today it took me forever to get it up over 200. As soon as I opened the lid the firebox lit off(I could hear it flame up), and it got HOT in a hurry. So I took my mailbox off the top of the chimney to direct the smoke out, and she went to blazing. So I found an old section of 6" furnace vent pipe with an adjusteable 90 on it, and screwed it to my roof for now to get me by. I got 3 slabs of ribs, and 10 pounds of leg quarters on her now, so I had to come up with a quick fix. She's holding a nice 200-225 now with the vent barely cracked open.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps0cc6691e.jpg

I can't believe the difference taking that mailbox looking elbow off and going to the heater duct made. It now can hold any reasoneable temp no problem, heats up pretty quickly, and uses ALOT less wood. I used probably half the wood today VS what I did Wednesday, and held better more consistent temps. I didn't have to pack the firebox this time and keep the vent full open. I was cursing it thinking I needed a bigger chimney pipe for it, but it ended up being my own fault. Live and learn.

My impressions with cooking on it for the 1st real cook is it is an AWESOME cooker. It would have taken me 4-5 hours to cook ribs until they were done in my old BRINKMAN, but 2.5 hours in this one and they were already getting tender. I used VERY little wood after I fixxed the chimney problem, but I do have to remember to add another chunk every 30-45 minutes to keep the smoke going uniform(this is probably more to do with my wood not being really dry yet. It's 4 years old, and still damp after I cut it up). The water pan not being in direct contact with the heat worked out nicely. Even after 3.5 hours it still had a good deal of water left in the pan, but it stayed very humid inside the smoker. Only downside to this design isn't a deal breaker, but it does make it a bit uncomfortable. Having the firebox underneath the cooker sure helps to re-use the heat and keep it compact, but it does make it warm on my right leg when I go into the smoker. Alot of heat radiates off of the door when you have a good fire going in it. But all in all I'm VERY happy with my smoker, and like my unique design. Time to do some hams for Christmas.

Tonights grub.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps5b229a89.jpg

I have to say this is one impressive smoker build. Good job Ferm. You did one heck of a job. Appreciate you sharing this with us.

BIG thumbs up from Lexington, NC!!!!!! :party:

Got the new thermometer in, and got Christmas hams going. My suspicion of my old thermometer was correct, at 225 now i have a nice gentle sizzle in the water pan instead of a boil, and I barely crack the vent to hold 225 now. will find out in a few hours the results.

Now that would make Tim Allen go nuts!!!!!!!!!! Some ingenuity,great job.

Did another cook yesterday, and had some problems keeping the smoker up to temp. It was a cold(by Florida standard), rainy, windy day yesterday, and I went through quite a bit of wood, put out alot more smoke than I thought I should have, and had trouble keeping it up to the 225 mark. So I'm going to make a few small mods to the smoker to try and help it out. I did some testing on it while cooking, and found if I opened the door on the firebox, smoke and flames would come out, if I opened the lid most of the smoek and flames would go back up through the smoker, and the smoke would clear up and it would burn nice again. Close the firebox door and it would keep burning, but if I closed the lid, the fire would go out and the smoek would come back after about 30 seconds. So I'm thinking my 3.3" ID chimney pipe just isn't large enough to flow the heat out of the smoker, and am on the lookout for a piece of 1 inch bigger pipe to make my chimney out of. I can hold a good fire in the box with the lid open, but closed it won't hold heat. Also I'm going to add in an exhaust pipe to the roof of my overhang for the smoek to go out instead of my current 90.

Even with the troubles I ran into yesterday, I still managed to turn out some decent food. Cooked a whoel chicken, a pork loin, a slab of baby backs for prego, and a brisket.

baby backs as they went on. http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps71faef8a.jpg

The brisket before cooking, during, and done.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps7f2dd1e5.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps20e50686.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps11d9b027.jpg

Try insulating your chimney.... Hot gasses draft much better.... An insulated clue pipe would slide right over the existing pipe or could replace it if you like

I got my 3.3" ID chiney pipe swapped out for a 4.3" ID pipe. I also added on an adjusteable damper to it. Seems to be doing a bit better now, and not choking back so easily. Another thing I found is my supposed top of the line thermometer is WAY off in temp. My 1st burn in after swapping the chimney pipe I got it up to 400 on the gauge, but I put my digital temp probe in it and found it was almost 500 inside at the thermometer. The thermometer stalls out in the 200-225 range and goes from reading higher than actual to lower than actual right in the sweet spot for smoking temps. When it's 75 degrees, it shows 100, but when it shows 300 it was actually 375. So I have to get another thermometer for it. After moving it back to my porch, I added in a roof top vent pipe setup so the chimney outlet now goes straight up instead of through a 90 and out into the wind. It's a VERY windy day today, and all the exhaust seems to be going straight up and out. Will find out here in a little while how it all does together as I'm doing my 1st cured meats. Got some whole pork loins, put in a brown sugar honey cure for 5 days at 40 degrees, and got em in the smoker now hoping to make some canadian bacon.

Heres the smoker on the porch, and you can see I have the 4.5" OD chimney pipe going tinto a 6" furnace pipe, and finally up into a 8" outlet with rain cap.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps7417f800.jpg

Also built me a wood rack so I can dry my smoking wood somewhere than my back porch taking up space.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps5b9560cc.jpg

And finally, anybody with a nice smoker needs a log splitter to split up your smokin wood so you can get em how you want em.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps3040e66e.jpg

Heres todays cook. I cured it for 5 days at 40 degrees in a brown sugar honey cure, and it came out pretty good.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps91a2d03a.jpg

Lookin' good there Ferm!