The Texas BBQ Forum

Im starting a pit next month. Ive borrowed and cooked on a few really nice pits for competitions, i know a little, but not a ton about building pits though. I know theres a deeper science to thr sizes of everything.

Im picking up a 42 inch diameter, 11.6ft long, 5/16 thick pipe this coming weekend. Then i have to get a trailer and set it up for the build.

Im planning on a 8 foot long pit, REVERSE FLOW, thick bottom on the fire box 3/4 or 1 inch, fairly thick on the rest of the fire box, 1/2 inch.

3 doors on the pit, grill on the bottom spaced enough to put in water trays between the reverse plate and the grill.

2 or 3 slide out grills inside each door...

I want to make a smoker box, but really only need it for smoking dry sausage/stuff that doesnt need hot smoke..

I was thinking two smoke stacks, one in front one in back, not sure how to figure the length and diameter smake stacks, or size of the fire box...

Any pictures, reccomendations, advice, opinions are welcome!

I haven't built one myself, but if I were going to, I'd start with Felton's Pit calculator:

http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

I just did that and wrote it all down.

This is kind of what i had in mind. Trailer or skids though..

Sniper338 wrote:This is kind of what i had in mind. Trailer or skids though..

Welcome to the forum Sniper338.
With the two exhausts are you planning on movable plates to make a hybrid? If so I would lower the warmer over the firebox to use the radiant heat to help on it. The Hybrid in my signature is set up like that.

Im still kicking it all around. A pit that i just loved had a chimney on each side like that. Open up to get the pit going. Close down the front turns on the reverse flow. Yes removable plates. Unless i brainstorm something different up.

I have thought about putting a darn up and welding the plates all solid where it doubles as a big water tray too to fill. Then id need a drain on it though..

Everything is subject to change right now... just trying to get more ideas and info...


Ol pit i said i just loved was so funny because when i was up wind at a competition when i started it up itd smoke out the whole place... called it ol smoky.. that sob was seasoned!

If I ever had the chance of building my own pit it would include a damper. Not something built into the chimney but from the firebox into the smoke chamber. I cooked with one in competition that a friend brought. No matter how hot the fire got we could always control it with the damper.

Down_South wrote:If I ever had the chance of building my own pit it would include a damper. Not something built into the chimney but from the firebox into the smoke chamber. I cooked with one in competition that a friend brought. No matter how hot the fire got we could always control it with the damper.

Ive thoughtcabout that. Just havent seen or brainstormed a way to make one real good thats controlable from the outside

My pit has one. At the end of the cook chamber nearest the firebox, there's a State of Texas. That is the "handle". It's connected to a rod, about an inch in diameter that extends down to the half moon that was cut out between the firebox and the cook chamber. The builder welded a chain with a pin on it, and put some holes in the down rod, roughly 1 or 1.5 inches on center.

I can try to get you some better pictures of it, but it will be a few days.

Here you can see the handle and the rod.

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If you look closely here you can see the opening and the half moon. It's wide open in this pic.

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^^ That's what I'm talking about. I love that feature. If you build your fire too big and hot it gives you more control over the temperature in the smoke chamber.

Down_South wrote:^^ That's what I'm talking about. I love that feature. If you build your fire too big and hot it gives you more control over the temperature in the smoke chamber.

in THEORY, you could throw 6 logs in, adjust that damper and take a nap for 3 hours???

Seems like a much better way to keep temps consistent than adding a log when it starts to drop. A small adjustment to the damper unitl its jsut about all the way open, and can keep the fire higher ingeneral. Another thought. IF the fire is BLAZING and the damper is closed down 80%, would that cut too much airflow and make the logs smolder and pump out the dreaded grey smoke?

#streamofconsciousness

rb

I am kinda the odd man out on the firebox damper. It is an option I have never seen a need for.

k.a.m. wrote:I am kinda the odd man out on the firebox damper. It is an option I have never seen a need for.

I didn't ask then for it, but it seems to be a standard feature from this builder. It's been moderately useful, but nothing I couldn't live without.

Ive always been able to close it down good to dapen it, or open them up to heat up.. but it has a place...

Best aolution is to have the right firw box where it dont take much wood and just add a log