The Texas BBQ Forum

Hello, I’m from indonesia, forgive me if my english is bad.

I am going to build a traditional offset smoker from a leftovers metal plate 1/4" thick. i know the horizontal offset smoker usually use round body for the cookchamber, but since material available to me are metal plate so im thinking of making the cookchamber rectangular. I Have attatched the design and the smoker calculation and i have some questions and appreciate any help.

because of the smoker design have a slope on the bottom plate so grease will slide down, will it become a problem ? because the drain is close to the firebox. ive added a 2 inch plate to block the grease from entering the firebox though.

why do people use charcoal gasket in their firebox?

the reason that i made the bottom plate a slope rather than weld it straight is because i thought it will help to maintain heat evenly because heat that is trapped in the corner is lesser rather than a rectangular shape, the slope will make a better smoke travel but not even smoke distribution maybe ?

if the cookchamber is rectangular do you guys prefer to make an horizontal or vertical offset smoker?

I'm not qualified to offer expert advice but it looks interesting to me and worth a try as is.
If it turns out the cook chamber angled shape has a negative effect on heat distribution (and if you save the cut off pieces), you could recreate the rectangle by re-installing the angled "drops".

You absolutely do not want grease running into your Firebox!!

There appears to be a small nubbins that could represent a pre-firebox drain dangle...

To Chasdevs point, I think you promote much more heat into the main chamber with the angle at the top of the Firebox than you would in the fashion this plan shows.