The Texas BBQ Forum

Awesome thanks for the input . Yes having a big shop and a big fork lift is a bonus for sure busted my tail to get here finally buidling something for my self . Always super busy at my shop which is a good thing . Weld a lot and usually love it lol love building cool crazy things from metal for my customers .also get a lot of thumbs up from my customers when they come in and it gets a lot of looks and questions from new customers that come in its a good show piece to have on site . I'm also in a pretty popular and busy industrial park once I get it done I will have some cooks on it at my shop and I bet people will be stopping for some grub lol

Fabkid33 wrote:Awesome thanks for the input . Yes having a big shop and a big fork lift is a bonus for sure busted my tail to get here finally buidling something for my self . Always super busy at my shop which is a good thing . Weld a lot and usually love it lol love building cool crazy things from metal for my customers .also get a lot of thumbs up from my customers when they come in and it gets a lot of looks and questions from new customers that come in its a good show piece to have on site . I'm also in a pretty popular and busy industrial park once I get it done I will have some cooks on it at my shop and I bet people will be stopping for some grub lol

some info for you to ponder for your shop.... once or twice a month we would have a "coverdish" lunch, the shop bought the meat, and different guys or gals would cook, we always "put the word out to our customers" so on bbq day the customers just showed up and ate with us. We had a great time doing that and the customers became better customers if you catch my drift... once you have your project done, that just might be a business advertisement you want to contemplate, the meat is tax deductible some of the best advertising we ever did short of going to the stock shows, we were in an agg community so the support to the FFA and 4H helped us as well. all the best to you.

Been super busy in my shop. worked in about 6 hours on my smoker got the top and bottom caps on vertical chamber, angled the bottom cap for s drain. cut in the vertical chamber door !!!!

That thing is nuts! Can't wait to see what it produces.

Finally got it sitting on it's own weight and on a custom stand

Had some more progress today . Got my damper door in and added my drains

More progress
Firebox damper all done ,trimmed firebox door with flat strap

Beautiful Work, Sir

Mighty fine work brother.

Does the firebox need to be all that sealable? I leave the door on mine wide open all the time unless it just gets super hot. The smoke stack damper does a great job of keeping the heat regulated.
It is a nice job of work, though.

I see some people opening the doors but also see lots of people with adjustable dampers. Maybe k.a.m has so info on it I'm a newbie with this smoker and smoking meet In general

Typically offsets are controlled by the intakes on the firebox with the exhaust wide open. Jambos are upward draft cookers that perform better while using the exhaust for temp control because it stalls the draft in the cooker but the door on the firebox is closed and intakes are set.
Most offsets I see with the door open usually have poor draft so this is needed to help keep the coal base going but some cookers perform well this way. My advice is if it works for you then do it.

I have a question hopefully k.a.m or someone else can answer it I want to start putting the flat strap around my doors and I need to take the spring out of them can it be done with a 10 ton bottle Jack and heavy duty chain ?

Fabkid33 wrote:I have a question hopefully k.a.m or someone else can answer it I want to start putting the flat strap around my doors and I need to take the spring out of them can it be done with a 10 ton bottle Jack and heavy duty chain ?

Yes you can.
What I do is see how much spring there is and note it. Then measure from the top of the door to the bottom on the end and note that measurement. When you start pumping the jack the measurement on the end will start to decrease, once you have gone a bit past your desired finish put the strap on the end. When welding the end straps weld from the top to center and bottom to center to decrease the chance of the door pulling out more.
I hope this helps.

Got a few small updates
-removable 1/4 plate griddle for easy cleaning with 1 1/2 lip all the way around want to make a removable grill grate in the future
- rolled some flat strap for the outer seal of my vertical chamber had to flex the door a whole lot more then I thought with a bottle Jack and chain took me 3 pieces of flat strap to get it right .
-got a 8 inch piece of pipe for my vertical chamber stack and was wondering where is the best place to mount it in the top, should I center it should i offset it and should i flush mount it to the chamber or let it stick through a little ?
Also has anyone seasoned a piece of hot rolled plate and used it for cooking like I'm trying to do inside my firebox ?