I talked to Craig Bell again today and, as always, he was a good sport. I explained to him my concerns about traditional versus reverse flow. Based on the input from TXBBQ Forum, we came up with a compromise: 2 stacks and an adjustable system of plates. Thus, if I want to go traditional, I just need to open the far stack and do the gradually widening spaces with the plates. If I want to go reverse flow, I can do that by overlapping them on purpose, leaving a gap from the end, and opening the near-side stack. Voila! Best of both worlds.
I politely asked Craig Bell to send a price over to me. Here are the new specs I requested (you'll notice how much the pipe dream has shrunk literally and figuratively):
1) 3/8" inch cook chamber on 24 x 48 patio rig
2) Insulated 1/4" inch inner wall, 2.0" inch insulation, 1/4" inch outer wall SQUARE firebox measuring 20x20
3) Special tuning/reverse flow baffle plate system mentioned above
4) Twin 8" x 24" inch smoke stacks on opposite ends allowing switching between traditional and reverse flow at will; the stacks will be huge but I want to hedge my bets drafting the thin Colorado mountain air out here!
5) T arm with 4 steel wagon wheels
6) 2 thermometer probe ports
7) 2" inch ball drain valve
Drilled port for digital stoker, likely a flame boss unit. Thoughts? Concerns ? You folks have been super helpful already with getting me this far. I think I'll be hundreds richer and my wife will be happier with pulling my pipe dream back a bit. BTW, does anyone know how large a hole to drill for those BBQ Guru or Flame Boss digital stokers? Are they worth it? There's an appeal of throwing a few sticks on and letting the app do its thing on days when I'm watching the kids.
If your builder has any questions he can surely contact me if he chooses to. I created the Hybrid design years ago and have helped a lot of folks build them since then. On your plates have him put 1/4" x 1" flat bar spaced have way on one edge so if you decide to go reverse flow your plates will overlap and lock together.