Made a little progress on the smoker today

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I was under the weather yesterday and didn't get much done except hauling my sick wife to the doctor. By time for her appointment in the afternoon I just went in with her. We both went home with a Z-pack and some awful tasting cough syrup. Azithromycin is powerful stuff. She's been up some today and I feel good. Our little 10 mo. old greatgranddaughter got the flu over three weeks ago and it has worked it's way around to everybody in the family now.Any way I cut the door to fit this morning and had help from Oreo. Kind of a slow way to cut 12 ga. but it's a straight cut and didn't warp like it would have done with a torch. I didn't break the blade either.Just to prove I'm not goofy and didn't make a misprint about the 15" chop saw yesterday.Oreo was helping me decide which burner to use.I made the hinges out of 1/4" std. pipe and 5/16" cold rolled. In the old days you cut your pipe and the 5/16" rod was a good fit. Not with this pipe. It had a flash seam inside and I had to drill it out to accept the rod. I chucked the pieces in the lathe and trued the ends and drilled them at the same time. I also wiggled the camera when I took this picture.Next I set the box on my high tech work stands and hung the top door to weld the hinges on. Oreo had to check the inside to make sure I had it right. Has anyone figured out that this cat can be a pest?I have both doors hung, the latches on, and the thermometer in the door.I have had enough today. I might be close enough to finish it up tomorrow.
Reply:smoked cat
Reply:Sorry to hear you and the mrs. are feeling under the weather Oldtimer.  Here's wishing you both a speedy recovery.Looking forward to seeing more of the smoker.MM200 w/Spoolmatic 1Syncrowave 180SDBobcat 225G Plus - LP/NGMUTT Suitcase WirefeederWC-1S/Spoolmatic 1HF-251D-1PakMaster 100XL '68 Red Face Code #6633 projectStar Jet 21-110Save Second Base!
Reply:Oldtimer,I hate to tell you, but around here that is called a cooker. A smoker is wood fired.  With your design, though extremely nice,  all you can do is throw a few "chips" in to make a few fumes.  While it may impart a slightly smokey flavor to the meat, it cannot be truly called a smoker because of the "gas" power. True Barbequer's know barbeque isn't barbeque unless it is wood cooked and smoked.BTW, nice cooker.Esab Migmaster 250Lincoln SA 200Lincoln Ranger 8Smith Oxy Fuel setupEverlast PowerPlasma 80Everlast Power iMIG 160Everlast Power iMIG 205 Everlast Power iMIG 140EEverlast PowerARC 300Everlast PowerARC 140STEverlast PowerTIG 255EXT
Reply:A QC cat!!!  Hope the little thing doesn't get it's socks burned.That's a good antibiotic.  Only problem with all antibiotics is that they also completely ruin the digestive tract for a few days.  It'll pass.  Eat yogurt or cottage cheese when you get done taking the pills.  Sets the ol' stomach up again.  The older I get, the more sensitive I am to the pills.  Usually don't want to finish them out on the last day.  By then, I've had enough!!The SMOKER looks good"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Good lookin cooker, but do you think 80,000 BTUs is enough to cook a cat?A butterfly without wings, is just an ugly bug
Reply:Samm,Finish all the meds.  Skipping that last day or so when you feel all better (but you might not be ALL better) is giving the dang germs a chance to get you again.As well as leading to possible drug-resistant germs.And yup, antibiotics kill ALL the germs in your gut (pretty much), including the necessary and beneficial "normal intestinal flora".  Yogurt with "live active cultures" (pretty much all yogurts nowadays, can't really remember seeing any that DON'T list live-n-active on the label) helps to repopulate some of the normal and beneficial.But cottage cheese doesn't have live and active cultures.Glad you and the wife are on the mend Oldtimer.  But antibiotics do NOTHING for the flu.  Flu is caused by a flu virus, and antibiotics only work against SOME bacteria.Only if you get a secondary bacterial infection in combination with or after the flu virus would antibiotics do any good.Decent looking cooker.  Pesky cat though.  You going to double-wall the cooker and maybe insulate the hollow with something?  It will help the cooker maintain an even temperature by the inside walls, especially at low-n-slow temperatures.  Rock wool maybe, or some other heat resistant insulation.Oh, and a plasma cutter usually zips right through 12 gauge like a hot knife through butta.  Only easier.    And no distortion either.But a jig saw with the right blade works too.    The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:Just a friendly piece of advice from somebody who has burned more than they have cooked on a gas cooker........Whatever you do, make certain that you have a water pan between the fire and the meat.  Equally important, make sure you keep it full of water.  I made charcoal last week out of 5 Boston Butts.  Turned my head for a second, let the pan run dry, and I had flames shooting out of the door on mine.  Just as soon as the weather breaks, I am building a wood smoker out of a 250 gal propane tank.  Screw a gas cooker.Last edited by Pookie; 03-19-2009 at 12:49 AM.
Reply:Yep...Its a little harder work but worth the effort of a wood smoker.  But hey, if you want to donate that cooker to someone...I know that I wouldn't turn it down either.Esab Migmaster 250Lincoln SA 200Lincoln Ranger 8Smith Oxy Fuel setupEverlast PowerPlasma 80Everlast Power iMIG 160Everlast Power iMIG 205 Everlast Power iMIG 140EEverlast PowerARC 300Everlast PowerARC 140STEverlast PowerTIG 255EXT
Reply:I intended to be outside and finishing up my "what-ever-it-is" by now but a norther sneaked in last night and it's still kinda cool. I spent a lot of years freezing my butt off in the rain and snow and just cold weather and now that I don't have to I'm not going to do it.Thanks fr the well wishes. I'm fine now. Can't say that about the Boss. She got up for a little while but went back to bed. One thing good about the whole deal is we are losing weight. I've been chief cook and bottle washer for several days now and cooking ain't my thing. Just a little grilling and smoking once in a while is it. Cup of soup is about all I can handle in the kitchen. As to antibiotics, we know the dangers but sometimes you just have to use them. I rely on my family doctor and do what he says. Most of the time we just tough things out but this time we needed help. And I do what he says to do . If I wasn't going to follow his directions I wouldn't go and pay him for them. Lugweld, thanks for your definitons of smoker, cooker, and BBQ. I hate to tell you this, but this ain't southern GA.  Out here if we get smoke out of it, it's a "smoker", if we can't get smoke, It's a "cooker".  We don't have trees. We have mesquite bushes, cholla, beargrass, prickley pear and shinnery oak. None of them are good to cook with or anything else for that matter. After I converted the smoker that I posted earlier I scared up enough mesquite to to use it a while. Then I started looking for wood. Finally found a little oak at prices you wouldn't believe and that was all. We also found that drinking beer and tending a real wood fired smoker did two thing. It made you extremely bored and gave you a hangover.  I won't go into how real BBQ is done because no one here does it anymore. Tell you the truth, using wood chips done right over a gas fire and using a wood fire doesn't make any difference in the taste of the meat to me.This is all light hearted and meant in fun so don't anyone take offense. It's hard to convey how a conversation is meant in writing without vocal inflections even with smilies. The thread and pictures are meant to show how I approach a project and the results of how it turn out.
Reply:I'm about done with this thing. Put the vent and damper on first.Then I added handles on each side to make it easier to move. This is an old ring joint gasket for RTJ pipe flanges. I don't remember what size it is but R-29 comes to mind. I cut 2" out on each side so they wouldn't stick out too far.I hooked up one burner and ran the fuel line through the lower door just to get an idea of how it was going to work. this is all one burner would do. This will smoke but I'm going to add another burner.I cut three grates and need one more. I'm going to build a manifold out of 1/4" pipe tomorrow and see if I can handle  two burners with one valve tomorrow. If It works that's it.Last edited by Oldtimer; 03-19-2009 at 07:32 PM.
Reply:Old Timer,Looking good there....But forget oak.  It leaves a sharp, bitter flavor to it.  Hickory or Pecan leaves a sweet rich flavor.  Either that or fruit woods such as apple or peach.  People around here pay a premium for mequite, but most prefer Pecan.BTW,  175 is the perfect "smoking" temperature.  Low and slow. Hi and fast will give you shoe leather.Last edited by lugweld; 03-19-2009 at 08:07 PM.Esab Migmaster 250Lincoln SA 200Lincoln Ranger 8Smith Oxy Fuel setupEverlast PowerPlasma 80Everlast Power iMIG 160Everlast Power iMIG 205 Everlast Power iMIG 140EEverlast PowerARC 300Everlast PowerARC 140STEverlast PowerTIG 255EXT
Reply:Thanks for the tips, Lugweld. I wasn't about to try oak. I figured the meat might taste like the smoke smells. About the only wood you can get here is juniper and fir and I don't think either would be good to smoke with. One of the reasons for building this (main one actually) is because I can get mesquite and hickory chips at quite a few places. We've been keeping the fire at 200 degrees in the one I built for my son-in-law and had good luck. I don't know whether altitude makes a difference or not. It's 3964' in my drive way according to my GPS. My wife's older sister used to live at Cloudcroft. That's 9000' and she had trouble cooking a lot of things. Plain ol' beans took forever to cook and they used an electric instead of propane grill for outdoors because it took a long time to cook anything on propane. Another fun thing was they drove down the mountain to grocery shop at about 4000'. Things sealed in plastic bags like potato chips would explode coming up the mountain.
Reply:Oak makes a good fire and heat and coals, but not so good on the smoke.Hickory or applewood or the mesquite (for a Southwest flavor) smoke are nice.  IMHO.Although charred (or new  ) oak barrels do often add nicely to the flavor and aroma and color of some liquid libations.  And 350F is plenty hot to cook in.  Think about it, what temperature are most things cooked at in your home oven?  350F, a good all-around general-purpose oven temperature.Although I agree that 175-200F is a better slow cook temperature.  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:Unless I'm sadly mistaken, that gauge is reading 370 degrees F, 175 degrees C? Another burner would be redundant. Who cooks meat hotter than 370 degrees? And the best smoking temp is supposedly in 200 to 250 degree range. At least that's what I've been led to believe and it seems to work very well for me! To each his own tho, don't let me get in the way here. Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.                                         -Cree Indian ProverbSA 200 LincolnVictor Torches
Reply:To get that much heat I had to over run the one burner some. I agree that much heat isn't needed to smoke with. My thoughts on two burners were: I've got 'em. I can always turn two burners down. In cold weather here it's always windy and there is a lot of heat loss so a little more heat availability might be handy. I had already decided to start with one burner and see how things work. I can always add the other later.
Reply:Hickery is the best i think.. you can also soak your chips in wisky overnight makes it taste awsome also i do a lot of jack, southern comfort are my favorite.. My buddy mixes wisky together and its really good also.. Have fun with it..