Planning the next few smokers.

[WHeydet]

Good day everyone.
Last year around this time I built my first smoker, a standard offset out of a 80 gallon compressor tank. It took me a few months to finish and I was actually painting it on Christmas day! Definitely a decent amount of work but it was a lot of fun and turned out great. I have been enjoying the smoker all year, It works well beyond my expectations and have made some incredible food on it. I want to thank everyone on this forum for all your help and guidance. As much as i like this one I'm going to build some more. Maybe for myself maybe to sell them, I don't know.
I'm hoping you all can help me again.
I have gotten some more materials to start my next build/builds. And a mountain of questions! Next smoker is going to be a pull behind unit, 24"x58" pipe 3/8 thick. With the same round pipe for a firebox, up to 24"x29". 1/4 thick on the ends. Want to build a RF this time. Possibly a warming box/vertical smoker I'm not sure yet. Do you need to make the firebox larger if you add a warming box? What if I make it so I can use as a vertical smoker? Will the Feldon calculator work for a Reverse flow as well as it did for my standard?

[Dirtytires]

New project is always fun. Just an opinion tho, it’s pretty hard to put a warmer box on top a round firebox.

[WHeydet]

I was thinking about putting it on the opposite side from fb. Kinda like how this one has it.

[Dirtytires]

That will work but it makes the smoker super bulky and it’s hard to keep any heat in the warmer without getting your cook chamber too hot. Depends on what you want to do with it tho.

[Big T]

We have several Smokerbuilder calculators on the forum that will give you all of the dimensions for anything that you will need. The smoker in the picture isn't a RF, it's a traditional offset with a warmer on the stack end. I'm not sure how you would make this warmer work on a RF but RC could probably help you as he has a similar design. Normally the WC is above the FB on a RF and it doesn't require a larger FB. I'm sure you can find a design that you'll be happy with or you can just keep building them until you get your perfect smoker seeing as it sounds like you've been bitten by the smoker building bug.

[Rodcrafter]

I agree with BigT, the WB above the FB is ideal and doesn't use any more fuel really. You can do it like the picture though, you just have to count that portion as CC then use a means of air control at the bottom of that chamber to cause the horizontal chamber to get the heat you want. I can run my rig at three different temps with ease. I started with the similar design and found some problems and changed the FB and added a WC to that same end. It also has an GF on that chamber if I choose to use it separate from the rest. It took a lot of figuring out the design, but it is very nice now. It will require some practice to get it to preform the way you want it to.

jm2cw

[WHeydet]

Thanks guys, great points. I figured I would have to put a vent to open and close for the WC to work correctly, or to be able to use as a vertical smoker. Possibly closing off BP and opening into box making it flow under BP and only into it when I wanted to. I don't know how much I'd use it at the moment to go through the trouble. Still on the fence with that part.

[WHeydet]

Here is what the feldons calculator comes up with for my dimensions. FB air intakes will be 2- 6" round dampers and a rectangle one towards the top of the box, all on the flat end.I'm wondering should I reduce the diameter of the stack to make it taller for more draw? Go from 6" @ 19.2 tall or to 5" @27.6". Does it make a difference?

Link to BBQ Pit Calculator

[towtruck]

I would rather build a flat top on your round firebox and have the WC above it than try and put it on the other end like the picture you posted. The easy way is to build a square fb and wc. and save the pipe for more smokers.

I do things different as well and a thought came to mind of standing the round pipe up and welding in a divider for the fb to be on the bottom and the wc to be on top. You might have to build each separately and just stack the two together instead of one tall pipe. Then attach that to the horizontal smoker. You would have to cut the doors into the fire box and wc as curved doors or weld a frame on for flat doors. It might be more work but it would use more of the material you have. .......I always see a way to make anything work....but there is always a compromise in doing so.

[Big T]

The exhaust is figured by volume so either will work fine. I like the stack tall enough to keep the smoke out of my eyes but not so tall that it won't fit through the garage door.