Hinge Recommendations

[JollyMeyer]

Hiya folks,

I want to cut out my door for my CC, the RF smoker is 24" outer diameter, 1/2" thick and 40" long. Based on my preliminary dimensions for the door cut out, the door is expected to weight about 95lbs, I'm skeptical if bullet hinges would be adequate. Also, does anyone have any recommendations for a counter weight design for the door?

[Dirtytires]

Bullet hinges come in many different sizes. I used a 4 inch bullet hinge on mine —-don’t remember what it’s rating is but it was considerable. My door and counterweight are in the 250 pound range and it works perfectly. You should have no trouble with yours.

For a counterweight, I used a piece of 4 inch dia pipe angled back off the door then filled it with scrap to get the right weight. I can send pictures if you need.

[Big T]

[JollyMeyer]

Bullet hinges come in many different sizes. I used a 4 inch bullet hinge on mine —-don’t remember what it’s rating is but it was considerable. My door and counterweight are in the 250 pound range and it works perfectly. You should have no trouble with yours.

For a counterweight, I used a piece of 4 inch dia pipe angled back off the door then filled it with scrap to get the right weight. I can send pictures if you need.

If its not too much trouble I'd love to see a picture of the counter weight! Thanks in advanced!

[JKalchik]

Re: bullet hinges. Likewise, I had concerns. My double pan GF skinned in 1/8" sheet (HEAVY,) has a cook chamber door hung on 4" bullets. The door itself weights on the order of 200 lbs or more, it was all I could do to dead lift it to balance it on a jack for welding. The latch side is completely unsupported. Since I've built it, I've taken the casters off and hard mounted it to the front of an 18' flat bed, and for 2,000 miles of highway travel, the door has not budged. I'm a believer in them.

[LeonardK]

Hi
I was expecting something about hinges you made, I used 1/2 inch slick rod and seamless pipe on my rev flo smoker, but always interested to see what someone else comes up with for latches/hinges

This seems like a real good time to mention that steel is 480#/cubic foot....1/4" plate/foot = 10# and 1/2" plate = 20#......2.5#/16th

Rev Flow Smoker 16 x 36 just painted sm.jpg

Plan stack and cook shelves, the lower circle.jpg

16x36 cooker 15.25 ID 2.888 int 8 welded right.jpg

Here's how I made my hinges, welded square stock to slick bar

Leonard

[Big T]

This is how I built the last one. 2” square tubing for the upright and 4” square tubing for the cross tube. I just played around with the angles until I got it to miss the chimney and not stick out past the rear side of the trailer. Once I got all of that figured out I filed the cross tube with scrap metal until I got the feel I was looking for and then I capped the ends of the cross tube. You don’t want the door to be too light or it could bounce open while you are going down the road but I like for it to be heavy enough that it’ll safely hold it open.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dirtytires]

I’m out of town again but will get a picture out first of the week.

[Dirtytires]

Counterweight picture as promised. You can also see the bullet hinges I used.

23189750-2CA3-4D1C-96FD-1B4566B823A5.jpeg

841F3D0B-6F2A-4BD8-8FEF-732F90AFBCE7.jpeg

[JollyMeyer]

Wow! Thanks for all the pics! Definitely gave me some good ground work on how I should approach it. I plan to work on the smoker throughout my evenings and this weekend... I think my Achilles heel is cutting the door straight given my torch work is in need of improvement.

Looks like I'll order some bullet hinges, any suggestions? I was thinking of the ones on Amazon, as there's maybe only one local place that might even carry those. Or I could get a quote to see how much a local machinist would charge to make one.

Everyone's doors are cut beautifully!

[Dirtytires]

Grainger sold me mine. Amazon is probably just fine. Almost anybody who sells steel will hava a selection of them as well as online fabrication houses like KingMetals.

I strapped a couple strips of 0.125 fiberboard to my tank to aid in a straightedge for the torch. Still spent a lot of time with the grinder to clean it all up. Good luck!