tortron Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Just fill it with water when you make the cut tbh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 Missed the original deadline as the bros birthday was on Monday but it doubles up as an xmas present as well so he can wait. Did some more work yesterday and smashed out the inner firebox/coal cradle thingy. Cut some steel, mostly being 5mm angle and plate. Put it together with some of the expanded mesh. Then did a top frame thing with some left over 3mm angle. It actually looks pretty good once it's sitting in place. There's a decent amount of weight to this so it should help with heat retention and it's easily removable to help with cleaning out the old ashes. All that's left on the firebox now is the damper vent, a grill and the handle. Cheers 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 Cut some holes towards the bottom of the cooking chamber and fire box, drilled some holes and made some nuts captive. Cut some tabs. And made some fully hectic wingnuts. These really are just cleaning/drain ports. I was going to utilise the bungs already in the tanks but they are quite small and also would require a lot of cutting and Fucking around to make them suitable so decided on an easier alternative. Should be easy for clearing ash and grease etc. Can kind of see where they sit below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 19, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 19, 2019 Also threw together a damper/lower vent. I was unsure on how to go about this as the tank has various curves. I initially cut out an opening then welded in some mesh behind it. I played around with bending some steel for rails and also bending the slide door. Stuffed around trying to get the rails to work and managed to get it functional. I brought a cheap chipping hammer for $6 to use the handle for the door. Not 100% with the damper overall, but it works. I'll add on a stopper as well and clean it up a bit. Hopefully get another hour or 2 in tomorrow. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 Alright, got a half day in on this today with the help of the mrs and I'm Fucking stoked with where I'm at. Can finally see the finish line. Started off with sorting the chimney and flue. Cut a length and a bend, welded in some locators for the adjuster and made a top hat that's fixed to a chipping hammer as the adjuster. I positioned the handle offset so the flue can be fully opened for max heat. Pretty tall stack, mounted it about 3 inches above the main grilling plate and high enough so people don't have to try and dodge smoke all day. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 Added some more to the damper. Fitted a vertical bit of plate and some angle to act as a stopper. I'll dress it up a bit more so it looks a bit tidier before it's painted. Then made some handle mounts for the doors. Pretty straight forward. And fitted with the pine mocked up. And some 50x5 angle for stoppers for the charcoal basket. Also I welded in some angle at the front to increase rigidity and pull it a bit straighter. Have since cleaned up the welds so it's nice and flat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 Made some rails out of 25x5 angle to sit the grills on. Also put some steel at the front to straighten it out and reinforce it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 21, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 21, 2019 And the creme de la creme. Had a mate at one stop cutting shop sus this out. Did an awesome job and it adds that finishing touch. So happy with how it's looking now. Had also welded up the remaining holes and bent the firebox lid so it sits a bit better and tried to sand back the paint on the inside of the firebox. All that's left now is to sort the front bench, drill some mounts for the thermometers/temp gauges and paint! Home stretch! Chur 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KP_wag Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 Shit this is looking good, is there a baffle in the bottom that forces the flow to do a loop in the main chamber? Ie is that the reverse flow bit? Re the inlet vent, if you have trouble with minimum temps you could put a felt seal between door and firebox, big green egg has replacement seals that I was looking at to try and get my kamado more air tight 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 Cheers bro, stoked as with it haha. Yeah bro, put some removable baffles in for the reverse flow setup. Will wait and see how effective it is, if need be can change out for a different sized opening and run thicker steel plates for different temps. And yeah that's a great idea. I actually picked up some fibreglass heat seal strips from bbq and more the other day to help with the doors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 Been going hard at work leading up to xmas but also managed to squeeze in more time on this. Made a stopper for the Fire box door. Sits pretty nicely now. Also drilled some holes and mocked up the gauges. Wanted to put them higher but there would be clearance issues with the top rack. I also welded in a little rack thing for the firebox grill to sit on and cleaned up the damper but forgot to take a pic. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 Sorted out the front bench. Cut up some 25x3 box and some 25x3 angle and welded up a frame (forgot to take a pic with the angle fitted). Drilled some holes and tested fitted with the mounts in place. Then placed the macrocarpa on top to have a skeeze. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 22, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2019 Couldn't stop there, went into overdrive and cleaned it with some simple green degreaser then a few go's with the wax and grease remover. Then finally got this in one colour, just used the rustoleum high temp paint from bunnings. It had a picture of a bbq on it so it must be legit. Looking pretty swish, almost like a brought one haha. I only had a few cans of paint and it didn't go very far so only got about 2.5 coats on it. It will be interesting to see if it lasts or not. All that remains is fitting the wood and making the grills. This will be tomorrow's job if all goes well. Chur 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvmyvl Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 Looking good.. May I suggest that you get a fire going in it as soon as possible. You are going to need to set the paint well, before its first use.. the smell from the high heat black is pretty horrendous. It will burn off tho, and then you will be all good, till next year, when you will need to paint it again. Also check on the can, but with the pot belly black that I used from bunnings, it said that you have to recoat within 16 hours, otherwise leave for 7 days then recoat. I didn't follow the instruction when I painted my spit, and it all bubbled off in the first burn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 I had a huge smoker fail yesterday, omg. Smoked ham that makes your tongue go numb 1 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yetchh Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 1 hour ago, flyingbrick said: I had a huge smoker fail yesterday, omg. Smoked ham that makes your tongue go numb Yeah I've done that smoking fish, you can easily go overboard with smoke.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 yeah apparently its creosotes caused by having the wood smoldering and the smoke too white/dirty. Good education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 Less wood burning hotter gives much better smoke, but will require more frequent refuels. Try lump charcoal with just a couple of lumps of wood instead. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighLUX Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 That should draw good with the decent length of flue you put on it, be easy to get it blazing to pre heat it before a cook 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share Posted December 23, 2019 Cheers guys. Yeah will be sparking it up on Wednesday and season it for the bro so hopefully it will cure the paint at the the same time and burn out any oils and toxins inside. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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