Welding Tips and Tricks

Although it's been done many times - and perhaps detailed in this forum (dunno) - I decided to create a thread to chronicle the build of a BBQ smoker. I had several options for the next fabrication project but elected to go with this one. I have a few questions:

1) Have any of you attempted this? If so, do you have any feedback/commentary regarding things that went well or things that you would have done differently?
2) If you did build one, what size of material did you use? Shape?
3) Where did you source your material?
4) Which process?

I have a general idea of what I am after here, so this is the quick run-down for my build. After looking at several variants online and watching a few videos of owners describing their likes/dislikes of their BBQ smokers, I decided that I wanted to build one from tubing rather than welding pieces of flat plate together, thus getting that "boxy" look, not that there's anything wrong with that. I'll have the usual burn chamber offset from the main one, and thus hanging a bit lower. I haven't decided whether or not I'll do reverse flow just yet, though I am leaning that direction. The only complicating matter is that I think I'd really like to have a griddle/cooking surface on top of the burner, so that presents a spacing issue in the context of reverse flow. Ours needs to be mobile so heavy duty casters or other form of mobility is a requirement. This means at all 4 points of contact with the ground. I kinda like the idea of a wood cooking shelf on the front of the main chamber (as opposed to a metal one), but I'm not much of a wood worker, so I'll need to do some research there. Oak supposedly works well in this context, but no experience with it. I presume you'd want to employ some type of urethane too. So that's the basics of what we're after: an offset BBQ smoker, round in shape (both the main and burn chambers), possibly reverse flow, with a griddle/cooking surface above the burner and wooden prep/shelving.

Now for the materials. A while ago an ad on CL caught my eye. A guy was selling tubing for just this purpose. He has lots of sizes in steel and in stainless. However I decided that I didn't want to go the stainless route with this build. The sizes vary from 16" to 32" in diameter. You can get whatever length you need, but there is a 3' minimum. Regarding sizing, I had initially thought that I'd like to go with a 20" tube, with the main chamber being 40" long and the burn chamber 20".

However ...

I got a-hold of the guy yesterday and requested to take a look at the raw material. He told me to go on out, that it was outside and available for inspection, no problem. With that, the son and I loaded up to take a look-see. I found all of the primary sizes that he had available: You can see the two sections of 24" and the 20" in the background along the fence. The 16" is off to the left.

Hmmmmmmmm...I dunno fellas. Somehow seeing the 20" in person it just felt "too small" somehow. And the 16" seemed downright pah-uuuneee. The 32" was outrageously large to my eyes, and therefore I kinda settled in on the 24". Anyone have any feedback on the diameter options?

The 24" tubing that he has: Is 3/8" thick, so it would be plenty stout enough: Overkill really, but as I have stated before I am a fan of overkill. Generally speaking. This stuff would definitely be heavy, that's for certain. But I have a gantry so no problem.

Next came the lateral dimensions. The two sections that he has are 74" and 80". I thought about it and eyeballed it for the better part of 20 minutes probably. Yeah I did that.

In the end I kinda decided on the 80" section, thinking that I'd make the main chamber 54" and the burn chamber 26". That keeps the proportions roughly equal to the 4' and 2' that I originally had in mind. Any feedback regarding that?

BTW, he sells this tubing for $25/ft, with a 3' minimum and includes a free smokestack. Seemed like an ok price.

As an aside, while there I noticed that he had a bunch of work tables sitting out too: While I don't have space for a welding table, which is the reason I haven't built one yet, something like this that could sit outside sure would come in handy. Do any of y'all have such a table? He's offering them for $500 each. They are 8' x 4' in size and the plate is 3/4" thick. Heavy to say the least, but again, I have a gantry. Thus I don't forsee a problem unloading, assuming that caution is used in so doing, naturally.

I looked through them for a bit. Most have lots of holes, presumably for a vice or other tool. I don't mind a few holes like that but I didn't want that many. In the end I found two that had fewer holes. The first had none: But was a bit rusty (not much of a problem, I realize that). It has large angle iron underneath the plate, connected at the piping in order to support that plate. All of them had that, no surprise there.

Then I noticed another option: It only has 4 holes in one corner, so I was ok with that. What I liked a bit better about this one was that there was less rust overall and the supporting mechanism is c-channel as opposed to angle. So I dunno. Kinda leaning toward the second option. Any feedback there?

Thanks!

I'm about to start on mine. 24" diameter pipe, 6ft long.






I'm actually going to split this pipe down the middle, long-ways. The resulting two pieces will serve as the top-halves, and the bottom half of the actual BBQ pit will be a rectangular box made from ¼" plate. I dislike how in fully round bbq pits the firewood ends up collecting in the middle at the deepest point, resulting in un-even heat. With a rectangular bottom, it will give me better heat distribution.

Hi Oscar,

Well we indeed think alike then: both making BBQ pits. This IS TEXAS after all!

Interesting that you settled on the same diameter. Yours is 6' ... how wide will the main chamber and the burn chamber be then? 50/50 or ... ?

Thanks!
Jerry

I made one from an old air tank that was 36” od. It has heat stratification issues.

av8or1 wrote:Hi Oscar,

Well we indeed think alike then: both making BBQ pits. This IS TEXAS after all!

Interesting that you settled on the same diameter. Yours is 6' ... how wide will the main chamber and the burn chamber be then? 50/50 or ... ?

Thanks!
Jerry

Heck yea this is Texas!

Should've mentioned mine will be strictly BBQ pit for grilling, not a smoker. I have other plans for a smoker.

I think you will have a hell of a time getting a chamber to temp or lowering the temp when it gets too hot with that wall thickness.

I built 2 different smokers. I used feldon's bbq pit builder calculator. It will give size variations and necessary sizes for opening to transfer heat and what size chimney you need. My one smoker is a vertical type with fire box below the cooking chamber and the other is a side box fire box. I seem to be having problems with producing too much creosote and that puts bad taste in the meat. I have used various hardwoods with apple and mesquite for flavor. Couldnt find pipe big enough so I bought plate and tried to find someone to roll the plates. Had one guy tell me he could do it.....failure. Found another company that could roll it, but I would have to mortgage the teepee. Square worked.

BillE.Dee wrote:I built 2 different smokers. I used feldon's bbq pit builder calculator. It will give size variations and necessary sizes for opening to transfer heat and what size chimney you need. My one smoker is a vertical type with fire box below the cooking chamber and the other is a side box fire box. I seem to be having problems with producing too much creosote and that puts bad taste in the meat. I have used various hardwoods with apple and mesquite for flavor. Couldnt find pipe big enough so I bought plate and tried to find someone to roll the plates. Had one guy tell me he could do it.....failure. Found another company that could roll it, but I would have to mortgage the teepee. Square worked.

I never use mesquite for smoking. Way too acrid for most all cuts. Apple is very strong as well IMO. I only use those in minute amounts. For the main fuel, the "base" firewood is oak (a few varieties actually) and/or hickory and/or pecan and/or maple. I then accentuate (if needed) with Cherry, Peach, Apple, Mesquite.

Sorry, my bad. I don't use pure mesquite or any other wood chips or pieces for the fire, only pieces to get some flavor. The main fire/heat source is mixed hard woods. Just seems that running 250 degrees causes creosote build up.

BillE.Dee wrote:Sorry, my bad. I don't use pure mesquite or any other wood chips or pieces for the fire, only pieces to get some flavor. The main fire/heat source is mixed hard woods. Just seems that running 250 degrees causes creosote build up.

No, its not the temperature that causes creosote. I've smoked with temps ranging from 200 all the way to 275°F. Not using the correct hardwood, the amount of firewood, and/or not using the correct airflow through the burn chamber is what causes creosote. The issue might be what you call "mixed hardwoods". What exactly is that?

the mixed hardwoods will be any of the trees up here that have a heart in the center of the tree and will vary from aspen (the softest of the hardwood) to red oak, white oak, maple. I got the wood from a pallet factory that palletizes the cut offs and sells them for beer money. I know they are hard woods because I dropped them on my toes and it hurt.
Got to control the heat thru the intake vents, right? and the chimney is always open.

BillE.Dee wrote:Got to control the heat thru the intake vents, right? and the chimney is always open.

That is one way to do it, every smoker is different. The amount of wood is critical from what I have experienced. But I can guarantee you it's not the temperature-alone, based on my personal experience. In fact, It's my preference to smoke the meat about 225-250 for brisket, slightly more for pork. I have to turn down many requests each year to cater for medium-sized parties, so I know people know my stuff aint got no creosote.

Thank y'all for the recommendations regarding wood selection. That gives me a good starting point, as I was not familiar with which wood did what. Up until this point, I've been a propane or charcoal griller exclusively. Not by choice mind you. So this will be the first smoker, which means that I needed to research wood choice and effect. Now I can check that off of the list!

Alright so I went to the storage unit where all of this stuff was being kept tonight. I picked up a table, had the fella cut the 80-incher tubing down to size and got a few extras while there. This was the load that I put into Da Beast: Note that with your purchase of the tubing you get a free smoke stack, which was quite nice of them I thought.

I told that fella to cut it at the 53" mark, keeping the kerf to the longer side so that I could get a full 27" for the burn chamber. Well he took that a tad far. So I came home with a piece that is about 52.5" and the other approximately 27.5". Roughly. Oh well, that'll work too.

Because the purchase of the table and the tubing didn't come out to a round number, I looked for a few odds-n-ends that would make the math work. 'Cause I didn't have change and neither did he. Ended up finding these lift tabs: For only $5 each. I thought that was a bargain, so I snatched up all of them that I could lay hands on until I reached the maximum that I had brought with me in cash.

And BTW, I ended up choosing a different table than the two that I originally laid eyes on. I found one in the back row on the bottom that I hadn't noticed all that much. It had few holes too (4) and also had the c-channel for the table supports. However this channel was laid in better, had better fitment to the legs and better welds. It also came with some freebie tool holders (looked like MIG gun holders actually) and so that was the extra tidbit that gave it the nod. It has no feet on it though. The legs are 4.5" OD with approximately 1/4" wall thickness. So I'll need to weld on some plate. And as soon as I finish posting I plan to go on the hunt for a set of crazy-heavy-duty casters!

So I returned home with the evening's haul. I tell ya, it sure is nice having a gantry around (since I don't have a forklift or tractor)! That thing made lifting the heavier items (the main chamber and the table) amazingly easy: Apologies for the darkness; it is that time of year. This was only 6:30 at night! Sheesh!

And we mustn't forget about the table: That is 1200 lbs or so you're looking at there but to the gantry it was nothing. "Like budd-ah" as one of my old girlfriends used to say.

So the plan now is to prep the table for some paint in a few areas; legs, underneath, c-channel and whatnot. Will try to circle the wagons 'round to that tomorrow after work. Won't be able to begin the BBQ smoker build until the weekend, unfortunately.

Y'all take care!

With that handy-dandy gantry, really need some mag switches for lifting https://magswitch.com/product/mlay1000-lifting-magnet/

Should make things a lot easier and safer around the homestead and shop.

I don't know squat about building smokers and cookers, but if you need help with taste testing the BBQ, please consider using the button on your left...




<<<==========

cj737 wrote:With that handy-dandy gantry, really need some mag switches for lifting https://magswitch.com/product/mlay1000-lifting-magnet/

Should make things a lot easier and safer around the homestead and shop.

Hi CJ-

That is a great suggestion, thanks! I'll have to grab a few of those at some point. However the 1000 lb capacity one runs almost $500 and wouldn't have helped with the table last night. So I'll likely opt for the lesser lb rated variants and use them in lighter lifting scenarios. Thumbs up for the idea!

BugHunter wrote:I don't know squat about building smokers and cookers, but if you need help with taste testing the BBQ, please consider using the button on your left...




<<<==========

Will do! You'd be welcome! Still looking forward to the point in time when Oscar and I are able to organize a TEXAS forum meetup!

Jakedaawg wrote:I think you will have a hell of a time getting a chamber to temp or lowering the temp when it gets too hot with that wall thickness.

Good thought. This did cross my mind. However, given the price of this tubing versus what the steel supplier wanted for the equivalent in 1/4" (which was the original plan), I opted to go this route. The price diff was around $100 IIRC...so for me, I was willing to deal with those issues to save a lil' $$$

Alright, so here is last night's haul viewed in the light of day. First, the table: The already-existing holders can be seen there on the side. 'Saves me a step dontchaknow.
The other side doesn't have much in that regard. However this table overall had better joins between the c-channel and the legs as well as better welds, as mentioned. I just liked how this one was put together better than the first: I might mention that despite being stored in the way they were, I found these tables to be surprisingly flat. The one I brought home was indeed that. I laid the 4' level all over that thing and didn't feel it rock back-n-forth once. Kinda surprising to me to find that, but the seller told me that these came out of a manufacturing facility that "built stuff" to tight tolerances. And so these tables had to be flat. I just hope that this particular table retained that flatness during the trip home! That trip wasn't far, but these things cross my mind anyway.

And I mustn't forget about the lifting tabs: Those were the surprise of the endeavor really; I wasn't expecting to find them but glad that I did!