SmokerBuilder.com

by **rlmax02** » February 7th, 2012, 10:24 am

you have built yourselve a great looking piece trickworm. dampers look great. :points:

by **Rick** » February 7th, 2012, 1:07 pm

Those dampers came out nice! That's gonna make a great rig - especially if it hits smokertom on the head...

I gotta admire a man that parks outside so his wife and his smoker can park inside where he can work on it (the smoker that is)...

by **trickworm** » February 7th, 2012, 2:26 pm

Rick, it can get cold around here, so my truck is out and the wife's SUV is toasty. Figure that at least helps offset the $$ I keep spending on the smoker!

Tom, I had to LOL at "I'm just say'in" comment, b/c I have a 11 year-old girl who skates around being a complainer by saying "I'm not complaining, I'm just say'n.........(fill in the blank her. eg: my brother just dented mom's car)"

Anybody have any ideas about the 40 degree differential from end to end in the tank on this reverse flow unit? That's what I was trying to avoid.

by **Smoker Tom** » February 7th, 2012, 10:14 pm

I would do a few more test burns before I went to changing anything to serious.

To start I may try and closing the stack dampers part way and see where it runs. Remember you have a ton of real estate there, its gonna take a while to even out.

Depending on the results. If the diff is worse then I would find a piece of scrape and partialy close off some of the gap where the RF plate ends.

Something else could be to build your fire a little closer to the door vs all the way at the back of the FB.

My bet is going with the closing of the dampers on the stack though. You could be drawing to much air thru the chamber. Causing the air temp to not have time to even out.

Last but not least..... can ya give us a shot of the inerds. Maybe one of the RF plate gap and a couple looking thru the FB door at the opening to the cook chamber.

by **k.a.m.** » February 8th, 2012, 7:14 am

trickworm, how long had the cooker been running when you took your readings and were you reading door therms or actual grate temps with a digital or grate thermometer?
The R/F I built for the Smokin'Ace's takes about 1.5hrs to level out this is actual grate temperature not door therms. Their differences run about 5° to 10° difference left to right. but before she is all up to temp the grate therms go crazy.
I never trust door therms on a cooker they could be an easy 30° off from the actual grate temps depending on the cooker and its size.
I agree with Tom give her a few more burns and get four oven grate thermometers place them on the grates in various places and make notes, give the cooker enough time to equalize and heat the whole plate watch your door therms in relation to the grate temps and take note of the difference. This way you will know when your cooker doors are at say 200° your really at 225° or even 250°.
I hope this helps.

by **trickworm** » February 8th, 2012, 1:39 pm

i will get some pics of the inside and post, not a problem. I'll get exact measurement of the end gap to see if it needs to be dampered.

my temps were after about 2.5 hours of burning, but i will say that was with flue dampers wide open and FB damper wide open. I read KAMs post on another thread and I will choke one side down and do a couple more burns. I have not installed the door guages yet, so I just sat them inside the smoke at grate height. last night I just bought 4 Taylor temp gauges to spread out through the chamber and "monitor" the next burns better.

you guys are really making a difference onthis build; thank you! :beer:

by **Frank_Cox** » February 9th, 2012, 10:58 am

The good ol sawtooth design is one of my favorites for dampers and such. everything looks great! nice touch on the stack dampers!

by **TrailerBuilder** » February 9th, 2012, 7:43 pm

Guess I had a little bit of the "Frank_Cox" disease and dosed off and missed this thread. i-)

trickworm, extremely nice build you have here, keep up the great work and I look forward to more updates.

by **Blazer** » February 10th, 2012, 11:13 am

Nice looking cooker trickworm. In the one pic it looked like you mashed your welder a little bit. It takes awhile to get to know your cooker, I know it does me there's a lot of variables to get down. The only thing that i might add is the level of your cooker, I know on mine if its high in front it draws more. Just my 2 cts. :LG:

by **PoPs54** » February 11th, 2012, 11:35 am

and get four oven grate thermometers

Hey K.A.M., can you point me in the right direction to find some of those grate thermometers you are talking about? And do you use those during a cook or just for set up purposes.