This is the smoker I made a couple of months ago... The grass has been mowed since but it's back to how it is in the pic
I would like to say I'm too busy but really I'm just lazy, and I HATE doing anything other than cooking and drinking beer in the garden
I just wanted to get it working so once the basics were together I started using it but didn't get around to finishing it, but yesterday I have finally decided to do something about bringing it up to code.
It's been sat out in the..... persisting sunshine of our fine summer so has gone a lovely orangey, some might say rusty colour too.
The coal basket
The coal basket was not complete and the basket part is not attached to the base bit so it comes apart,
and there are no handles so when I want to remove it I have to bend right in to the drum to pick the basket up from the base, I have to do this to empty the ash as there is no ash pan either.
I started by replacing the legs which were made of 75mm bolts, well, two 75mm bolts to be exact, I found that 3" clearance under the basket wasn't enough on a big burn so upped it to 6" and it'll go for 20 hours easy on 10kg of briquetts from ASDA, so welded some steel bar under the base
and some 6" angle iron for legs. I am thinking about adding an ash pan but need to find some a decent size, just the basket part that holds the coals is 13" across and 11" tall so need something about 15" across, this will still then drop nicley in to the smoker with our getting caught on the studs that hold the grill.
Nice and sturdy, I just need to add handles to the sides so I can pick it up without diving to the bottom of the barrel, that will be done tonight and the basket will be complete (give or take the ash pan, I'm not decided yet)
Extra grill
I bought some approx 22" square weld mesh from the steel merchants and used the current grill to use as a template draw around with a permanent marker and then cut a second grill out of the weld mesh, this one I will have to be careful with as it has some sharp edges but it's good and holds alot of weight so now I have to grills each about 20" across
I just need to take out a small loan to be able to afford enough meat to fill them both.No pics, I forgot
Side table
I also bought some aluminium to make a side table with but not sure how I am going to fix it. I have cut the shape out:
I just need to figure out, do I want it there permanently, or do I want to be able to easily, and without undoing bolts, remove it for storage and moving around????
Suggestions are welcome, I don't want to put it on hinges and am preferring the removable idea
The lid
As you can see from the top pic, I have the lid from a kettle BBQ, I straightened the lip out and it balances nicely on top of the drum, last night I went around the edge again by putting the lip in my vice and flattening it 6" at a time so it's a lot flatter than it was when I did it with just pliers. Ok, it's not an airtight seal, but it never was and I had no problem holding temp, the smoker itself would decide on 115C or 125c but it would stay there for hours on end, at least now it's a little better, the problem with the lid is that I want it hinged, it has hinges but the BBQ it is supposed to be on is slightly smaller at the hinges do not line up, I could probably put some kind of spacers between the lid and the lid hinge as that is narrower than the drum and that MIGHT work but I want something that I've made, not necessarily designed. Any ideas?
I also bought some 2" pipe from the steel merchants and will put two 9" exhausts on the top, will have to make some sort of roof for them to stop the rain and a cover system so can open and close them as vents to adjust airflow, have seen that people just have a bit of thin sheet metal .plate that they attach to the side with a bolt and a spring, anyone got any close up pics of that?
The UGLY bit
It lives up to it name, there is no doubt about that. I need to clean the rust off it and paint it, I should really just paint it if only to stop it rusting but high temp paint is expensive isn't it. The grey is what I had left over in a rattle can from doing the valve cover on my motorbike and the green we bought from Wickes but don't like it. Everyone does black so I want something different... Choices choices
Stand and wheels
Thinking of making a box section frame for it so I can have two wheels at the back and a single leg at the front so it can't roll away.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated, oh it will also have a bottle opener on it ; ) Got to keep the cook happy
Cheers
