An Update To my BBQ Build

Hey everyone!!

Hope y'all are having a good week... This is what I've been up to here lately, I'm finally coming down the home stretch with the Burninator build. With school starting up and everything, I hadn't had a lot of time to work on it, but now I'm planning to have it done by the end of the month... I built up some industrial strength smoke-stacks, did a couple other small things, and took forum advice and put a strip of 1/8" flat stock on the inside of the main chamber door, just to make it more air-tight.

Anyway, just thought I'd share
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Your welding abilities are improving rapidly.
As a really old person, my abilities are declining. My welding does not look so good anymore, but it is sound and strong.
I strongly disapprove of the laws that keep people from doing almost any kind of job until they are age 18 or older. The things I do best were learned at an early age. Driving at age 12 on dirt roads and in fields in a cutdown 1933 Chevy purchased for $25. Electrician's helper at age 6. My wife shakes her head at my manual 6 speed "Red Rocket"-- says it is better suited for a teenager.
Let young people get experience at doing things while they are young. I gave my son all kinds of work experience as he was growing up and he liked none of it- so he went for advanced college degrees-- and has done well in his career. The experience was not wasted.

Well done Lanse. I really enjoy your stuff on here. If I owned a fab shop and had your app on my desk and 30 to look at I would hire you in a heartbeat. Even if you don't have the knowledge yet your trying your best. I wish you were closer I have some custom work to do one the big truck that needs your talent.

Just for thought.......I have a BBQ smoker that we built approx 10yrs ago out of a 300gal fuel tank. We patterned it after the local "BBQ masters". Anyway, the tank has a divider built in the bottom which sections off approx 1/4 of the tank to be used for the fire box. A grate was placed over the firebox that allows you to grill over an open wood fire if desired. The rest of the tank then is used for smoking. The coolest thing about the design is the exhaust was placed on the opposite end of the tank from the fire box at the bottom. This makes the smoke/heat from the fire go up over the divider and then down through the meat before leaving the smoker. Some people still look at it and say that it won't draft that way, but it does. Actually it works really good......with NO hot spots. It has been my experience that smokers with exhausts on the tops tend to have hot spots near the exhaust outlets.

I have plans on making a bigger one out of a 500 gal LP tank as you can only fit a whole pig on it. Now, someone else has to make the beans and taters;-).

Lanse, I think if you took a little more time, you could have made much nicer holes for the smoke stacks and not had to put the patches on. You should have asked for a simple way to mark the holes out.

Considering you could mark the pipe and trim it to fit nice on the inside, I would have used a short piece of pipe to mark the holes. First cut the pipe at an angle similar to what you need for the stack to be vertical. It doesn't have to be exact. Just short enough all around to slide a soapstone on. Then figure out where you want the hole and tack or have a helper hold the pipe vertical where you want it. Then take a long, flat, sharpened on an angle soapstone (out of the holder) and put it flat against the pipe and mark your hole on the head of your BBQ. Put the sharp side of the soapstone towards the pipe. Cut it a little small and you can always trim a little to fit. Would have saved a bunch of work and looked a little neater. Don't be in a hurry to finish your projects. You're not getting paid by piece work.


My welding teacher used to say you need to improve your welding or get faster at it. Very few people can do both. With experience you'll get faster but never compromise on quality. Going fast and then having to make repairs is slower in the long run.

I'm kidding around here when I say this:

DUDE, you don't have to know anything about math to know what a circle looks like! LOL.

That's not an easy hole to guess at. It's an oval hole that's wider at the bottom.