Gravity Feed #5

[h2orescuemedic]

Not sure how many hours I have in it, but i can tell you I can used About 5 lb of mig 030 wire, 1 flap 60g disk, 2 surface prep wheels, I hate to put how many hours I have in it because I work slow I started on it about the 3rd week of January, And the last couple weeks I never touched. Sorry I didn't keep track of the hours.

[h2orescuemedic]

little mod I made

[h2orescuemedic]

Tapped up and ready for powder coat. They talked me into high temp gray, They was afraid the temp of the chimney would make the paint soft and it would discolor,

[Dirtytires]

Hours don’t really matter as long as you are happy with the work. I only ask as it was advertised as a “weekend” build and I think a lot of guys are interested. It does speak loads that you only used one flap disk...indicates to me the kit was well planned and the parts well cut.

And the grey looks good...never referred to it as ‘flashy’ but I’ll take durability over risk of re-painting any day. Good choice in my opinion.

[Chromeski]

Job well done. Now for the food

[h2orescuemedic]

I myself could not put one togeather in a weekend. However 2 guys that work well togeather and are good with a little skill "not 2nd guessing and double checking the directions" could with out much trouble finish one in a weekend. Just having a 2nd set of hands moving heavy parts would speed up the build a lot. If i would have had more room in the shop would have helped me.

As to the quality of the cuts, bends lengths, fit and finish just amazed me. I only had one part that i had to take a hand file to. It was one of the 6 upright bars that wouldn't drop into the base. It didn't take much to get it to drop in place had a little lip on it. I was a little worried about the roof but a rubber hammer made it all come togeather very easy. Alot better then i thought it was going to fit.

Over all i am very happy with how it went togeather. I will keep you guys posted on when it gets back home

[h2orescuemedic]

Picked up the smoker from the powder coat, It looks good but I wish the grey would have been a little darker

[h2orescuemedic]

so learn from my mistake, I measured the gap when I welded the hinge and set it at what I thought was 1/8 inch all the way around. After the gasket was installed I noticed my hinge side is just a hair under 1/8 inch and the latch side is just under 1/4 inch

Wish I would have left a bit more gap on the hinge side I thing it would have look better.

[h2orescuemedic]

After soaking the inside with veg oil and rubbing it down all over, I adding the heat. I lit the pit at 10:30 with the help of the old shop fan it was at 225 by 10:50 and ready to cook. Today in Missouri it was between 8 to 10 degrees when I lit the pit. Lucky for me it keep getting warmer all day, Plugged my brand new cyberq in by BBQ guru, dialed the temp up to about 250 for about 2.5 hours. At some time around 1:30 I cranked it up to about 320 and left it at that temp till 6 pm when I shut it down.

this pit is beyond super easy to run, a 10 yr with a bbq guru could keep this pit at any time and still play xbox all day, its the coolest smoker I have every played with so far,

I placed a whole chicken on the top rack inside of a aluminum pan. First time I have cooked a chicken in a Aluminum pan and not on the rack, Temp set at 320, I didn't add any wood to the bottom of the ash area. First thoughts. Little to No Smoke Flavor, Guess I need to add a little wood next time. Chicken however was super moist and great taste, Wish I would have taken a picture of the chicken, It didn't have much color either, my reverse flow would have made the chicken nice and golden. Next time I am going to add a little wood and crank the heat up a few more degrees.

I will keep you posted. more pictures to come

[Dirtytires]

Why did you use the pan this time? My experience is that it blocks a good amount of the flavor so I don’t ever use them. A little grease in the bottom of the pit is a good thing.

[h2orescuemedic]

I used the pan because it was the first time the pit had been lite, i wanted to do a good burn on it with oil on evey thing, the bottom and the sides near the bottom had started to get some surface rust. Lucky for me the racks have no rust on them. Just playing i guess, i can tell you it wont happen again any time soon.

[Dirtytires]

Nice——I know you are not happy with the color but I think it looks great. And don’t worry about the 1/16 inch gap difference as I guarantee nobody will see or notice it.

Nice build....enjoy it.

[Diggerg]

What temp is the powder coat rated too? Love the colour and itching to start my stumps clone.

[pr0wlunwoof]

It's a huge relief to get to a cooking state. Have fun and make sure and post your food pics.

To start my fire I take an old burner from a fish cooker and set it in the firebox under the charcoal and turn the gas on. It is by far the best way I have found to light the charcoal and preheat the chamber. After the charcoal is lit I close the door and let the digital control fan hit temp. Usually a 10 degree overshoot at first, but it gets straight within the first door open to load meat.

I use to do the chimney start with paper. Then I went to lighting the chimney on the fish cooker, then I came to my current solution from someones picture on here and I wont be going back...

[h2orescuemedic]

What temp is the powder coat rated too? Love the colour and itching to start my stumps clone.

They told me the normal powder coat was good to about 350 deg
and the High temp powder coat was good to about 800 deg.

They told me if the chimney got up to about 350 degrees it would start to discolor, and if something touched it, the paint would be soft and leave a mark. that's why I went with the high temp stuff.

With me washing the smoker and tapping it off they charged me $325 dollars. Guessing it would have been about 450 had I just dumped it off and let them do it all. By the way you can by the tape on amazon.

[h2orescuemedic]

To start my fire I take an old burner from a fish cooker and set it in the firebox

That's a good Idea. I ever find one with bent legs that going in the trash I will be sure to save it.

[Dirtytires]

You only washed it and didn’t media blast it?

My powder coat shop always blasts everything first. Once I learned this I no longer take the time to wipe things down or clean up my pieces when I take them in. Figure I save a bunch of time so it’s a win-win for me.

[Diggerg]

You only washed it and didn’t media blast it?

My powder coat shop always blasts everything first. Once I learned this I no longer take the time to wipe things down or clean up my pieces when I take them in. Figure I save a bunch of time so it’s a win-win for me.

I'm lucky in that I can blast it at work in our blast room. Usually use iron silicate but it's a bit severe so once it's been used a couple of times it's like using a dust to blast with. Nice and clean but smooth with very little surface profile.
Do you blast the inside of the cook chamber rather than just degreasing.

[Dirtytires]

Only blast the inside it if it’s super rusty or had some horrible chemical in it.

Cool perk to blast it yourself. I can’t justify the cost of a home rig when I have a really reasonable powder Coat shop near by.

[h2orescuemedic]

So I lit the gravity feed today run the temp up to 300 and drop a turkey on her. I didn't put much lit charcoal when I started it up so it took about an hour to come up to temp. Next time I am pretty sure I can get it up to temp faster if I drop more lit charcoal. Anyway this is the first cook were I added a little wood, And it worked great.

on a side note I am pretty sure I could fit 20 turkeys in this bad boy.

[Big T]

That's a good looking bird

[h2orescuemedic]

filled the hopper to the top with charcoal, started it with a lp torch, plugged in the cyberq at 7:41. just before 8:10 smoker was 213, and meat went on the cooker, I am amazed how well this thing works

[Dirtytires]

I just love to spatchcock a bird....just looks wrong!

[ajfoxy]

Very nice.

[h2orescuemedic]

So short term report on gravity feed. I have got about 10 cooks so far on the gravity feed, Best one was a 17 hour cook on a brisket and 2 pork shoulders. One weekend it ran 37 hours strait at 225 using 31 lbs of charcoal. I have noticed that bottom 2 racks run much hotter then the top rack, I have burnt some food trying to cook using all 5 racks at the same time. Little bit of learning curve cooking right on top of the heat transfer tube. If you want crisp chicken or a hot spot its a great spot to place the food. May one day try and place a large water pan just to see what happens.

Only one time I have added wood to the fire box area, So far so good

Just for the fun of it I fired up the old revers flow smoker this weekend, They both have there place its kind of cool being able to have both running at the same time.