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[JoeGrilling]

Thanks for the reply DK.

-JR

[JoeGrilling]

I hit a few delays on my little project that can be expected. The Pellet Pro hopper went out of stock and they got apparently another shipment before Labor Day so my unit should be in tomorrow.  My remaining metal order has been delayed a few days but hopefully it can be filled tomorrow. 

I ordered four inch square tubing for my smoke stacks but am still pondering on the placement.  Most pellet grills have them on the side or in the back.  My plan is to go with two... one at each end.  I considered placing both at the top but was concerned about black grease drips on the food.  I need to see if my hopper lid can clear a stack on that side if I go with placing them on the ends.  Any input is welcomed here.
     

[BigDave83]

A lot of people will buy or devise a downdraft mod, something that exhausts at or close to grate level. I would fun the 4" square tube down each side and cap the bottoms and cut my exhaust opening at grate level and in through the side of the tube. Look at the link below paying attention to the pics of how they did the exhaust to better explain what I am trying to say.

http://www.cookshack.com/FEC100

[JoeGrilling]

Thanks BigDave83.  I found a dimensional drawing online that seems to indicate that a side mounted stack on the hopper side will clear the hopper lid.  For now, i'm going double side mounted.  That Cookshack design is interesting and I may eventually gravitate to something like it.  That's the nice thing about homemade, you can rework what you have done without voiding the warranty.

I finally got my sheet metal order today.  Ugh!  My supplier is cheap but the quality varies.  My shipment contained a mixture of 11 and 12 gauge instead of all 11.  Fortunately, his cutting was in error on the plus side.

My pellet hopper setup is now lost somewhere in the Fedex system.  Though I have dimensional drawings in inches, my level of trust in things converted from metric is low.  I will wait until the hopper arrives before cutting anything.   

[JoeGrilling]

I finally completed the grill.  This was a crazy project that took far more hours than I originally anticipated but it was a blast.  I'm not sure how much it weighs but I'll bet at least 500 lbs.  There is still some tweaking that needs to be done on the thermals.  The center of the grills tends to overshoot  quite a bit and eventually gets aligned with the left and right side .  It may be due to too much thermal mass in the fire pot heat shield.  I built it out of 1/4" plate steel. 

My first pass at testing was interesting.  An ambient temperature probe located roughly an inch from the pellet engine probe was reading 15-20 F higher than the pellet engine probe.  The tip pellet engine probe was going through a 1 inch cutaway in the one of the side bars.  I figured the bar was blocking heat flow and machined the cutaway out to 8 inches.  Problem solved. 

Here's some pictures of the current state of my smoker.
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[SmokinHandyman]

Nice job.

[Brushpopper]

That's a nice looking pit!!  Keep us posted on how it's working. 

[Yellow-03]

You should be proud of your work because it looks great.  Will definitely be watching for a full review as you start cooking on it.

[yorkdude]

Very nice work, man I wish I had your skills.
Were you a welder/fabricator by trade? Sure looks like you have plenty of practice.

[JoeGrilling]

Very nice work, man I wish I had your skills.
Were you a welder/fabricator by trade? Sure looks like you have plenty of practice.

I was actually an engineering director in my last job in silicon valley before retiring.  My dad was a machinist and I inherited the hands on skills from him.  My degree background is nuclear engineering though I worked in the field for only two years in the naval nuclear program.  I learned a lot about welding through reviewing nuclear repair procedures and wanted to try it.  My wife got me my first TIG welder for Christmas maybe 20 years ago.  My welding skills improved a lot in the last five years through YouTube channels like "Welding Tips and Tricks".  I am pretty much a hobbyist at welding.   

[dk117]

she's a beaut!   Beef up those casters

DK

[Hank D Thoreau]

I love a nice science project. I wish I had the skills and tools to do something like that. I am hoping that after I retired I will have time to build some stuff.

I am a left handed guitarist and would really like to build a ladder braced parlor style guitar. They are hard to find in my dexterity. That takes skill and tools that I do not yet possess.

I can appreciate the controls. I used to develop robotic applications and the controls on a smoker are very similar.

[glitchy]

Very nice looking pit. Great work!

How many whole hogs can you cook at once, that thing looks huge?

[JoeGrilling]

she's a beaut!   Beef up those casters

DK

In theory, the casters are rated for 250 lbs each and the rear wheels 175 lbs each.  It seems like the older I get my little projects get heavier. I fitted all of the interior metal and found it was a bit too heavy to get back on the cart.  All of the interior panels are screw mounted so I ended up stripping the metal out to get some of the exterior panels mounted and painted.  I used an engine lift to get the partial cabinet assembly on to the cart.  The interesting part will come when I have to raise it up one step to get it on the rear patio.

[JoeGrilling]

Very nice looking pit. Great work!

How many whole hogs can you cook at once, that thing looks huge?

Each level is 24" x 39".  The cool part is each level is made up of three 13" x 24" homemade grill grates.  If I remove the lower tray on the dishwasher, they fit in diagonally.