A friend decided to go into business with a local bar/grill. He will be smoking brisket, ribs, sausages and occasionally whole hogs.

I'm designing and building a smoker for his business use. Finished the CAD work a week ago and started fabrication 3 days ago.

The trailer is made from 2x4x3/16 steel beams, all mitered corners and completely enclosed. No open beam ends.

The benchtop areas are 2x2x3/16 steel beams, also mitered corners of various angles. Completely enclosed, with no open beam ends.

The smoker itself will be 1/4" steel plates, cut and welded with lots and lots of strange angles.

Its a reverse flow design, with a 36 x 90" cooking grate, and a second 30" x 90" cooking grate. Both grates slide out, and are removeable.

The thing is 16' long and will weigh 3000lbs. It took a couple hundred hours to design a solid model, create a technical drawing and bill of materials for every single part and assembly.

The door will weight 150 lbs, so I came with an interested counterweight and linkage assembly. It should allow the door to be lifted, remain up on its own, and then be lowerd with minimal without the operator having to lift or pull more than 25 lbs of force at any point in the process.



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Neat! You do good work – it’s beautiful.

Nice! I've futzed with some of the Freeware 3D and solid models stuff, confuses the hell out of me.

Nice work!

Any concerns with that kind of heat adjacent to the rubber?

TL

The CAD work is fun. The fabrication not so much.



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quote:

Originally posted by phxtoad:
Nice work!

Any concerns with that kind of heat adjacent to the rubber?

TL

Typically yes. Thats why im putting an indulated barrier on between the tires and firebox. In addition th the back wall of the fenders, not shown in the CAD drawing.

Tire rubber ignites at 750f. With 10 inches of space, and a double wall barrier, it should be ok.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
The CAD work is fun. The fabrication not so much.

Blasphemer. You are dead to me.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
The CAD work is fun. The fabrication not so much.

Blasphemer. You are dead to me.

Yes sir. Im a pocket protector nerd type. Id much rather hand someone like you, a stack of technical drawings and go back to my cubicle. Then wait wait, impatiently, for the machine to magically appear.

What software did you use. It looks like Inventor or Fusion 360.

Ken

You know, Toyota is working on a new moon rover right now. You put a 3rd axle under that baby and its almost the spitting image. Imagine getting pulled pork bbq on the moon. Yummy.

I need one! Will $25.00 about cover it?

No, really. It looks awesome! Great work.

ARman

Where is the BBQ gun?

Nice design, hope it all works out.

Cool! Like fabricating a NASCAR race car!

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
Cool! Like fabricating a NASCAR race car!

Well, now that he has the 3D model, he can do simulated wind-tunnel testing. Everyone needs a BBQ grill that is aerodynamically stable to 120mph.

Ken

quote:

Originally posted by KenS:
What software did you use. It looks like Inventor or Fusion 360.

Ken

Good call.

Its Inventor Pro 2017. I took 3 classes on it in college, and have been using it since 2012, and still learning new stuff. Stress analysis using inventors FEA sure is easier than doing it with pen/paper.

Inventor gives me the weight and CG of every individual part, assembly, and of the whole contraption. It'll even include the weight of the welds.

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Impressive, but it is too heavy. After all that work, he will some day say it is too heavy, and needs a lighter one.

Usually smokers are made of light gauge material so that the heat escapes easily. I would make the frame out of .125", and the smoker very light, probably 16 gauge or make it out of aluminum.

Thank you for posting this. To design all of that then build it is very impressive work.

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
Impressive, but it is too heavy. After all that work, he will some day say it is too heavy, and needs a lighter one.

Usually smokers are made of light gauge material so that the heat escapes easily. I would make the frame out of .125", and the smoker very light, probably 16 gauge or make it out of aluminum.

Lang Smokers are one of the top brands in the competition bbq scene. They advertise, as one of the selling points:

"Strong All-Welded body: Construction from 1/4" rolled steel is designed to maintain even cooking temperature for consistent, superb results. NO assembly required."

https://www.langbbqsmokers.com..._fat-boy-deluxe.html

Stump Smokers, also highly regarded by commercial and comptetition pitmasters, advertises:

Overall Dimensions 59 1/2″ H X 84″W X 48″D
Material 3/16″ Metal
Overall Weight 4500 lbs

https://stumpssmokers.com/reve...-6x4-premium-edition

Yoder Smokers, another top name considered possibly the best, in their FAQ page:

"How thick is the metal?
All Yoder Smokers wood pits are produced from new 3⁄16" or 1⁄4" steel pipe & plate."

https://www.yodersmokers.com/w...asked-questions.html

I beleive, the idea is that the more mass it has, the longer it takes for variation in the fires heat, to affect the cookbox interior temp.

Thicker, does appear to be standard practice in high-end commercial and competition smokers. Last time i ate at Pappys Smokehouse in St Louis, i checked out their smoker. It wasn't constructed much differently than an M1 Abrams.