age old insulation information!!!

Hello everyone,

Ill start off saying my name is Brandon(should do this in cattle call as well). Ive been around smoking meats since i was little and have done a little, not a lot, of smoking meats myself. I just recently did smoke baby ribs and country style pork ribs on an electric grill that i had to jerry rig to smoke them(it was a hassle). I work for a steel fabrication company and have pretty much access to all the fun stuff to manipulate steel anyway i want it.

With all that being said, I'm taking on the project of building my own smoker, a vertical offset smoker. Ive read a ton of threads on here about the key components of building one and it being efficient and lasting a while. I'm planning my cook chamber to be 30" tall, 24" wide and 18" deep, and my firebox to be 18x18x18. according to feldons pit calc the FB is a little larger than the 1/3 size of CC but I'm ok with that.

I was going to do non insulated pit outta 3/16" steel for both CC and FB, with all the proper reinforcements to prevent warping and all that but now I'm thinking about insulating and I'm wondering if it is necessary to insulate the Firebox at all????? i do live in oklahoma and it doesn't get terribly cold in winter(there are some occasions it gets nippy) but to keep weight and costs down I'm thinking to just insulate the Cook Chamber only and need some input on what you seasoned veterans think about it.

Also if i do insulate it I'm thinking about ramping up to 1/4" for all inside walls and using 11 GAUGE(1/8") to sheet the outer walls, seeing as those shouldn't get hot and warp and deform, any thoughts about that?

Thanks for the help in advance!!!!

ya, i won't be doing massive smoke sessions like y'all so i don't need a monster of a pit...most ill do it couple racks of ribs and a couple briskets maybe....now i think i can do 1/4, ill more than likely build cooker with all same material to keep costs down of having to buy 4 different sheets of steel plate

does anyone else have any useful information?

Think ill be doing 3/16 inner walls with 1/8 outter walls with 1×1×1/8 tube steel for frame with gussets to strengthen inner walls from warping

Thanks for the advice...might just use 1/8 tube steel, so when I start welding it won't be so easy to burn thru and just cause more work and headaches