Boathouse vertical smokers

[SmittyJonz]

Anyone got one yet?

 

[cheez59]

Wood is Good, More Wood = More Better..... Hard to Smoke without Wood........
My typical UDS Basket:

Smitty knows exactly what he is talking about here. I started putting this much wood in my WSM's after seeing this basket pic. My BBQ quality went up in direct proportion to the amount of chunks in the fire ring.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

There is a Big Arse Damper on right side / hinge side. Ya the pan would need worked a lil - Easy. They would probally do it for ya if you requested it. I'd have them put rods across existing pan maybe 1" down and build me a burn basket that's sits on it -then the pan is ash catcher.

Based on the really bad hinge weld shown in this photograph, I'd look very carefully at the remainder of the construction.

This is a MIG weld and has almost zero penetration as shown by the convex, blobby shape of the weld. If you look carefully at the top of the hinge weld, you can see it has not penetrated the base metal and there is a gap between the weld bead and the base metal.

In reality, these are the wrong hinges. I understand why they used them - they're cheap. Weld-on hinges are about $20-$25 / pair.

The welds were done "cold" (not enough amperage) probably because the wire was too big. They used the same diameter wire they've used on the thicker metal. The weld at the top of the damper plate frame is OK (not great, but good enough). You can see penetration on all sides of the weld and the weld bead is flat - but, that is because the metal is thicker allowing them to turn the welder up to an appropriate amperage.

For the hinges, need to change to a smaller wire, turn up the amperage and not worry about the edge of the hinge. What they really need to do is just let the hinge metal melt into the weld. Of course, that takes a steady hand and a lot of practice so the weld is straight and the hinge metal melts evenly into the weld bead.

If the remainder of the unit is built with the same hit-or-miss fabrication techniques...it may not be the screaming deal it appears to be.

 

[Ribeye Republic]

Based on the really bad hinge weld shown in this photograph, I'd look very carefully at the remainder of the construction.

This is a MIG weld and has almost zero penetration as shown by the convex, blobby shape of the weld. If you look carefully at the top of the hinge weld, you can see it has not penetrated the base metal and there is a gap between the weld bead and the base metal.

In reality, these are the wrong hinges. I understand why they used them - they're cheap. Weld-on hinges are about $20-$25 / pair.

The welds were done "cold" (not enough amperage) probably because the wire was too big. They used the same diameter wire they've used on the thicker metal. The weld at the top of the damper plate frame is OK (not great, but good enough). You can see penetration on all sides of the weld and the weld bead is flat - but, that is because the metal is thicker allowing them to turn the welder up to an appropriate amperagae.

For the hinges, need to change to a smaller wire, turn up the amperage and not worry about the edge of the hinge. What they really need to do is just let the hinge metal melt into the weld. Of course, that takes a steady hand and a lot of practice so the weld is straight and the hinge metal melts evenly into the weld bead.

If the remainder of the unit is built with the same hit-or-miss fabrication techniques...it may not be the screaming deal it appears to be.

Lots of good info in this post.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

Lots of good info in this post.

Thanks.

I've made my share of bad welds when I was starting out learning how to weld - so, I know what they look like. You can get caught up in just sticking things together to save time.

Changing wire takes about 10 - 15 minutes, and unless your welder is equipped with a separate "inch" or "feed" switch, you end up wasting shielding gas as you feed the new wire through the MIG torch lead unless you manually close the cylinder valve and turn the gas off when you feed the wire. So, if you change to smaller wire and then back to larger wire, that's about 30 minutes of lost fabrication time.

It's a lot more attractive to leave the wire in the welder, turn down the amperage and just "stick it together" to save time - the tradeoff is substandard welds.

 

[pjtexas1]

Smitty knows exactly what he is talking about here. I started putting this much wood in my WSM's after seeing this basket pic. My BBQ quality went up in direct proportion to the amount of chunks in the fire ring.

yep. he knows what he is doing.:thumb: i love when people say i put 2 chunks in my basket. nothing wrong with that but its not my style either. here is my little red box charcoal basket. probably more wood chunks in there than most put in a cooker 3x the size.:heh: