Vertical Smoker Build

[Bacon King]

Hello my fellow BBQ Bretheren. First let me start off by saying that I am excited to apart of this awesome group of BBQ enthusiests.

I am starting this thread because I would like some advice / feedback on a new vertical smoker that I am in the design phase on. I have built several UDS's in the past with great success and although simple to use definitely lacking on the cooking area. A few moths ago I purchased a Long Horn Reverse flow stick burner and that gave me a lot more space but with a bigger smoker comes more demand and now I am looking to make something that I would not have to expand for a while.

Due to the work I do for my full time job I come across alot of cool free stuff. If you look at the photo I have attached I plan to make this into a large vertical smoker. It is a large AV Rack which I will refer to it as Rack from now on.

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What I plan to do here is to build some sort of fire box in the lower 1/4 of this cabinet with firebrick and some sort of door (Chimney cleanout door?) big enough that I can throw sticks in once my fire has started. I also want to make this firebox in a way that I can have it raised up a little bit so that I can have Expanded metal as the base so that as the wood burns the coals will fall through to a catch pan. What I would also like to incorporate into my fire box is a Hole drilled through the side of it and the Rack in which i will insert a gas pipe so that My CyberQ can be incorporated.

As far as insulation for the cooking chamber this is where I may need some feedback / advice. I was origonally thinking of lining the whole thing in firebrick but thought about the logistics of transport / cost. I have been researching Ceramic Fiber blankets, RoXul, Firewool to line the inside walls with and cover with sheet aluminum / aluminum foil.

I have the cooking racks figured out I have ventilated shelves that are designed for these Racks that I will mount on the front rails / back rails (photos to come) and what this will allow me to do is slide full sized sheet cooling racks onto the shelves for my cooking surface. i should be able to easily fit 8-10 sheets in this thing.

I plan on also mounting 3 digital temp gauges onto the top face of the Rack for a constant digital readout of the top, middle, bottom of the smoker at all times.

Let me know what yall think all feed back is appreciated.

 

[SmittyJonz]

RockWool Insulation from McMaster Carr is what I have used. If you insulate it you’re going to have to double skin it -if I was doing all that I probably would scrap that cabinet and build a angle iron or channel tube frame with Double wall

 

[SmittyJonz]

Or since you are gonna Burn splits just build a non insulated single walled vertical with 1/8- 3/16”.

 

[Bacon King]

If I was going to scrap the cabinet all together I might as well do a tube steel double skinned stumps clone.

 

[Bacon King]

Here is an update. Today I received a solid front door and a solid top from my vendor and added a shelf to show my idea of what the shelves would look like for the full size cooling racks to sit on.

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[SmittyJonz]

If I was going to scrap the cabinet all together I might as well do a tube steel double skinned stumps clone.

:thumb:

 

[ebijack]

I agree, scrap the cheap electrical cabinet. Very thin and cheap, not what you'd want to start with.
Do you want to burn pure wood, or coal/wood or have both options. This also makes a difference in design.
I modified my Humphrey's DEB. I can burn pure wood, or run on coal/wood.
I removed the insulation as for me there is NO benefit. I want to burn enough fuel to get a stronger smoke flavor profile. Not run like a kamodo.
The more racks/grates you have, the more you will have to rotate those grates for even cooking. The larger the grate, the more meat. The more they weigh if that might be a problem.
If you are going to use drip pans, I'd suggest your grates are around 1" larger in all directions than the pans to have better flow thru the cabinet.
You will want your ash pan and coal box to come out of the unit as one/together.
One 2" intake is not enough air flow to allow burning pure wood.
You will want the exh size as large or larger than the intake size/sizes.
That is a start.