The Texas BBQ Forum

k.a.m. wrote:

EverydayDiesel wrote:

k.a.m. wrote:How do you plan on doing your intakes? I noticed you have 22" long and 3.25" tall how are you going to control the opening?

I was just using that for the square inches basically. I will cut some shapes low and towards the door of the fire box. I plan on doing double the vent area (72sqin on the left and 72sqin on the right of the FB) so I have the option to use either side if the wind is acting up that day

If it were me I would go 6" tall and split my fire grate as I like air moving below and above my coal base. You can always have way more intake than specified but it is hard to get air if you do not have the opening.

Thank you so much for the help. How far should I raise the fire basket from the bottom of the firebox? The 6" referenced above makes me think 3"? Also should I do a v shaped or flat fire basket?

EverydayDiesel wrote:

k.a.m. wrote:

EverydayDiesel wrote:

k.a.m. wrote:How do you plan on doing your intakes? I noticed you have 22" long and 3.25" tall how are you going to control the opening?

I was just using that for the square inches basically. I will cut some shapes low and towards the door of the fire box. I plan on doing double the vent area (72sqin on the left and 72sqin on the right of the FB) so I have the option to use either side if the wind is acting up that day

If it were me I would go 6" tall and split my fire grate as I like air moving below and above my coal base. You can always have way more intake than specified but it is hard to get air if you do not have the opening.

Thank you so much for the help. How far should I raise the fire basket from the bottom of the firebox? The 6" referenced above makes me think 3"? Also should I do a v shaped or flat fire basket?

Yes 3" above the floor is what I do.
Yes I would do a Vee shaped basket. My Vee's are removable in case I want to use the whole basket.

KAM- Thank You for taking the time to help Folks and share your expertise. You are a HUGE ASSET to TBBQF

Rambo wrote:KAM- Thank You for taking the time to help Folks and share your expertise. You are a HUGE ASSET to TBBQF

Thank you Rambo I appreciate it. I love seeing members cooker projects come to life and work.

I do greatly appreciate the advice. I am designing the firebox which has really opened up a lot of questions.

Does cooking come from the smoke or does it come from the heat of the firebox?

There are 2 ways that I can design this.
1. Only the outer portion of the 'orange' section below would be covered. This means that the only space between the cook chamber and the firebox would be a single sheet of quarter which would raise internal heat but not provide any more smoke.




2. This one has the same amount of insulation all the way around the firebox. This means that the cook chamber would be cooler with the same amount of wood creating what I think is more smoke?


Which one of these is typical and/or a better design?

Thanks again for helping me

I like to call it cooking with heat/smoke.
The coal base heats up the chamber creating a draft, the more heat the more draft. You control your heat with your intake. Reduce the intake slow the draft the cooker cools down.

k.a.m. wrote:I like to call it cooking with heat/smoke.
The coal base heats up the chamber creating a draft, the more heat the more draft. You control your heat with your intake. Reduce the intake slow the draft the cooker cools down.

So do you recommend insulation on all sides like design 2 above or is just a single baffle better (like design 1). It sounds to me like it is better to insulate on all sides based on your response.

The top and the forward side next to the chamber take the brunt of the heat. If I were insulating I would do every side.

Thank you for the help. Using feldons calc, you mentioned that you like to run 125% firebox which I am doing. When you go down to the chimney size which is based off of the firebox size.

Do you do the chimney calculation based on 100% fb or 125% fb?

EverydayDiesel wrote:Thank you for the help. Using feldons calc, you mentioned that you like to run 125% firebox which I am doing. When you go down to the chimney size which is based off of the firebox size.

Do you do the chimney calculation based on 100% fb or 125% fb?

There is about an 8" difference in the two on your build. A 6" ID exhaust 36" long will work fine.

Thanks again. I was reading on some other threads where people were recommending a larger throat opening between the CC and the FB.

I would like to get your thoughts on this since earlier you were talking about using the dampners to control the air flow into the FB

EverydayDiesel wrote:Thanks again. I was reading on some other threads where people were recommending a larger throat opening between the CC and the FB.

I would like to get your thoughts on this since earlier you were talking about using the dampners to control the air flow into the FB

I have never seen a need to increase the size of the throat for cooking purposes. I will increase it to compensate for my grease bridge but that is only about 6 to 10 square inches.
The thing you have to remember is everyone has their own way of cooking and what they feel is correct. Building the cooker is just one part of the equation. Once built you need to learn how to use it trough proper fire management.

I am doing the throat opening based on 100% firebox (154.05 cu/in) and not the125% firebox (194.37 cu/in)


http://feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator. ... .25,194.37

Here is the 154cu/in opening. Would a different shape be better?

That shape is perfectly fine.