Project: Barbecue Trailer

If I ever do this again, I'm gonna make the box FIRST, then worry about the frame.
There were way more welds and cuts to this square base than there needed to be.

I spent some time researching trailered smokers and thinking about things.

First off;
My coworkers are... How can I put this tactfully?
...meeping idiots.
I can totally see a situation where some dipmeep opens the gas valve and walks away.
Then, five minutes later thinks: "Oh meep, I forgot to light it!"

:Hits meepon:



Plus I'd get a written reprimand for sure.

Secondly, I learned that you need to have a firebox roughly 30% of the size of your smoker chamber. (Or 10 to 17% depending on who you ask)

I did the math and came up with a 15" by 16" by 20" fire box.
(I had to knock it down an inch to prevent a hot spot forming against the front wall of the chamber.)

Thanks to Wotak's thermal plate video, I steered my way to a rough plan of how the gas flow should go:


AutoCAD rulz.

Unless I wanna invest in some Kaowool to insulate, I'm gonna have a hard time fitting much else on besides some swing-out prep sufaces on the sides.

...

Recalculating...

You know, 3/16" steel doesn't warp a whole lot, but damned if I didn't need to put some wedges in here and ther to keep things straight(ish).


My empty spool tells me that this is it for the week:

I LOVE this part:

Having a new roll of wire, lots of steel standing by and a two week vacation a few days away...

:inhales deeply:

Smells like WIN.

Smoke this meep !

^...?

Yay VACATION! WOOT!!

I took a freaking NAP! I never get to do that.

Anyway, after said nap I wandered into the garage to start shortening the frame of the trailer and with a newfound clear-headedness noticed that the trailer frame appears to be made entirely of thin sheet metal and a disturbingly large number of holes:


Funny that I hadn't seen that before.

So I went back to B&B, grabbed some more steel and built this:


It's just 1-1/2"x3" so it isn't real heavy, but I have a feeling it might be a just solid enough:


Tomorrow I'll build the tongue, introduce the body to the axle and fenders and see how it all fits.

Lessee;
How to lock the tongue down?
...
...
Maybe?:


...
...
...Nah.

How about?:




Yeah, that's more like it!

Burnout is rearing it's ugly head.
I think I'll take tomorrow off before I start hating this project.
I've gotta get some kind of linkage set up that doesn't look like meep.
This is as far as I've gotten:

Everything's gotta be a damned adventure.
The diaphragm in the acetylene regulator on my torch kit blew yesterday and started to slowly fill the garage with gas.
I smelled it WHILE GRINDING SOME STEEL.

I stopped by Lowes and bought a small kit with new regulators, hoses, torch, cutting and brazing tips, etc.
Not too bad for $180:

Ooo, SHINY!
Had to make an additional stop at PraxAir to get some oxygen and the cutting tip (that was stolen out of both kits on the shelf)
Hard to tell that it's a new bottle from all the bird meep and dirt.
Will clean shortly.

Figured I might as well get a welder's jacket too,

...so I can stop looking like a junkie with horrible aim.

Check it out:
Locked for travel;


Unlocked;


-and lifted;


I've got a meep of a lot of cleaning up to do in the morning;

Have you spring-loaded that arrangement for ease of use and positive locking?

Nein.
The handle is heavy enough that it falls closed, plus there's a set of holes for a padlock underneath to keep it from jarring open during transit.
meep, you know damned well I'm just making this meep up as I go.

I might install springs, extra doodads, etc. after the firebox and smoke chamber are loaded on.
Let's see how it all acts after assembly.

I test measured the tongue to make sure the mechanism clears the firebox.
I had 9" of space at the closest point.


I ran into a snag when it came time to put the smoke chamber up on the trailer.
The damned thing is just a hair heavier than I'm comfortable lifting.

Enter:
Perfect neighbor Brian.
This guy and I have been having a friendly pissing contest for over a decade now.
Sure, I can build anything, but this guy has a scale calibration/ food processing equipment repair business and sidelines at a cogen.
This dude OWNS OR HAS ACCESS TO EVERY GODDAMNED PIECE OF MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT IMAGINABLE.
I am not exaggerating.

I asked him to come over to help me lift the box. He glanced at it, grunted and said "Be right back"
He came back with this mutant lift device that was absolutely perfect for the job:

He left it for me to use to hold the box up so that I had a proper gap for welding.

Honestly I'm kind of afraid to meep him off, for fear that I'll come home later and find the house turned around and facing the other way.
This f#cker could do it.

So anyway it's starting to look like something now:

like a mothermeeping boss.

Spent the morning getting the latching mechanism smoothed out.
I added some pegs and rings so that the latch will lock upright:

I'm almost afraid to ask, but how much do you figure you'll have into just materials when all's said and done?

About a thousand so far.
I'll need a couple hundred more to finish.
(You're the third person to ask me that.)

You must really love your coworkers. Either that or wanted an excuse to build something.

That's really not too bad. I poked around online and found similar setups starting at around $3500 used and $5200 new. So as long as you don't factor in your labor your saving a lot more than most DIY projects. Also, will it make toast?

In order:
No
Yes
I've been running a 110 volt mig welder for hour after hour.
My PG&E bill will probably be ginormous and even things up.
Yes, and that toast will be full of rich smokey flavor.

Pieced together the top:


Added a second leveler:


Filled the holes around the air inlets:


And....wait...what, already?!

meep.

There. New spool's in place.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK, SLACKER!!

The grate was sitting a little high so I cut the bar out, sectioned and lowered it:




This is mineral wool.


And it cuts just like regular insulation:

Got the door assembled:


I got the door plate too hot and of course it warped.
I took my mini-sledge and persuaded it to align fairly well.


I spent the rest of the day welding the remaining skin pieces to the firebox(underneath where it's hard to reach)
I'm still sorting out the clearances for the thermal plate and grills:

Rotisserie?

500 watt stereo?

Wet bar?

Pizza tray?

I installed the thermal plate today.

Agonized over this a while.
I wanted the nice, carefully arranged plates to keep the heat even, but I'd have to lift the grill, remove the plates and clean the meep out of everything every time I use it to avoid grease fires.

I ended up installing a single plate that tilts downward toward the front so that grease flows down and out a hole in the side.
(I'll be installing a pipe and grease bucket)


Here's the rough handle:


I'll clean it later and spiffy it up with a single lock-nut and wooden grip later.
This was just so I could take the trailer out for a test drive.

It tracks really well.
There's about 80-100lbs of tongue weight and it doesn't bounce AT ALL.

Ah, welcome my old nemesis.
I have been expecting you.


Oh, to harken back to those innocent days when we would meet:
The gripping and pulling, the fruitless chewing upon your corners, the dangerous sawing with various dull kitchen knives.

Entertaining times for you, I'm sure.

But the man you see before you now has gotten older and has been seasoned by years of dealing with evil of your ilk.

No longer will I struggle with cheap scissors or hazard my fingers with a box cutter to access the treasures you hold captive.

This is war.

From here on your kind will immediately face the onslaught of my most dreadful tools.


Let your defeat be warning to all.
Forever more, I will show no mercy.

Seriously. Whoever designed those plastic containers should be castrated. I have a pair of shears we normally use for cabling that cuts that meep nicelike, but I love the overpowering bandsaw approach.

On to roll #3
(That's thirty pounds of wire kiddies!)


Today I got the grill framed:


...and the door built:

Are you still thinking about propane burners for the grill?

Yeah, I'm thinking a small starter for the firebox.

I was actually thinking that you had left room under the grill for three or four burners, so that the grill could be fired up fast, rather than relying on the remote fire-box to cook the food every time. Sort of make it a dual-purpose unit- fast grill or slow smoker.

That is a good idea.
I could do three 1" pipe burners just above the thermal plate.
It'll have to wait until after this weekend though.
The race is on to get this thing done, burned out, seasoned and dialed-in temperature-wise before Sunday.
I've got the air linkages started and a few other things done, but my cable and internet are out so no pics 'til Monday or Tuesday. (Unless I can get Vas to help me set up my camphone connection. I forgot the password)
I'm writing this via my Droid.