Jason Robinson
New member
I am thinking of building a new smoker out of a propane tank something around a 250 gal. Since this is my first try at building a smoker any advice/do's/dont's/links would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks
New smoker advice
- Thread starter Jason Robinson
- Start date
Rich Langer
TVWBB Guru
Cutting a propane tank with a torch can be explosive.
Make sure that the person who cuts it knows what he is doing or has a great deal of insurance.
Make sure that the person who cuts it knows what he is doing or has a great deal of insurance.
adam clyde
TVWBB Pro
a friend of mine and I are currently building a smoker out of a 250 gallon water tank. For the reasons Rich said, we opted NOT to go the propane route. If you or a friend is a true professional on this, then go for it, but I wasn't going to be within a quarter mile of someone cutting into an old propane tank with a torch. I'm skittish that way, I guess.
A few things to keep in mind. First, make sure your aiflows are adjustable. That means at all places - into your firebox, from your firebox into your chamber, and even your smoke stacks. really good commercial pits are better at making sure your airflow can be regulated at one spot, but since I'm an amateur pit builder here, we made valves at all places to make sure we could regulate heat appropriately (too much airflow at the chimney side, for example, will suck in a ton of air from the firebox, which will in turn suck in a ton from the outside meaning it will run hot. But too little and it has the opposite effect. So, unless you are an engineer that can figure all that out and make the exact size vents, just make valves in multiple places to regulate.
Second, 250 gallons is quite a lot of space to heat up. Make sure your firebox can do that efficiently.
Lots of the other stuff you'll learn along the way... like making sure you have a decent trailer that fits the sucker, making sure your grates slide, getting flattened expanded steel for the grates (I made the initial mistake of regular expanded at first), etc. Loads of little things. But biggest I think are the ones above.
Oh, and please, please don't blow yourself up.
A few things to keep in mind. First, make sure your aiflows are adjustable. That means at all places - into your firebox, from your firebox into your chamber, and even your smoke stacks. really good commercial pits are better at making sure your airflow can be regulated at one spot, but since I'm an amateur pit builder here, we made valves at all places to make sure we could regulate heat appropriately (too much airflow at the chimney side, for example, will suck in a ton of air from the firebox, which will in turn suck in a ton from the outside meaning it will run hot. But too little and it has the opposite effect. So, unless you are an engineer that can figure all that out and make the exact size vents, just make valves in multiple places to regulate.
Second, 250 gallons is quite a lot of space to heat up. Make sure your firebox can do that efficiently.
Lots of the other stuff you'll learn along the way... like making sure you have a decent trailer that fits the sucker, making sure your grates slide, getting flattened expanded steel for the grates (I made the initial mistake of regular expanded at first), etc. Loads of little things. But biggest I think are the ones above.
Oh, and please, please don't blow yourself up.