WSM Cart Enclosure Project


 
J

Jamie Ward

TVWBB Member
Well I said it would start this thing in the next few weeks, but I got a wild hair tonight and headed to Home Depot to get some supplies.

I'm only about three hours in, but I've got the frame 90% finished. Perhaps tomorrow I will get the rest of the frame finished and squared up.

Next will be to start the center partition and the door panels. Then finally a hinged top.

Stefan B over in this thread had the same idea that I had bouncing around in my head. I'll take a few things from his playbook and incorporate them into my design as well.

The photo below shows the framework. The section on the left will hold my 22" WSM. The section on the right will be enclosed storage. The two sections will be separated with a piece of plywood. The whole rig will be on a nice set of locking caster wheels.

I'll keep posting to this thread as the Weber Smokey Mountain Cart Enclosure Project progresses.

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Today I completed the framing, added locking casters, cut the sub-countertop, cut the storage area floor and the partition that separates the smoker section from the storage section.

Next will be to make the doors and fixed panels to hide everything inside, stain and finish and then have a stainless steel cover made for the finished countertop.

Here ya go:

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Jamie - Keep us up-to-date on your progress. I would like to see the finished product with the fire insulating material. Also, did you think of putting slider rails on that bottom shelf for easy removal of the WSM. Look Great!!
 
Originally posted by Tom S.:
Jamie - Keep us up-to-date on your progress. I would like to see the finished product with the fire insulating material. Also, did you think of putting slider rails on that bottom shelf for easy removal of the WSM. Look Great!!
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Will do. I plan on using Reflectix inside the smoker enclosure. I'll put it on all four interior walls as well as underneath the countertop. I know you can't wrap the WSM with Reflectix directly, but there is at least a two inch air space between the WSM and the walls. I'm thinking that the Reflectix will handle that. I'll be standing by with a fire extinguisher just in case on the first few cooks however.

As far as the sliding rails are concerned, no I didn't think of that. The WMS bottom is really pretty easy to slide out on the wood rails that are there right now. I don't see the need for anything further at this point. The only additional thing I may do to the bottom wood rails would be to wrap them with sheet metal to guard against fire.
 
Today I found an alternative to the Reflectix that I think will be just perfect. I found it at my local Menards. It is a reflective foil laminated to OSB. It's called Eclipse Radiant Barrier Panels from RoyOMartin. It makes the same claim that Reflectix does which is that it blocks 97% of radiant heat.

I conducted my own non-scientific test on the foil side of the panels in the garage tonight. I turned the foil side down and held a lighter under it for a good 60 seconds with the flame right on the foil. The surface of the foil turned black, but there was no permanent damage to the foil or the OSB. The black just wiped away with no visible damage to the foil. I think these will work well.

I also picked up a mess of 1 X 6 cedar picket fence boards (actually they are 5/8"). These will be attached to the OSB panels for a nice finished look outside.

Here are a few pics of the stationary panels cut and setting in their places. Next will be to glue them into place and to attach the 1 X 6 cedar boards. Then I'll make the doors.

Here is the OSB panels found at Menards:

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And here are the progress photos thus far:

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Jamie, a suggestion. The narrow middle support. I would drop it down to support two pieces of 1 x 2 similar to the perpendicular sections where the WSM is to go. Put one 1 x 2 on the top and another on the bottom. DOn't know if I explained it quite clear enough.It makes it a lot easier to put the bottom of the WSM in there without trying hit or miss with the metal legs on that narrow piece of wood
 
Originally posted by paul h:
Jamie, a suggestion. The narrow middle support. I would drop it down to support two pieces of 1 x 2 similar to the perpendicular sections where the WSM is to go. Put one 1 x 2 on the top and another on the bottom. DOn't know if I explained it quite clear enough.It makes it a lot easier to put the bottom of the WSM in there without trying hit or miss with the metal legs on that narrow piece of wood
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Good suggestion Paul. Actually I've been thinking I may just put a piece of that foiled OSB down there and then cut some drainage/ventilation holes. I really like the way that foil board took my flame test. I'm thinking that would be a good heat resistance bottom for the unit.

I think tonight I might light a few coals and place them on top of the foiled OSB to see if I can catch this stuff on fire. This would simulate a stray coal getting dumped into the smoker but missing and landing on the floor of the enclosure. If that doesn't pass, I may just end up making a metal bottom. We shall see. It's a work in progress.
 
Tonight I took an hour and attached the 1 x 6 cedar boards to the fixed panels on the sides and back. Next project for me is the doors.

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And I'm pretty much done. The stainless steel countertop that was planned had to be scrapped because of the budget. The top alone would have cost just about $600. That was way out of my budget.

Here are the photos:

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Here is the BBQ Guru NanoQ inside the cabinet:

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One final image showing the cover on the smoker. It fits around the handle and inside the cutout just fine.

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Well I did a dry run today and I'm happy to say that I did not burn the sucker to the ground!

I did notice a few things that I will address before my next dry run or smoke. Here are a few notes.

1) The Eclipse Radiant Barrier OSB panels did an amazing job at keeping the heat away from the wood. I could touch the foil faced panels and did not feel any amount of heat to be concerned about.

The items in the smoker enclosure section that are not covered with the Eclipse product, did in fact get pretty warm. Not catch on fire warm, but still. Bare wood that was about 8" away from the WSM was much warmer than the Eclipse product just 1-2" away from the WSM.

2) The three wood leg supports that the WSM sits on also got pretty warm.

3) The underside of the countertop also got somewhat warm.

To correct the problems, I will be adding a new floor made out of the Eclipse OSB panel with holes for drainage and air flow. I will also be adding the Eclipse material to the underside of the countertop in that area as well as the 4x4 post that the door hinges from in the smoker section. That will solve the warm cedar wood issue.

That's it for now. I'll report again when those modifications are complete and another test has be run.
 
Originally posted by paul h:
How long did you let it run?
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I put in two layers of briquettes and about 20 lit on top. I'd say I ran it for about 5 hours today before I closed the vents to cool it down.
 
When I made my cart. I had all the enclosures around the WSM wrapped in reflictix but all the doors were hinged so that I had access from three sides.The doors gave me the option of using them as a wind break or just leaving them open to allow for access to the vents. I don't know how much heat the 22 puts off versus the 18 but my top, where the hole for the WSM is, never got hot even when doing high heat cooks. The unit looks well made ,JAmie. Just a few tweaks should do it hopefully
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