I have FINALLY gotten my partner, Mark, to write up something for the blog!  It only took, well, 5 months, but he finally got me some good stuff!

As some know, we’re building a smoker; Mark has been very hands-on with it… He’s also included a few pictures of it… You can get an idea of the size of the main chamber.  We’ll add more pictures as it gets completed.  The picture with Martin sitting in the cooker gives an idea of scale.

Here’s Mark’s blog entry…

Every competition team needs a good
cooker. At our last competition in Carmel, IN, we used our old Chargrillers, and it really hurt us! We were continually fighting temperature and
didn’t seem to have all of the space we needed to get the job done right. Now, that’s not to say that competitions
can’t be won on a Chargriller or any other small cooker for that matter,
because they most certainly can. But having a quality cooker can make a true
difference.

In January I loaned my utility trailer to a friend while he was moving. When he brought it back, he said that he wanted to do something for me to show his appreciation for letting him use the trailer. He had heard about Bucky McOinkum’s through various people and asked if he could build us a competition smoker. It turns out that Martin Hall had spent 19 years as a welder and had the skills needed to build the smoker that we have wanted.

1. Create a design that would hold a consistent temperature
   for an extended period of time.
2. Create a cooker that could be used to cater for larger
   parties and events.
3. Keep our costs low by building ourselves and buying steel
   wholesale through a friend.

To address
our first goal in regards to temperature control, Martin initially thought that
we could build a cooker with a 2” refractory mixture on the walls of the inside
of the firebox and cooking area. The
more we thought about it, the more it became evident that we would need a
double axel trailer to hold the weight, but also it would be a lot of work to
pour and dry all of that refractory, not to mention, it would have been
challenging to build on a trailer because of the shifting required to get the
refractory to settle on the various sides. So, idea one did not fly. Martin
kicked around several other ideas, but finally landed the idea that we are
currently building. We would build a
40”x40”x48” smoker with two layers of steel two inches apart acting as
insulation for the cooker and thus holding more consistent temps. The firebox will have a 1 ½” refractory mix
on its interior surfaces, including the lid, which will provide excellent
insulation.

After
Martin showed me his plan on paper, my first question for him was, “How much
meat can we cook in it at a time?” The
answer, “Are you kidding me? You’re gonna have three 38”x38” racks with the
future option to add additional racks if you feel it necessary.” It was hard to envision on when looking at a
tiny model on his computer printout, but I had faith. Now that we have put it
all together, I have realized that it’s huge! It will be perfect for taking on
large catering orders.

So it was
time to find our materials. Curt and I are close friends with, Jerry Haupt who
owns Devers, a large custom-truck manufacturing company here in Dayton. I had asked Jerry
if we could buy steel through him at wholesale when we started building the
cooker. He was more than happy to
help. In fact, he was so happy to help,
that when Martin and I went to pick up the steel, Jerry refused payment and
said that it was his donation to the team. We ordered 1/8” steel sheets, which Devers bent and cut, for us. They also provided us with our angle iron for
the trailer and rack supports, as well as the expanded metal for the
racks. We then went to a local farm
equipment company and bought a basic 4×8 trailer with a 2000lb towing capacity.
With our steel pipes, refractory mix, cheap mig welder and some other misc.
items, we have been able to keep our costs around $500.00. Not bad for a cooker
that will make our lives much easier at competitions as well as give us the
freedom cater for large events.

For now I
have included some of our preliminary pictures while building “The Smokehouse”
(as Martin has branded it). In future entries, I will show you the finished
product, as well as some pictures of Curt and me as we get cookin’ with
it. Look for us in Grand Rapids on July 14 and 15 as we will
unveil the new rig at this competition.