I have some scrap expanded steel and a welder. I’m curious if there is any consensus for the best basket design for a cylindrical firebox like mine? Was thinking about just doing a simple cube, but I see the v-shape in a lot of videos as well.
Or does it not matter at all and I’m spending way too much time thinking about it??
Ya this is what really draws me to the V shape. It feels like too many coals get pushed to the side and are wasted.
You need longer splits. Assuming your pit has a 24” diameter firebox, you should be using around 12” splits. Then you just take your coal bed and make a channel down the middle and run your splits across it.
20” diameter and 20” long. This is actually my first burn-in with leftover pieces from my dad’s smoker (which is MUCH smaller). Will be procuring some new wood today from my brothers house.
Is the general rule of thumb that splits should be ~50% of the diameter?
No, not really. You could do a little bigger or smaller. I have a 24” and tend to run 14” long splits. I would still try 12” with yours and see. The round bottom of your firebox will naturally create a pathway for air. You just need to make sure that when you add a split, the center of your coal bed is slightly lower than the sides.
You want to build a good coal bed as well. That initial wood might get your pit a little hot when I lights but once it burns down into coals it will be perfect. Then you can add a log for at a time and go from there.
Start looking into a kindling cracker or something similar and alligator loppers or something similar. The kindling cracker will help you get your splits thinner and the alligator loppers or small chain saw will cut them to length.
The v is nice just make sure air circulates correctly
Which would mostly be achieved by encouraging air flow under the basket, correct? I’m weighing my options of raising the basket off of the fire brick (not pictured). I’m ultimately picturing having it raised enough to allow ash to fall below, and then building a tool to scrape the ash from under the basket when needed.
Under and door side air flow
Are you having issues with fire management currently? I have a round firebox have never used a firebox basket and don’t feel I need one.
Ran a test cook for the first time today (with a makeshift stack) and it went really well. Was able to hold 265-285 really easily. However, I can see longer cooks needing some kind of ash removal method, and that’s mainly why I’m considering adding some kind of box with space below to easily scoop ash out during the cook. Might make it a rectangular box though as I never had an issue maintain a good coal bed.
Got it, I have a big firebox so haven’t run into having to remove ash during a cook yet but I do have a burn barrel near by if that became necessary. Post some updates if you end up adding something.
I just finished it up today. This is a much smaller piece to the larger restore I've been doing on this smoker. Thankfully I only have the smoke stack left, which is about 50% done. Hoping to have everything done by the end of this week and will definitely be posting an update!
I like how my OC Brazos does it. They have a steel plate with some holes for air flow. The ash drops below and I can use the little tool they included (not sure of the name) to clean ash out during the smoke if needed.
Just looked up some videos of their version and it has basically sold me on a square design that’ll lay across my fire brick. I believe it was their tool that originally implanted the idea in my head to build an ash extractor.