Building a Texas Style BBQ

[wood monger]

A coat of paint and it will look great, you're not building an atom smasher.

[Qweaver]

Here's where I stopped today.  There was a time when I would not have stopped until the doors were done but I quit at 5 pm and popped a cold one.   The pit should be making smoke by quitting time tomorrow.


 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I can smell the Hickory wood now. Looks like top of the line Q.

[Holmes]

I can smell the Hickory wood now. Looks like top of the line Q.

Poston you look good in that hat and lipstick

[Don_Papenburg]

First time I saw that pic I thought he had a new pet skunk on his horns

[Nichols]

Looking good Qweaver!!!  I can't wait to see the finished product. I have been gathering the pieces to make one myself, just not enough time.

[Piston]

Oh boy, your making me hungry already, and I haven't even SEEN any food yet  food2

[Ljohnsaw]

Anxiously awaiting the final product!  I was thinking of making a small one.  Would a water heater core be too thin to mess with?

[LeeB]

I've made them from water heaters before. Electric works best. Can be a pain to cut though because of the minerals that are usually built up on the inside. A cutting disc might be better than a torch.

[bartman]

Lookin good

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I'm thinkin the chicken population is going to take a hit when you fire that thang up!

[LeeB]

I really like the flattop on the smoke box. Good place for pans and such.

[Qweaver]

As promised, the smoke is rolling.  I will spend tomorrow with the trim and finishing touches.   A full days work to go.  I plan to just keep it burning for awhile,  sip a cold one and relax.  It's be a busy 4 days but a lot of time was used for gathering materials and tools. I may try to come up with dand to blast it...or just Oshpho if no sand close around.  Then a day or two to build the really simple  trailer.


  

 

[Qweaver]

Anxiously awaiting the final product!  I was thinking of making a small one.  Would a water heater core be too thin to mess with?

If you really want to slow cook big hunks of meat, (which is what this smoker is designed to do) then you need a heavy walled pipe (1/4" or thicker).  We built several of these each year with my welding class...usually with 20" or larger pipe with a fire box on one end.  Texans take BBQ seriously and the pit you see here is pretty typical of what is used to cook competitive brisket.  I once cooked 40 briskets overnight as a fund raiser for a school club.  I'll never do that again!  We used 4 pits, all larger than this one and we still had to roll brisket all night.  I politely declined the next year.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I like it!

[Qweaver]

I really like the flattop on the smoke box. Good place for pans and such.

Not really hot enough for cooking when we are in slow cook mode but great when the brisket is done and you are doing the beans and chili.

[Piston]

I'm semi "fascinated" with the idea of slow cooked BBQ like this.  I've only had 'good' BBQ a couple of times in my life, and I yearn for it on a regular basis.  They just don't have good BBQ up north, so I think my only option would be to do it myself, except I have no clue what I'm doing  :

How do you control the heat?  Do you have dampers either at the inlet, outlet, or both?  I can't see how the temp would stay around 200-225 consistently.  Or is it all in experience and how much wood you load in the firebox?

I imagine it get's exponentially harder to keep a steady temp in the really cold and windy weather?  For instance, up north in the winters...  ???

[Qweaver]

I've never tried cooking BBQ in freezing temps but I have cooked in cool windy weather and it just requires that you let the fire burn hotter.  That's the great thing with this cooker design, with a damper on the fire box door and one on the exhaust stack the temp is completely controllable within just a few degrees.  It requires really dry hardwood, oak mainly for heat,  and a "seasoning" wood like mesquite for flavor.   I will try other woods since no mesquite grows in WV.  I usually keep the fire box loaded and choked down to a slow, smoky burn.

[scsmith42]

Looks great Quinton!  Do you have any baffles, etc inside? 

Some of the Texas style pits that I've seen had steel plate installed underneath the grill in order to serve as a heat source (the exhaust from the fire traveled underneath the plates - heating them up and providing an even heat inside the pit).

If so some pix of the inside would be appreciated.

Scott

[Qweaver]

Hey Scott, I do have a baffle that separates the fire box from the cooking area but I do not have a horizontal baffle.  That sounds like a good way to spread the heat more uniformly, but I do want to get plenty of smoke on the meat.  I plan to build another pit in the near future and I may try that.  The design will take some thought.  It is important to keep cooking juices from getting back to the fire or a real conflagration could occur resulting in brisket jerky .  :D  I do love the cooking and socializing activities of a Texas BBQ, beans and chili cookoff.  Except in Texas you can not put beans in the chili...and to me it ain't chili unless it has beans.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I would like to see some inside pix too.

and beans are the fun part of chilli!

Jon

[LeeB]

Except in Texas you can not put beans in the chili...and to me it ain't chili unless it has beans.

Get a rope.  smiley_hanged

[scsmith42]

One of the ones that I've seen with the plates had the exhaust stack on the same end of the pipe as the firebox.  This required the smoke (and heat) to travel from the firebox to the opposite end of the pipe - under the plates, and then vent up through a gap between the plates and the end of the tube, next traveling back across all of the meat to reach the exhaust vent.

Another one had a pair of plates that came in from each side and covered around 65% of the width of the pipe.  They were angled down towards the middle of the pipe and had around a 1" horizontal gap inbetween them.  The smoke traveled under the plate and up through the gap to reach the vent (on the opposite end from the firebox).  I've even seen this style w/o a firebox - you built the fire under the plates.  That was actually one of my favorite designs.

[gspren]

   I checked mapquest and I'm only 300 miles or 6 hours away, whens the show and tell party? ;D

[Qweaver]

I've got the pit burning this am mainly to see if I have enough air supply holes to get maximum heat when I need it.  I'd like to be able to see over 400 in the pit and then be able to choke it down to 120 with everything closed off.   I had about 350 in the pit, 650 on the fire box top  with the door closed and the 3 holes open on the FB door.  I think I'll put some more close-able holes each side beside the door. The air temp was 32 so it'll be hotter in summer.  I've got a really good seal on the pit doors.  The pit doors usually spring out when they are cut but these stayed dead straight. 
I'm ready to cook and from here on it's just "how much dress-up do I want to do".  I was going to throw a brisket on there today but Sarah wants it next weekend instead.  I may kill a deer and cook it at the same time.  It takes a lot of care to keep a deer roast moist and get it tender when cooked on a pit.  Note the amount of smoke in the last pic.  Now I have a 3' piece of pipe to build a charcoal pit to go beside this one on the trailer.  I already have all of the materials on hand, so this one should go quickly.