So I have decided to go ahead and build my reverse flow smoker. I found alot of other builds online to get an idea what I wanted to have in the end. I started out with an 80 gallon air compressor tank that I purchased for 40 bucks from an old man in west phoenix. Im planning on putting the smoker on a trailer and my dad gave me an old welding trailer to use. So I started out by cutting the doors on the tank, I used a sawzal for this as I didnt know if there were any combustable materials empregnated into the steel. If there were and I were to put a cutting torch on the tank the flamable material would vaporize and then combust in an enclosed space. The tank has the potential to blow up like a bomb. The sawzal was a much safer choice. After the doors were cut I noticed alot of rust inside the tank so I filled it with 3/4inch gravel and bricks and I rolled it around the yard with the quad. As the tank would spin the rocks would pollish alot of the rust off the inside. I used the torch to super heat any remaining rusty areas, as it would get hot the remaining rust would pop off. After the majority of the rust was gone I set a very hot fire inside the tank to burn out any remaining chemecal smells and to melt the nasty paint off the tank. As I was having a bon fire in my front yard inside this tank my neighbors were able to confirm that I am part hilbilly, but hilbilly will be makin super good bbq soon. Anyway, theres a tag welded on the front of the tank that has the manufacturers name on it, Ive decided to keep the tag and have it right on the front. This is a really old tank, it was produced when manufacturing was king in this country. Since manufacturing has all but disappeared Im keeping the tag on the front as a tribute to the Manufacturing United States, rest in peace. So I started cutting the trailer so I can lengthen it from 4ft to 9ft. In addition to the smoker on the trailer Id also like a charcoal bbq and 2 heavy duty propane burners. So Ill probably put the smoker just a little bit forward of the axle and the bbq and the gas burners to the back of the smoker. I was going to add a propane gas assist to the smoker, but I heard of a guy who did just that and the propane leaked into the cook chamber and when he lit it, the smoker blew up like a bomb and seriously mamed him. Yikes, maybe I wont add the gas assist-. So heres some pics check it out, if you dont know how a reverse flow smoker operates check out the first picture.
