Stainless steel hardware

[Pinky]

Hello,

I am planning to build my own vertical smoker out of an old water tank I have found.
Just wondering I anyone knows where to buy stainless steel nuts and bolts, and other hardware. Are the bolts etc that b&q and homebase etc sell made of stainless or are they just zinc galvanised?

Will post pics of the beast when I get working on it!!

David

[Steve]

I always use a local hardware shop - Drews, or fleabay for SS hardware. HTH

[keith157]

Al commented a while ago about replacing his standard bolts with stainless as they lasted longer therefore were easier to disassemble and rebuild bits of kit on his world conquest tours
Try Screwfix/Tool Store/ Rutlands they all offer stainless bits

[JEC]

We use the below at work

http://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/ScrewBolt_M.html?gclid=CImVsKvWjK4CFQlpfAoddBXm6A

http://www.fastfixdirect.co.uk/default.asp?PageID=30

http://www.pts-uk.com/?utm_source=BMON%20AdWords%20Campaign&utm_medium=CPC%20Search%20Network&utm_campaign=AdWords%20-%20UK%20-%20Products%20-%20Ad%20II

Fast fix are normally cheaper but the others tend to have the more obscure sizes, don't bother with 316 unless it's on offer standard 304 will be fine

[Pinky]

Tell us more about your tank . Any photos before you begin.

Thanks everyone for your help,

heres a pic of the drum:

we have well water and this is the tank that pressurises the water. There is a bladder inside and air is pumped between the bladder and the tank to cause the pressure.

My plan is to cut the top an inch or two down from where it starts to curve and hinge this as a lid (will need to weld a piece of rod around this to get a good seal), then the rest of my plan is basically a UDS, so build a fire grate out of expanded, and put a few air inlets around the bottom, one with a turn valve, and put two grates in it, one 24" from charcoal grate and the other 6-8 \' above this (depending how much space I have.) Oh and a set of wheels as well.

I'm also going to make the charcoal basket so it will sit on the lower cooking grate so I can grill with it as well.

I'd be interested to hear what you guys think?

Spent quite a bit of time researching on BBQ brethern site!!


The drum is about the diameter of the 67cm weber one touch, and I emailed them to see if you can buy a replacement cooking grill as i thought it would be nicer than expanded metal. They quoted me £120 for one grate!!!! unbelievable, especially when you can buy a 57cm one for like £30!!!
expanded metal its going to be!!

[keith157]

Good luck, wouldn't know where to start techy skill rating, just above Zero

[Steve]

What's the weight of that bad boy? If its a pressure vessel I assume its fairly thick steel.

[Pinky]

I havent cut this one, but have another that I use as a fire pit and it has about 2mm steel, so assuming this one is the same.

thats why I'm gonna have to think of a way to hinge the lid.

There is a you tube of a guy who looks to have done something similar, I like his idea, but dot think you need to go into all the doors etc at the bottom; cant control the temp as easily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5dLwEWFZ8k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Pinky

[Pinky]

thanks doc for your help.

That hinge looks like it might be quite hard to make (and quite heavy)

Here's a pic of a smoker I saw on youtube:

hinge.tiff (138.23 KiB) Viewed 10146 times

This looks like a simpler design, if I can find a couple of springs!!