I Build A SMOKER From An Old Compressor!

[John] This sucks. In this video I’m going to turn this junky old air tank that I found

into this. So I bought this thing on Facebook Marketplace for about 60 bucks, and I drug

it out of the woods with my buddy Ryan who is an avid barbecuer like myself. The concept

here, is to use this for the grill – the chamber of the smoker. First things first

though, I’m gonna build the stand for it, so that way I don’t have to lug this thing

around because we don’t have any means to pick it up in the air. So we’re going to

put it down one last time. To you, Jordan.

I had to cut all the valves and stuff off because it was hardwired into the building,

but the tank seems to be in pretty good shape still. We’re going to use that for the chamber

on the smoker. But I don’t feel like lugging it around.

So, first things first, I’m going to build a platform. And then we gotta figure out a

way to fasten these big ‘ol wheels to it, and then make the front turn. All things I’ve

never done, well, I’ve made boxes out of metal so I shouldn’t say that. But I’ve

never done the wheelie thing. This should be fun.

So we’re using these 4x4 golf cart tires. These are a little bit oversized, because

I’m oversized, and I like oversized things. I have to weld this wheel bearing hub into

the axle itself. So to make sure everything is kind of kosher I gotta add a little spacer

there. Never done this before. This should get real squirrelly.

We need this thing to turn, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to take this

axle—oh, my goodness—and then build up this foot off of it. We’ll have a hole through

here and then a hole through our cage. A bolt will run through some washers between them,

and we should be able to fasten the handle to the bottom axel. That will allow us to

turn the front just like a wagon. And then the back wheels will be permanently fixed.

Should work in theory. But we all know how theory is around these parts – the worst.

Let’s drill some holes.

Up. More. Another pib, your pib, my pib.

Probably shouldn’t weld that close to the tire, huh, Sam? All right, so the buggy’s

rolling and rocking and all the fun stuff that we were looking for. Now we gotta build

some arms. My thought is, I’ll get this thing kinda fit to a height that I want it

at, and then I’ll be able to work on it not on the ground because I hate working on

the ground. So, yeah, let’s get to that. And then, hopefully, we’ll have this thing

mocked-up here in a little bit.

This is not a very aggressive arch. But I’ve just got a marker taped to some dividers here,

and I’m just marking it because we’ll take this off and then I can, from that corner,

cut it on the other side. And it will just sit down a little nicer. Give me a little

bit of a better weld seam against the can.

So, with those arms on there, it is now time to clean ‘ol blue. I’m putting on the

gas mask for this because this is about to get absolutely filthy.

I love this. You can still see Oakmont, and that’s like Pittsburg. That’s a city here

near us. And then the John Wood Company in Conshohocken, PA. 1965 it looks like. It’s

a 200 psi tank. It’s super cool, so I’m leaving all that stuff on here. And then this

will be the back of the tank. The lid will be cut up here and kind of come out. I’m

gonna have to wait to cut it open and figure what the hell I’m going to do with all of

these, like I guess, where stuff was fixtured in it. I want to get it on there and kinda

see what it looks like first. It’s sweet, dude. Yes. It’s just so gnarly looking.

I love this height. This is going to be perfect. And we’ll have to come between these two

points. She custom, looking sweet.

So, in order to make this sheet a little more manageable, we got to cut this sucker in half.

We’re going to hand cut plasma in order to put it on the plasma table and then computer

cut plasma. More plasma.

Now that we’ve got all the parts cut, we need to make the firebox. I’m making an

insulated firebox here. So we’re literally going to make a small box and then weld it

inside of a big box. And then we’re going to stuff that box, cap that box, and light

that box on fire. This should be fun.

I’m sweating like a pig. Hopefully it’s shedding all the barbeque pounds I’ve put

on. I’ve gotta figure out a solution because this is not what I wanted. This is supposed

to come and be flush with the face. I don’t know how I missed that; I just didn’t even

think of that. I should have had my Dammit, John shirt on. Okay, we’re just going to

cut a couple of strips and weld those into here and just build that box out to match

the face. And then we can still stuff it full of insulation and it should be fine. Everything

is fixable. The one nice thing about working with metal is that you can always add to it.

So we’re going to rip those strips on the plasma table and then get those in.

I’ve got some wool insulation left over, and I don’t know if it’s the correct insulation,

but it’s what I’m going to use. I’m lighting this box on fire regardless. So if

it catches on fire, I’ll just make sure I’m not close to something else. Now all

we need is a door.

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a Patreon, or if you can join a membership or anything like that. And the answer’s

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we know you a lot of you guys really love the Let Us Spray. So, if you want to support

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and thank you guys so much for supporting us.

So we’re antsy and want to see this door open. And, like I said, we left tabs here

to hold the door in place perfectly. So I can weld these hinges in place and then, the

door, I can cut the door free, and it should swing right open. In theory.

So the door’s on and tacked in and I just went ahead and put the v-bottom in, which

will allow for a coal bed and let the air flow a little bit better. I got that off of

Chuds Barbeque. If you guys are looking to make something, make sure to check out that

channel. All right, this thing is ready to be installed. Now, we gotta figure out the

best way to cut into the tank. Because I’m right-handed, and we’ve also got all of

these things on the back end of the tank, the door has to go on this side. So I want

the firebox to be on the right side. I just think it should be on the right. So because

of that, we’ve got to come up with a way of getting a perfectly straight line and cutting

this cap off so I can weld that in. And then that will actually weld to the frame and everything

will be secure. I can get this welded into place. And we’ll be able to get this thing

rolling and we won’t have so many parts. I don’t know what I’m doing.

It's nasty. So I’m going to have to wait until I have a door cut in that to clean it

out. Jordan and I are going to attempt to put this onto a pallet jack, and then, somehow,

get it close to this so that I can weld it to the frame. Squirreliness level: 2000. I

don’t want you to f**king break your back.

[Jordan] I won’t.

[John] That’s what I get for being a man-bear pig. What if we just do this? Here, lean it

on those legs and I’ll just pull the back up as best I can. I’m stuck. I hope these

tacks hold. Let’s push it up there. So our opening is sitting a little too low. So I’m

going to have to make another cut across here, bring that up, and we should be okay to fit

that in. We’re also going to take the wheels off of this. It will give us a little bit

more room to get this up, which should help with this issue. The problems of not having

a forklift, or anything, except for my back and Jordan’s back.

This is the dream right here. This is the whole vision

behind it. Now I’ve just gotta weld everything in and then we should be able to put it back

on wheels. It’s going to be pretty heavy over here, huh? I hope we don’t have to

counterweight it over there. We’ll find out.

Jordan just put the wheels back on. Now let’s hope this thing doesn’t just come falling

on this side once it gets back on. Ready, boss?

[Jordan] Yup.

[John] Hey. This is so cool. Jordan is going to cut our hinges, though, on the plasma table

because we want to go with a little bit beefier hinge instead of the bull hinges that we used

on these doors. Take it away Boss Hog.

Jordan just cut the hinge part which means we now need to lay out our door. What I’ve

got here is a piece of paper, and I’m just using reference points on the tank in order

to draw my curved line to where the door is going to land. So I can just hold the paper

here, I’ll go past where I anticipate needing it, and just walk the big bear paw around.

And then we’re actually going to cut right here along—right above this weld for the

door top. All right, so Jordan came up with this hinge design which we’re going to weld

into place. So what I need to do is weld this outside piece into place, as well as this,

and then this inside piece once we’re all together. Welder!

All right now, for the moment of truth so we get this all right. Hey! It worked. Oh,

it smells so bad. Whew! I can’t wait to put 25-hours into cleaning this rust. All

right, so the next thing on our agenda is: One, insane meat sweats. Two, we’re going

to put the handle on. We got the hinge welded on. One thing to keep in mind if you’re

going to be doing something like this, you want your handle to come down below your lid

so that when it’s up you can still reach it without sticking your hand or your forearm

on the door. And you want the handle to be able to rotate so that it feels better in

the hands.

[Video] I’m not sure what to do with my hands.

[John] So you could run a piece of rod the whole way across if you want. But I’ll just

cut a piece that’s about 1 ½ inch to go on this side and this side, and I’ll bridge

the gap with some cheaper material.

We’re going to build a collection bin and our stack will

come out. I got this concept from Aaron Franklin. Make sure all the smoke collects over the

whole grate instead of in one place, and then we’ll have it vent up to a 6-inch pipe.

So, let’s get this firebox welded up.

Oh, I am starving. We should eat. Oh what, you guys thought I was abandoning my Pit Boss?

Hell no. Time and a place for all smokers. Eat up.

The next order of business is I gotta tack this in. Tack will give us somewhere to put

tension; get this thing into plumb and square. So a little tack-er-roo. So the next thing

we need to do is put what’s called a damper on the top here. This is to regulate airflow

in and out. I had Jordan make this thing, and it’s a bit aggressive, but it’s going

to work perfectly. So I’m going to weld it into place as it sits perfectly like this

that way, when it’s closed, no air gets out. We’ll put a little tab on this side

and we’ll just be able to pull it out. If you’re running this thing wide open, you’ve

probably got problems. But you barely need to crack it. And with a pipe this big it should

have some great airflow. So let’s burn ‘er in.

I hope this doesn’t break this tack off. Next on the agenda

is a hook to hold this. Wow. It’s so cool to just make moving shit that works.

[Jordan] You going to try and get it out there by yourself?

[John] So now for the most important parts of barbequing, something to barbeque on. We

got to put some grates in here. I’m using some angle iron. I’m up here on the flatter

surface and we’re only 1 degree off from level, so I can just match this 0.9 or 1 degree

here with the degree on my shelf, and then they’ll be in parallel. Get this thing burned

in and then I’ll do the same thing going across the back.

So all the

main parts are in which means it’s time for all the frilly parts. Jordan, get back

on to that plasma cutter.

[Jordan] I got something to show you, Dad.

[John] Oh boy. It is never good when Jordan brings me a surprise. Oh, damn! That actually

turned out sweet. Nice job! Growing up right in front of my eyes.

She works. Load ‘er up and take her home.

So two days, a brisket and six racks of ribs, I would say ‘Ol Blue’s getting the job

done.

[Video] You’re my boy, Blue!

[John] All right, so for about 60 bucks for this air can, I would say $500 for the wheels

and axles, another $500 in metal, and then all of my fancy tools, we’re all in about,

I’d say, about 1500 bucks, with a couple loose odds and ends in there as well. And

these things sell for about $6000. So, if you’re in the market, or you are looking

to get into business with something cool, there’s a ton of demand for stuff like this

out there. Go make yourself a few bucks. And also, a huge shout out to Jordan. I wouldn’t

be able to do it without him and all the work he did on the CNC table. Go tell him how well

he did on Instagram. He’s enjoying himself some ribs right now though, so don’t bother

him right now. And if y’ins wanna to see more metal projects, I’ve got a whole playlist

for you right here.