The P2D2 Project

[CMY]

With Ms. CMY being out of town for the week, and me stuck at home playing doggie daycare, I decided to start my "P2D2" project this weekend.

At this point it's nothing more than a 10+ year old Brickmann Smoker with a Bayou Classic burner assembly shoved inside. I make no claims that this'll actually work, but I will have a little more adjustability (vertically) to fine tune the burn and at worst I can always chuck it in the garbage.. because it was free.

Have a few things to attend to, namely the original grates being way too thin (I nearly melted the lower one during a one-minute test burn) and shoring up the internals so that it's a little more robust inside. Going to noodle on it this week but I may have a friend (with a WaterJet) cut out some "O rings" that I can mount the burner and diffuser to, and I also need to find a much thicker top stone before we're ready to rock.

Some random pics of before, during and after in no particular order (the original temp gauge is in there just for laughs). Any thoughts, comments or ideas welcomed!

-Chris

[Jet_deck]

It should work very nice, depending on where you put the exhuast.

[buceriasdon]

Chris, Good start. A few comments. I would take a hammer and another piece of steel and carefully thin the upper lip down so the lid can be removed and replaced quickly. Either that or cut the top of the cylinder down. Are you placing something in the lid such as aluminum plate or tile? The top has a lot of empty space up there, not good. What are your plans for venting? Best I've found is the LBE front vent in the lid. I find it better to have the top of the hearth stone level with the top of the lower part.
Don

[TXCraig1]

You are going to use a stone to bake on, correct? I think you will need something below the stone to direct some of the heat around the stone to the space above else your stone will be much hotter than the air above it and the pizza will be burn on the bottom and undercooked on the top. I think you need something to difuse the heat of that burner. Perhaps a large ceramic plate directly over the burner? Maybe couple inches smaller diameter than the somker? A cast iron pan might work as well.

I think you will need to insulate the sides and top (particularly the top) for the same reason.

Craig

[Meatballs]

I have considerable experience with propane jet (high pressure) burners making beer.  I really recommend some sort of flame deflector, maybe steel, between the flame and the pizza stone.  A ceramic deflector will not radiate the heat it picks up from the flame to the stone like steel will.  I'm thinking infrared here.  But, I would not put that flame directly onto the pizza stone, a low pressure burner maybe. 

Jet burners (also called Cajun burners, high pressure burners, ect.) are nasty beasts (and extremely inefficient on fuel).  They are hot, real hot, meant to be shot onto the bottom of a pot full of water.  Like you can boil water in a cloth bag or plastic bottle as long as water is present to boil off the heat.  Otherwise they will melt an aluminum pot and damage a steel pot if they boil dry.  Since the moisture content of pizza is low compared to gallons of water, there must be somewhere for the excess heat to go, infrared radiation is the best here.

Cool project, I'm very interested to see how it turns out.  All of the usual methods of obtaining neapolitan temperatures take long to pre-heat, a cajun burner will not take long, for sure.

Thanks for posting,

Ron

[buceriasdon]

I use no deflector what so ever in my LBE, never found a need. The 2Stone also uses no deflector. 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAwsqevZJo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAwsqevZJo</a>

Actually Chris from your photos your burner looks to be to far away from your hearth stone tile whatever.
Don

[sparkyjt]

My man!  I went this same route when I found the site.  Since then like you I have added changed and thanks to craigslist continually tweaked your design.  Here is what I found.  The entry is small even for a a 12 inch pie.  I had to be perfect in launch or my pie was a calzone.  I went the high pressure route so my stone was so hot that the top of the pie wasnt balanced at finish and took some stirring to get good charring on top.  I did find that I really liked the added height of the smoker base so I could see into the cooker. So now I have gone the weber route on top of the smoker base And now I have added fire bricks and beefed up the supports to accomodate.  Ill send pics after my chicken wings are done. Hope they inspire you to keep going.  Post pics as your build progresses Id like to see the transition.

JT

[sparkyjt]

Here are some pics of my build.  I added some refractory and perlite in the dome and it keeps my temps a little more constant when its cold.( im in nebraska)   I just set the whole unit right on top of the burner unit. and I get about 5 pies per a half of tank of fuel, which is where I have to stop due to the high pressure regulator. 
JT

[parallei]

Looking forward to more photos of your progress and pies.  Keep an eye on pup's rear end when you fire that thing up!

[buceriasdon]

I don't know what the difference in our respective setups are but I think I get well over twenty pizzas out of my 20lb. cylinder. I will have to keep better count of my firings. I filled the tank Wednesday of last week and have baked three pizza so far. 17 to go.
Don

Here are some pics of my build.  I added some refractory and perlite in the dome and it keeps my temps a little more constant when its cold.( im in nebraska)   I just set the whole unit right on top of the burner unit. and I get about 5 pies per a half of tank of fuel, which is where I have to stop due to the high pressure regulator. 
JT

[sparkyjt]

I mispoke don. I get about ten per half tank.  I get two evenings out of a half a tank and then I refill for pressure reasons.  I probably could do more but then I have to adjust flow to keep temps up. Also its been about ten degrees here for a month. Im hoping to enjoy some better temps soon and maybe be a little more efficient.  I also think I probably use a little more fuel with the smoker base under the weber.  Id take any hints you might have.  I listen pretty intently to you guys.
JT

[CMY]

Thanks for the interest guys- I haven't been at my computer much over the last couple of days because the dogs have pretty much manipulated my time (I forgot just how much of it that puppies demand and my better half took the last working laptop with her).

Sparky, I'm relieved that I'm not the only one to attempt this. Definitely makes me think that even if this doesn't work in it's initial state I can always throw something on top of it (at 6'3" the height was a big factor for me).

Meatballs, I'm planning on some sort of diffuser to re-route that heat. After turning on the burner half-blast it was pretty apparent that I'd have a big problem if I didn't.. thinking of going with a SS bowl and testing the waters. Cast iron would be great if I could find something without handles.

Don, I'm considering leaving the lid "as is" for now and maybe turning an entire half of it into a hinged flip-up. I like that the lid protrudes down and creates a great seal between the halves, but it certainly crossed my mind that it's not really convenient for check-in or removal.

At this point I know I'm at least one 14" BGE stone and a few tweaks away from testing.. maybe another week or so? Thanks again for all the feedback!

[Jackie Tran]

Very cool CMY.  I'm glad to see you blazing a new trail.  Looking forward to your results.   I recently built an LBE to get more circulating top heat.  Anyways it took a number of tweaks and several burnt bakes to get it baking properly.  I ended up (for the most part) just replicating my MBE mods. 

Thanks for posting your project. 

Chau