Self-owned demonstrationFabrication & equipment manufacturingSheet metal & enclosures2026
Problem
Shops build smokers for customers from rules of thumb and sketches; the plan sets we found come in fixed sizes without cut files, so every customer size is drawn again.
What we solved
The sizes give nine shop sheets (PDF and CAD), eleven cut files and a parts list in minutes, with the builders’ rules of thumb checked on the sheet.
Result
Every cut file is checked automatically before anyone cuts steel: 47 checks pass on the sample.
Try it yourself
Free, no account. Type your sizes on the drawing and download the set. If anything looks wrong, press “Found a mistake?” on the page and tell us.
Drafting time: chamber, firebox, chimney and cart redraw as you type, with the parts list, schedule of openings and weld details.
Mistakes before the shop floor: the firebox front fits round the cap, the opening stays inside the shell with a grease bridge, and the firebox, opening, inlet and chimney sizes are checked against builders’ rules of thumb.
Files ready for the cutter: shell blank with the lid and chimney hole, caps, firebox plates, door, damper and the chimney wrap template, at 1:1.
Sheet 5 of the sample set: end caps, firebox front and chimney template, drawn by the generator itself.
How it is checked
A separate script (Python, ezdxf) checks the shell blank, the lid, every point of the chimney hole, the firebox opening and plates, the chimney saddle and the masses: 47 checks on the sample. The script is in every download.
Tests run it on five smokers, from a 20 × 36 in backyard size to 40 in pipe, in millimetres and inches.
Responsibility
New pipe or plate only, never a used tank. Welds, plate and the cart are not sized for load, and the cart is not for towing. The rules of thumb are builders’ practice, not engineering.
Need the whole job done — drawings, cut files and the shop documentation? How we help shops →
Use the tools built this way
The free tools on this site run on the same discipline: geometry worked out first, assumptions stated, every file read back by software that did not write it.