well, I'll never be a welding nerd, but I am seriously jealous of those welds, Marfa. I've got a cut-off tank end I've been thinking about making into a firebowl, also.
I'm self/youtube-taught, plus some good advice from friends. first project was a welding table (been posted, before). that was lead up to my narrow-ass smoker build. very much a go-with-the-flow project, but not too much wasted metal (forgot to account for the halfmoon above the firebox and didn't want janky seam).
was kinda brutal, welding the firebox from the inside, inches from my face. turned out pretty decent, I thought.
a broken off rake handle only gets you so far
"you may experience a little discomfort"
"tension. tension. tension it's all that I know"
first effort with my second-hand (Smith) torch
second effort, for the top of the stack. I was smart enough to allow for grinding to pretty it up, at least. I can see why circle cutters are so expensive
some guy ordered a shitload of various elbows at Westbrook, then cancelled. worked out great for me, not having to calculate, cut and weld the smoke stack turn.
besides some briskets, a bigass turkey with a duck and a chicken on Thanksgiving, I've smoked a bunch of fish on it. so far, so good.
not pretty, but it does the job.