It seems too simple...

bobbydrake · Nov 24, 2010

I am a teacher at a school and they were going to get rid of an old food warmer It is insulated and has places for lots of racks. The element in the bottom is shot. I was thinking that it would make a perfect smoker. It needs some work to be convereted. Then I though, what else is insulted and has a heating element in the bottom? An Oven!

Why not just take an old gas or electic oven and cut a couple holes for venting? Place a chip pan at the bottom and you are good to go. Glass door, adjutable racks, constant temps, built in workspace on the top. It seems like it would be a perfect smoker. You can find used ovens on craigslist for under $100.

Is that just too easy, or is it just cheating?

redneck69 · Nov 24, 2010

its not cheating, it's called improvising

.. make use of what you can get your hands on. The sky is the limit, people have converted trash cans, fridges, freezers, oil drums, oil tanks, cylinders, pipes....you name it. into smokers. good luck and keep us posted.

bobbydrake · Nov 24, 2010

redneck69 said:
its not cheating, it's called improvising

.. make use of what you can get your hands on. The sky is the limit, people have converted trash cans, fridges, freezers, oil drums, oil tanks, cylinders, pipes....you name it. into smokers. good luck and keep us posted.

Yeah, but they actually had to do some work. You would really only have to cut a couple of holes in teh oven and make (or buy) some dampers. Bam! Smoker complete. I personally think it would work great too. I am already scouring my local craigslist adds. I plan on putting it in my garage and venting it out the side.

Bearcarver · Nov 24, 2010

BobbyDrake said:
redneck69 said:

its not cheating, it's called improvising

.. make use of what you can get your hands on. The sky is the limit, people have converted trash cans, fridges, freezers, oil drums, oil tanks, cylinders, pipes....you name it. into smokers. good luck and keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but they actually had to do some work. You would really only have to cut a couple of holes in teh oven and make (or buy) some dampers. Bam! Smoker complete. I personally think it would work great too. I am already scouring my local craigslist adds. I plan on putting it in my garage and venting it out the side.

Sounds like a plan Bobby,

That will be great if you can use it in the garage!

Hopefully nobody minds the smokey smell (I love it, but the Mrs doesn't) in the garage.

I would say, no matter how well you vent it to the outside, it will still make the garage smell smokey, due to leaks from multiple places.

Bear

northern greenhorn · Nov 24, 2010

Bearcarver said:
BobbyDrake said:

redneck69 said:

its not cheating, it's called improvising

.. make use of what you can get your hands on. The sky is the limit, people have converted trash cans, fridges, freezers, oil drums, oil tanks, cylinders, pipes....you name it. into smokers. good luck and keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but they actually had to do some work. You would really only have to cut a couple of holes in teh oven and make (or buy) some dampers. Bam! Smoker complete. I personally think it would work great too. I am already scouring my local craigslist adds. I plan on putting it in my garage and venting it out the side.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan Bobby,

That will be great if you can use it in the garage!

Hopefully nobody minds the smokey smell (I love it, but the Mrs doesn't) in the garage.

I would say, no matter how well you vent it to the outside, it will still make the garage smell smokey, due to leaks from multiple places.

Bear

Would smell like Heaven to me

bobbydrake · Nov 25, 2010

I love the small, but the wife is not a fan. Now that she is pregnant it is so much worse. The smell actually can make her sick to her stomach. I hope that after the baby is born the smell doesn't bother her anymore. I was thinking about venting with a computer fan to actually pull the smoke through and force it outside (when I actually get around to building this thing).

Bearcarver · Nov 25, 2010

BobbyDrake said:
I love the small, but the wife is not a fan. Now that she is pregnant it is so much worse. The smell actually can make her sick to her stomach. I hope that after the baby is born the smell doesn't bother her anymore. I was thinking about venting with a computer fan to actually pull the smoke through and force it outside (when I actually get around to building this thing).

If you could build a little room in the garage for it, and vent that whole room, that could work, but with a smoker, there is usually leaks around the door or other places, too small to eliminate, but enough to easily make your garage smell too smoky for many people. We are the ones here that are not normal, when it comes to the beautiful smell of smoked meats.

Bear

sparky30_06 · Nov 25, 2010

i've seen a few guys place a cheap exhaust hood over the smoke unit and it seems to work great. Only downfall in the winter, and cold areas it pulls the heat out of the garage.

stircrazy · Nov 25, 2010

my first smoker was a oven but I didn't know enough at that time to put in a vent hold (20 years ago) so the jerkey I made in it was very very smoky but it was good all the same.

I just formed a tin try around the bottom element that I dumped the chips in and away I went. to bad the internet and forms like this wernt realy there yet at that time, instead of throwing it out I would have punched a few holes in it and probably still had it. I did bypass the heating controle with a external one as the factory one on the oven wouldn't go below 250 so I put one on it that would go down to 100 degrees.

Steve

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It seems too simple...

bobbydrake

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redneck69

Smoking Fanatic

bobbydrake

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Bearcarver

Gone but not forgotten RIP

northern greenhorn

Master of the Pit

bobbydrake

Fire Starter

Bearcarver

Gone but not forgotten RIP

sparky30_06

Meat Mopper

stircrazy

Meat Mopper

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