hello to everyone. I have been on the site reading for the last couple of weeks just soaking up all the info i can here. I have never smoked anything before but am very interested. So 2 weeks ago I went out and bought a smoke hollow 30" electric smoker. I really liked the idea of electric but have since returned it. It holds temp great but smoke production is very lacking. Also upon reading further it seems you want a min of 24+ inches to smoke at. That being said i would only have basically the top rack to smoke off of. Not to mention it is only about 13" wide so big briskets and full racks of ribs are out unless i cut them in half which i dont want to do. So i figure the best thing to do is build my own so that i can fit what i want in. What i was thinking was a 40x40x12 inches deep smoker with a charcoal basket in the middle on the bottom. That way its high enough away from direct heat and wide enough to put 2 briskets or 2 racks of ribs long ways, possibly even 4. I would probably make 3 doors total. One for the charcoal on the bottom and two seperate doors at the top for both sides of my grates. I would have to have put in a ball valve for air and temp control next to the basket. Would i need some type of smoke stack? Also i was thinking about possible a water pan above the charcoal basket for water and also to keep grease off the fire. My big question is how to build the box itself. I'm debating between a single thicker wall or a thinner dual wall with insulation in between. The smoke hollow i had was a dual wall and like i said it held temp great. The other question is what size/gauge metal do people use for these situations? Again love the site, i have learned a lot so far,I can't wait to put something together so i can get smoking!!
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