frankenstein my traeger

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stripedzebras

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2014
2
10
I currently have a traeger little tex elite grill. I really like using it, however there is not enough cooking area. even with the jerkey/rib rack. I have been reading about people that are using the hopper smoker and converting them to an ugly drum smoker. I did alot of research and found some good ideas, however i have noticed alot of people are making smokehouses out of wood. Since my wood working skills are far superior to my metal fab skills I was considering trying that instead. Does anyone have any suggestions or reasons why this might not be a good idea (other than the obvious fire and wood). I thought a brick bottom with a wooden enclosure would probably be best. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
I would say go for it, after all the smoke house at my grandfathers farm was wood. i have seen people use cardboard boxes with hot plates and so on. Be safe and control the fire from burning the housing and keep the smoke circulating.

I have thought of using something like a large parrot cage and welding blankets. I like keeping the smoke generating and the heating controlled separately. 

GeneK
 
Most wood smokehouses are for cold smoking. If that is what you want and you don't care about hot smoking I would say butcher the trager and build a brick enclosure for the hopper, auger and fire pit and pipe it with a fan into a wood structure. This would be good for jerky, etc.

If you still want to hot smoke you probably can but I would thing long and hard how to do it.

Just mo 0.02
 
I like your idea!!
You didn't say how big you are thinking of building your smoke house. One thing to consider is pellet usage it will take alot of pellets to heat a large smoke house. IMHO It would be better to build with wood, insulate well, then line with sheet metal . Some sort of heat diffuser panel over the fire pot will probably be need to get good heat distribution. Something else to consider is placement of the heat sensor for the control unit, could get tricky, as in I am not sure where you would get the best results. Good luck if you decide to build it post some pics.
 
Still in planning stages. I have found a few that have done it. I've changed thinking to do a metal box on bottom that will hold hopper and heat diffuser plus drip plan. Then build up probably three feet. So probably about 22"x 20" x 48". So relatively small for a smoke house. But still planing and researching though. If I decide to go this route I will post pics. Thanks for advice
 
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