help with build

[rico13gt]

Hey guys,

I have been smoking meat with my smoke hollow for a little over a year now.  I have finally found myself a place outside of town where I can really start to get into smoking.  I really want to build a hot/cold smokehouse.  I process and make all of my own venison, bacon, and sausage.  When I am doing it now I have to pretty much stay up the entire weekend to get it all done due to the lack of room in my current smoker.  

I work at a metal fabricating company where my dad is part owner.  I have an endless supply of steel tubing and sheet steel.  Tubing ranges from 3/8" to 3" square anywhere from 18ga to 7ga.  Sheet steel we have 22ga up to 1/2".  Most sheet sizes are 60"x120" but i can easily cut to whatever design I want on our three lasers.

I dont want this to be a complex build.  I would like the frame to be made out of wood and do any of the lining and racks with the steel I have access to.  I have been searching the forums for a couple weeks and just haven't found what I have been looking for.  Or it could be I don't know enough to know what I am looking for.  So this is what I am looking for:

I need a smokehouse that can hot and cold smoke.

I would like the heat source to be a firebox somewhere outside of the smokehouse.

I would like to only need to have one heat source for both hot and cold smoking.  I am not sure if this is possible or not.  If not then I would like the heat source for hot smoking and I could get a cold smoking unit for when I need that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  The more I look into this the more confused I get and I don't want to waste money on trial and error.  At least not that much money.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello.  I see you have been a member for some time so I don't need to tell you who Pops is.  Below is the link to his build.  The heat source is internal but his mailbox mod allows hot and cold smoking.  It doesn't need to be a mailbox, you could knock up a box from sheet metal.  I don't think you can have an easier or better design to follow.  If you wanted to get a little more fancy you COULD add an exhaust fan to draw the smoke in and pull heat out when cold smoking but if Pops can cold smoke back home in Texas then you should be fine there in the far north without it.  Hope this helps.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/88853/found-a-burner-for-smokehouse

 

[daveomak]

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/200/smoke-houses

Find something that is close to what you want so we have somewhere to start....... at least some dimensions...
6' x 6' x 8'.....

 

[rico13gt]

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/200/smoke-houses

Find something that is close to what you want so we have somewhere to start....... at least some dimensions...
6' x 6' x 8'.....

the smoking chamber i would like to have it be 4'x4'x6'.  i would like to have separate doors for the heating element and the smoking chamber but if i can get away with an outside heat source to do both cold and hot smoke then i only need one door.  i havent seen anyone use a combination of wood/metal/blocks on here.  at least that i can find.  all i can find is wood built.  my idea was to build the base out of blocks/brick, the frame out of wood, insulate it and then have the inside be steel that i can get from work.  i will not be starting this project for a while but i want an idea of what type of insulation i should use and wood.  it will be left outside all year round and in wisconsin it will have to handle snow and everything else.  i hope this helps you guys in helping me.  if not let me know what other info you need.

thanks