Yet another smoker

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grandmasterred1

Newbie
Original poster
May 23, 2008
9
10
Quad Cities, IA
Whatsup all, found this forum while looking for design ideas for my next smoker..

Here is my current rig:

Smoker.jpg


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It was a freebie, i wanted to clean it up and use it this summer but the previous homeowner left the firebox door open and it appears that some squirrels got trapped in the main barrel.. I'm not a fan of smoked squirrel so..


I scored an upright air compressor tank, it's a bit smaller but should be able to support anything i'd want to do.

NewSmkr1.jpg


In the next few weeks i plan on cutting the doors, adding the thermometer, chimney and installing some shelves.. Looking foreward to getting some good advice from you all. I've been smoking stuff for a few years in random setups but deffenetly have alot to learn.

see you all around..


Dave
 
Hello and glad to have you with us at the SMF. Nice intro., and good luck on your project.
 
Welcome Grand1. you have to much energy. I'm plain lazy. I went and bought a cheapy when starting. Good luck. Please post a pic of your finished smoker.
 
Welcome to the forum.
 
Welcome to SMF, I like the old smoker, I bet you could get the squireel carcass outta there and blaze the germs away. That is a cool concept, I wonder how well it would work if the racks rotated with an electric assist while smoking!

Smoked squirrel might be the next big thing! Enjoy your time here, lotsa good stuff happens here.
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Thanks all!


I got the lower door cut in the tank yesterday and a hinge welded on, also the top cut off. Just need to make a run to the hardware store to grab some supplies.. i hope to have it fired up this coming week. :)



as for the old one, i tried to clean the racks with my powerwasher which helped.. before that the smoke residue on the racks had turned white.. that's when i saw the carcass of something down in the bottom. Whoever built it didn't leave much access to that area. It weighs in at 800-1000lbs so tipping it isn't much of an option.
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local guy is coming over this weekend, i told him it's free if he can get it out of here.
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Figured i'd give an update..

got the lower door mostly done, i'm debating on adding strip steel around it to make a seal or not.. still need to make some kind of air control valve as well.

got pegs welded in about 12" above the bottom to make a "buffer" shelf out of lava rocks or whatever i find to do the job, also got the chimney welded on (3") and the removeable top mostly sealed. Bungs are allready there to attach a case thermometer and a pass-thru for my digital meat thermometer's probe.

I'm down to cutting out the upper grill (expanded steel), putting in pegs for support, adding a hat to the chimney and then firing it up.. Looking to do some ribs this coming weekend.
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Pic:

NewSmkr2.jpg






Dave
 
Mean blue machine! That's great!!! Nice looking project there g-m!

Keep pecking goddess, two more to the century post!!
 
So tonight i'm breaking it in...She's taking a long time to get up to temp so i'm playing around with that right now.. It's staying in the low 100's at the top rack. I'm thinking that I might have put too large of a chimney on it, lol


BlueBandit1.jpg




We'll see how it does after a while of being left alone. :)
 
the only bottle around here says Jack Daniels on the side.. :)



well, the top rack which is about 24" above the coals topped out at about 150F, about 8" below that was about 200 which (to me anyways) says i have too much exhaust flow.

I used 3" for the stack, might slap in a reducer down to 2.5" or maybe rig up some kind of redneck valve..

what do you all think?


Thanks,
Dave
 
Great looking unit..................For the exhaust make a damper for the stack like the char-grillers have on them...............
 
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