- Feb 10, 2014
- 7
- 10
Hi, I'm new here but have been picking up some good info prior to joining. Thanks for all the great ideas.
In my avatar is the concrete block smoker I made last spring. I've used for almost a year and my family loves it when I fire it up.
I believe my setup needs some tweaking to allow me to use less wood and take less work/wood to do a long cook. I
I've sealed it up with mortar, a steel lid and better sealing steal door. It used to leak smoke from all over, now 90% of the smoke is going out the chimney and about 5-10% around the door.
However, i'm still having to burn about a 16" X 4" hickory log every 10-15 min. That's too much work and wood to keep going for 6+ hours.
My theory to fix this is to restrict the amount of air into the firebox and asking for opinions on how to be more efficient with the wood use.
The firebox is 22" X 16" X 16". The connection to the smoking chamber (40 X 32 X 24) is a block turned sidewise between the firebox and chamber. This means there are two apx 7X7" holes from the firepit to the chamber. The intake is outside end of the firebox covered with four blocks that I stack to cover between stokings. The fire burns on a great with a U shaped tunnel in the dirt to outside under the "door" blocks. I don't have any much control over the amount of air.
With a larger/hotter fire burning the smoking chamber can get to about 350F, I usually keep it around 225 - 250.
The smoking chamber door took me about 5 hours and $40 in steel to make, do I have to go to that effort for a firebox door? Any plans out there on how to make one with adustable opening size?
Thanks for your ideas.
Don
In my avatar is the concrete block smoker I made last spring. I've used for almost a year and my family loves it when I fire it up.
I believe my setup needs some tweaking to allow me to use less wood and take less work/wood to do a long cook. I
I've sealed it up with mortar, a steel lid and better sealing steal door. It used to leak smoke from all over, now 90% of the smoke is going out the chimney and about 5-10% around the door.
However, i'm still having to burn about a 16" X 4" hickory log every 10-15 min. That's too much work and wood to keep going for 6+ hours.
My theory to fix this is to restrict the amount of air into the firebox and asking for opinions on how to be more efficient with the wood use.
The firebox is 22" X 16" X 16". The connection to the smoking chamber (40 X 32 X 24) is a block turned sidewise between the firebox and chamber. This means there are two apx 7X7" holes from the firepit to the chamber. The intake is outside end of the firebox covered with four blocks that I stack to cover between stokings. The fire burns on a great with a U shaped tunnel in the dirt to outside under the "door" blocks. I don't have any much control over the amount of air.
With a larger/hotter fire burning the smoking chamber can get to about 350F, I usually keep it around 225 - 250.
The smoking chamber door took me about 5 hours and $40 in steel to make, do I have to go to that effort for a firebox door? Any plans out there on how to make one with adustable opening size?
Thanks for your ideas.
Don