First build need help

[smokinggreek]

Found an old fridge at the deer camp and since I already have built a back yard pit (wood burner with firebox) decided I would like to try my hand at building an electric smoker. This was an icebox it did not have a compressor or anything like that. I pulled the galvanized metal out of it leaving the insulation and cut some pine and fit the box with pine and then covered it with aluminum and that is where I stand so far. Will post some pics of what I have and what I want to end up with is an electric smoker something I can set and forget.... The inside dimensions of the smoker are 33" tall 22 1/2" wide and 16" deep. Looking for an element and controller any input would be appreciated.

smoke1.JPG

• smokinggreek
• Jan 19, 2013

smoke3.JPG

• smokinggreek
• Jan 19, 2013

 

[mneeley490]

Nice find! Looks good so far.

 

[kingfishcam]

Very nice! Has character too.!

 

[roger shoaf]

Since you are somewhat of a scrounger, find an old stove that some one is tossing out.  From this, snag the burners and reflectors along with the sockets and the wire with the high temp insulation.  You can also harvest some of the oven insulation.

The oven will have a thermostatic control.  This reads the temp with a thermocouple and then switches the oven on when it is colder that the set point, and shuts it off when it gets up to temp.  You can snag these components also.

The problem you may have with the oven controller is that the actual temps are higher than you might want and lower than you might want.

Controlling an electric element with a simple thermostat is like trying to control the speed of your car by flooring the gas pedal or not with nothing in between. When the element comes on, it goes from cold to very hot to send its heat into the area around the element.  Once it is shut off, it still sheds heat so the oven temp over shoots.

If you had a switch to turn the element on and off and could observe  a thermometer, you could see that there was a bit of a lag before the temp started to rise, so you could watch as the temp was dropping and anticipate the need to turn on the element a little before the lower limit was reached.  You could also cut power a bit before the upper limit was reached so the temp would not over shoot the upper limit.

Depending on how alert you were, and how good your sense of timing was, you could do a bang up job of holding a steady temp in the oven.

But this would take a lot of time and take all the fun out of things so this is why they invented the PID.  Here software keeps it's eye on things and mans the switch.  So what you do is place the temp probe in the oven right where you want the temp to be and plug that into 2 connections on the PID, then you stuff another temp probe into the meat and hook that up to another 2 connections on the PID and then hook up 2 more connections to the electric element.  

Now you are flying on auto pilot,  Well almost anyway, you probably still need to stoke the smoke generator from time to time. 

I think if you took the round stove top elements and reflectors and mounted them in the bottom you should be in business.  

 

[smokinggreek]

I will keep my eyes open for an old oven. If I don't find one I was thinking of purchasing the 1500 w Brinkman replacement element and a PID controller. Any thoughts on this and will the 1500 w element get hot enough in this size smoker?
 

 

[roger shoaf]

Should be plenty if the insulation is up to snuff.

 

[fagesbp]

I have this strip heater in mine. FinnedStripHeater
I got the 1550 watt and it does more than what I need. My smoker measures about 22 x 22 x 22 inside. The highest I have gone is about 340 but I think it can go more easily. It's controlled by a cheap PID i got from Amazon.

 

[daveomak]

Greek, welcome....   Nice unit....  1500 should be more than enough and going with the PID, you will be in HOG heaven....   make sure you will be able to control the temps down to 60-70 deg range for cold smoking....   Drill several 1" holes near the top and bottom in the walls and go for it....   take pics...   Also, I would recommend the AMNPS that is sold by a member on this forum T Johnson...   It can be used with sawdust or pellets.... It is the best smoke generator on the market....   Dave

 

[smokinggreek]

Well after reading and looking what others have done before me I have decided on the following items to complete my smoker and will order the items needed.

1) Controller will be Bradley dual probe smoke controller. (plug & play)

2) Heating element will start with the 1500 w Brinkman replacement burner. Hopefully the element and controller will play well together.

3) Smoke will be supplied by the A-Maze-N pellet smoker (5x8) and have decided on the mailbox attached to smoker (looks cool I think)

Well this is where I am headed with this build and should get all this together and start adding it and will take several pics along the way and hopefully within the next two weeks will have something to eat from it. Let me know if I am heading in the wrong direction with any of the above items all ideas are not always good ideas so if i am making a mistake i will gratefully listen to other ideas.

PS was there someone on this forum that I should order the AMNPS from?

 

[daveomak]

Well after reading and looking what others have done before me I have decided on the following items to complete my smoker and will order the items needed.

1) Controller will be Bradley dual probe smoke controller. (plug & play)

2) Heating element will start with the 1500 w Brinkman replacement burner. Hopefully the element and controller will play well together.

3) Smoke will be supplied by the A-Maze-N pellet smoker (5x8) and have decided on the mailbox attached to smoker (looks cool I think)

Well this is where I am headed with this build and should get all this together and start adding it and will take several pics along the way and hopefully within the next two weeks will have something to eat from it. Let me know if I am heading in the wrong direction with any of the above items all ideas are not always good ideas so if i am making a mistake i will gratefully listen to other ideas.

PS was there someone on this forum that I should order the AMNPS from?

Greek,  Yes...  T Johnson is the designer and retail outlet...  He has an assortment of pellets also....   "Amazing Products" is his advertisement on the main menu page.... You may have to turn off ADS if you are a premium member to find his AD....   Herre it is

Dave

http://www.amazenproducts.com/