I am newb to this site too. I am a wood and charcoal guy. I have used a variety of different devices to apply smoke. You can apply heat evenly and quickly with a propane smoker. My family owns a propane gas store and propane is great. Wood takes a little time to learn to do well. I have been wood smoking for a long time and I am still learning.
I saw something on the Food Channel that looked like it would be fun to try. The segment was on "Good Eats". This is the most improvised smoker I have ever seen and I think I am going to try it.
It involved a very large ceramic garden pot, a very large matching rounded pot for a lid, a hot plate, a pie pan, a standard grill thermometer, a round grill insert and your favorite wood, mine is hickory.
The pot was set on some bricks. The hot plate was put in the bottom with the cord going out of the water hole. The pie plate (with wood in it) on top of the hot plate. Then put in the grill insert and your meat. Put the lid on and the thermometer in the water hole.
If you have seen a "Big Green Egg", this is an improvised version of that. It certainly will not cook a lot of meat, unless you make several. The egg uses charcoal or wood though.
On the show, the meat did not come out that tender. It looked like they were slightly tearing the meat apart rather than just separating it. I am wondering if the host cooked it too fast. I think with the heat turned down a little and a little more time added, it would have been better.
The show said this would cost around $50 to construct.
The disadvantage would be you can't smoke a lot of meat with it. The advantage would be the ease of replacing parts and carrying it just about any where, any time.
Good luck and have fun.