# Thinking of building a large cabinet smoker



## strikerfired (May 9, 2022)

Looking to build an additional smoker for the backyard.  I currently have a Yoder pellet smoker that I've been using frequently for a several years, but at times I find myself needing/wanting more space; looking at smoking 25-50 pounds worth of sausage/snack sticks/jerky.  I do really appreciate the temp control that I get with the Yoder/Pellet smoker.

Thinking of building a vertical smoker out of 16ga steel, with 2" thick insulation all around. Current numbers put it at about 5' tall overall, 30" wide, 30" deep.  I figure something of this size I could either hang quite a bit of sausage at once, or throw several racks in if I'm doing a larger batch of jerky.

I don't plan on high temps in this smoker, if I need extra heat I can always use my Yoder.

Current thought is a smoke daddy pellet hopper system to give me the control I'm after, however I'm not against building an electric unit if there is a good system that'll run off of 120v (I cannot get 240 where the smoker would go, easily).


I've never built a smoker before.  My first unit was a Camp Chef Smoke Vault that worked okay but gave me fits about maintaining a constant temp.  After a wind storm threw that and destroyed it, I picked up the Yoder which I have been really happy with.

This would NOT be a replacement for the yoder, just something to augment it for more space.  

I'm really curious what those with some experience in building smokers would suggest on the project.  I'm not in a hurry; I've been looking around at some options to include an old vintage style fridge or even a food warmer cabinet if I could find one for a reasonable price locally.  I have all the equipment to weld this up... I've built several things in the past, just never a smoker.


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## strikerfired (May 10, 2022)

Just a slight update....

Heard back from SmokeDaddy, they said that with the size I'm looking at and that it would be insulated, that a single pellet system would be sufficient for the volume. 

One of the crazy hair-brained ideas I have is to have 3 exhaust exits to the cabinet.  Low/Medium/High... and have them merge into a single stack at the very top.

Ideally, I'm thinking to have some kind of variable damper inline on each exhaust so that I can hopefully adjust and even out the temps across the tall cabinet.  Not something that would be adjusted frequently, hopefully set it once and leave it.  Looking at butterfly valves or some of the valves used on car exhaust cutouts, currently


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## slavikborisov (Aug 30, 2022)

I built one large cabinet smoker with two smoke daddy’s ….. let me find it and send you a link…


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## slavikborisov (Aug 30, 2022)

Thread 'Smoker Build in Progress.  (Pic. Heavy)'
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/smoker-build-in-progress-pic-heavy.311953/


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## newbking (Jan 5, 2023)

Striker,  any progress on this?  I'm in the exact same boat .  I'm leaning towards an electric setup bc i dont always want smoke present, which in my opinion is the one drawback to pellet powered systems.  I'm looking at heating with a 4000w element controlled by a PID controller, i like your venting idea though


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## Bigtank (Jan 5, 2023)

Following, I've been thinking the same for low temp/Cold smoking


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## strikerfired (Jan 5, 2023)

ended up going a different direction.....

project is currently on hold waiting for a buddy (machinist) to make new hinges.  I thought they were going to be usable, but once I got into things they were in bad shape.  Once I get that done, I need to start buttoning things up and throw some paint.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/old-fridge-slow-build-will-start-soon.315113/page-4


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