# DIY Cold smoker



## heliboy89 (Jan 28, 2014)

Hi Fellers,

Wanted to lob a quick question out there for you smoking gurus - I have done a bit of reading of the newbies questions so apologies of course if I ask something that has already been asked. We're heading away to the lakes for a couple of weeks next week and wanted to get a new way of serving the trout we catch going - I've already left it a little late but better late than never. I got experimenting with a cold smoke generator last night - the classic tin can with breathing holes and a venturi running through it. I pulled the guts of a broken gas cooker out so basically I have the tin can with the gas/air mixing venturi components inside the can, so I am running air through the copper where the gas is usually fed and the venturi is drawing in smoke where the air would usually draw in. Seems to work well, I get a choking thick white smoke as it starts of course and as it warms up it makes a thinner blueish smoke.

This is experimenting at this stage - I will get a safer vessel to burn chips in once I settle on a design.

I've got a hundred questions I could ask about this already but I'm sure when I get time to go looking I will find answers to them so I won't. One question I did want to ask that may not have been covered is - Am I better with the venturi system inside the burner - blowing the air/smoke mix into the smoke box, or am I better with the venturi system inside the smoke box, then sealing the system air tight all the way to the burner can? The second design will create a negative pressure in the whole system and obviously what is drawn into the smoke box will be a much richer smoke to air ratio since it is not mixing with the venturi air - is that understandable...?

In this case the venturi system only serves to create a vacuum inside the smoke box, exactly what a small vacuum pump would do. I know the smoke will be warmer, which may be a problem? The reason this thought crossed my mind is the smoke from the burner can gets a little wispy after a half hour or so. How often are you stirring the woodchips/pellets in the well-made smokers you guys have?

I will pop over to roll call and introduce myself properly as soon as I can. We're about to head north for the week to a wedding so I wanted to get this all written down while it's on my mind!

Any help much appreciated of course!

Cheers,

Josh


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