# My new mini Tailgater sized Smoker



## BDubz (Mar 1, 2018)

This smoker was fun to fabricate took 4...1/2 days to build. Just painted it today and did a 5 hr season in burn with hickory after slathering the inside with bacon grease. Worked great with just a few small chunks of wood. With the flu and intake fully opened this mini smoker quickly reached 350 degrees, and howled like a blast furnace, then at half throttling the intake slider it cooled and maintained 250 degrees. No leaks and Iam happy. Can't wait to start smoking meats in it. The idea was to make a mini smoker for camping, and I think this will work great. If you notice the steel anchor welded to the smoker door, it's something I had laying around and thought it gave character, plus I'm a Navy veteran, so it gave a personal touch. Anyways hope you like, feel free to comment or critique.


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## motolife313 (Mar 1, 2018)

I like it looks good. How long is the cc? Makes sure to come back and post food and fire box pics. Not enough stick burners on here for my taste


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## pops6927 (Mar 1, 2018)

Great workmanship!  Congratulations on a great smoker!


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## Bearcarver (Mar 1, 2018)

Cute Little Guy!
I Love it!! :)
Nice Job.

Now let's see some Meat from it.

Bear


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## BDubz (Mar 1, 2018)

motolife313 said:


> I like it looks good. How long is the cc? Makes sure to come back and post food and fire box pics. Not enough stick burners on here for my taste


Hi Motolife, not sure what CC actually means. I'm fairly new to smoking meats, and not sure of the nomenclature in the meat smoking realm. This smoker is fairly mini in size. The tank is only 14" long, and the smoke stack is 14" tall. The firebox box is made from 1/4" plate and is 8.5" X 7.5" rectangle. The smoke stack is 2.5" in diameter, and the intake is 1.75" in diameter, both with slider style close off's. It will be good enough for the Wife and myself on camping excursions. The grill grate itself is 13" X 10" with 9" of room from the grate to the top of the smoker chamber. A small pork butt, a couple of rotisserie chickens, or maybe two racks of ribs cut in half would probably fit nice. It's tiny. My other smoker is a direct flow/reverse flow, with removable chamber plates, two smoke stacks, and is made from a 55 gallon air tank. It will be a learning curve cooking on this freshly built little guy.


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## BDubz (Mar 1, 2018)

pops6927 said:


> Great workmanship!  Congratulations on a great smoker!


Thank You, can't wait to get some meat in it!, Cheers!


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## SmokinAl (Mar 1, 2018)

Nice job!
That's some quality work there!
Al


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## Hank R (Mar 2, 2018)

Great job in building and thinking it out Quality work for sure. How heavy is it to lift up?


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## BDubz (Mar 2, 2018)

Hank R said:


> Great job in building and thinking it out Quality work for sure. How heavy is it to lift up?


Maybe we should not talk about weight? Hahaha... It's a bit on the heavier side for a mini, but solid that's for sure.


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## BDubz (Mar 2, 2018)

SmokinAl said:


> Nice job!
> That's some quality work there!
> Al


Thanks, much appreciated. Going to try it out tomorrow, see how she does! Cheers! :)


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## Furrylittleotter (Mar 8, 2018)

Man that is funsized! I’d build a rotisserie basket fer it! 

Neil


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## Sandlotje (Apr 12, 2018)

That is beautiful!  Do you have more pics from the build (I see your avatar pic...)?  What kind of paint did you use?


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## gmc2003 (Apr 13, 2018)

BDubz said:


> Hi Motolife, not sure what CC actually means. I'm fairly new to smoking meats, and not sure of the nomenclature in the meat smoking realm. This smoker is fairly mini in size. The tank is only 14" long, and the smoke stack is 14" tall. The firebox box is made from 1/4" plate and is 8.5" X 7.5" rectangle. The smoke stack is 2.5" in diameter, and the intake is 1.75" in diameter, both with slider style close off's. It will be good enough for the Wife and myself on camping excursions. The grill grate itself is 13" X 10" with 9" of room from the grate to the top of the smoker chamber. A small pork butt, a couple of rotisserie chickens, or maybe two racks of ribs cut in half would probably fit nice. It's tiny. My other smoker is a direct flow/reverse flow, with removable chamber plates, two smoke stacks, and is made from a 55 gallon air tank. It will be a learning curve cooking on this freshly built little guy.



CC equals cook chamber, great job on the build. 

Chris


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## phathead69 (Apr 15, 2018)

What did you use for the cook chamber looks like a portable air tank.


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## BDubz (May 1, 2018)

phathead69 said:


> What did you use for the cook chamber looks like a portable air tank.


It was an air tank, slightly larger than the portable air tanks that are Campbell brand Walmart and HF sells. Slightly thicker gauge too. It was a vintage air tank from a small compressor.


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## BDubz (May 1, 2018)

gmc2003 said:


> CC equals cook chamber, great job on the build.
> 
> Chris


Oh, Thanks for the insight...I was clueless what that meant in the smoking realm.


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## BDubz (May 1, 2018)

I have smoked several nice sized Tri-Tips, a half dozen racks of ribs, whole chickens, and a small pork butt, and a few loins in this mini smoker so far, and I have to say that it sure works great. It uses very little wood and heats up quick. Since my original post I have added wheels and a better grease drain. The mini smoker cooks much faster than my other Meadows Creek style Smoker, and I find that each smoke only uses about 4-6 chunks of wood the size of my fist. All in all Iam very pleased, so much so in fact, Iam going to re-vamp my bigger smoker to match this mini smoker dimensions but scaled up. The mini seems to have the sweet spot in exhaust size, firebox size and intake according to Cooking chamber size. Works AWESOME.


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## BDubz (May 1, 2018)

Hank R said:


> Great job in building and thinking it out Quality work for sure. How heavy is it to lift up?


The mini smoker is not too heavy. One person can lift it no problem, but I added nice wheels, so it's a breeze to move about now.


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## motolife313 (May 1, 2018)

Where's the Q-view?


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## GaryHibbert (May 2, 2018)

Beautiful job.  Great workmanship.  That's a really nice little smoker.
Gary


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## phathead69 (May 2, 2018)

BDubz thanks for the info. I saw it and wanted to build me a smaller stuck burner. Finnally got an accumulator from a well pump system. It is right at 20 gallon. I was wanting more along the 15 gallon but free is free. Hope mine turns out as nice as yours


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