Newbie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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n4ynu

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jul 24, 2016
250
29
Central Virginia
All info is in Profile, In Central Va, and call me Guy............................

Ok, just joined your forum, have to say I have enjoyed it as I have been copying and pasting info from Pops "Simple Brine" thread.
Have to say I like what I see regarding Pop's tips and all of the helpful educated smokers out there, what a great service you all provide and what a wealth of information you have have as a community, it is quite impressive and might I say Awesome :).
I just purchased a MES 30 SE (Sportsman Elite), my first electric smoker, made some mods to it (of course, I always find something to mod hehehe), added 3 more racks to the top section that is void so I can add 3 more racks for making Jerky and going to be drying some cured meats and veggies for some Pemmican, this way it will increase the yield having 8 racks  :)
Using the AMPS with a choice of Hickory and Mesquite pellets for the time being, also going to be using this for cooking as well and cannot wait to try it out with Pop's Brine, I have never brined and I see I have been missing out on a great thing according to my read here, so cannot wait to get a taste of all I see expressed :)
Right now getting bulk ingredients together and hawking out some prices on Sirloin Tip Roast, Whole Beef Eye of Round and some Beef Trim to get my chest freezer stocked up and ready, also see the need for a second fridge somewhere ??????, wife says "where you going to put that ?" LOL, which is why I am going to focus on strips for the moment as space is limited in the fridge unless I want a divorce hehehe.
I have read that 18 page thread about 6 times now and copied and pasted notes and my brain is smoking at the moment, thinking of sticking some mesquite pellets in my ears to improve the smell of the brain matter frying :)

I have my profile complete and will be posting soon, have to make a little drip shield for my AMPS box and I am thru with mods for the moment except maybe a seal for the door, but will make that judgement once I get it operating and see how it does, I am thinking it will not need it to be honest as the air intake and outlet holes on this model are relatively small, so may want a little door leakage for added minimal ventilation.

I have a huge barn style shop in the back yard and a smaller shop I keep my cruiser in as well, have been wanting to run power to them for a long time, now since my wife is in on this 100% with me she suggested it was time to run the power to the shops so I can put my second fridge in the Barn (barn style shop, we call it the barn, no I am not on a farm but was raised on one), WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO, even though I will run the power myself this was a great thing, so Smoking has already paid off by getting my wife to approve of running the wire to my shops, shhhhhhhhh, she might think this was all planned ........................

So, Glad to be here, and already have great respect for the regular posters/helpers, you guys are tops, you do not even know how much you have already helped me and I was not even a member :)

And Hat Tipped to POPS for sharing his Wisdom and Recipe's with All of us !

Guy
 
 
Hello and welcome to you fellow hamster.

Glad you decided to hang out with us.

I wish you great fun and great 'que.

 Ed  KC2AWD
 
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I am getting my radio station back up and running now, we were doing renovation, new rock, wiring and R21 in all the walls so I had to put it all away to protect it.

Guy
 
 
Hello and welcome to you fellow hamster.

Glad you decided to hang out with us.

I wish you great fun and great 'que.

 Ed  KC2AWD
Got to start getting this right, as my other post noted, renovations including new sheetrock, wiring and R21 in all walls was going on so had to hide the equipment !
I honestly looked at many forums and you guys are the best, Thankyou for the reply and the Welcome, maybe one day soon we can hook up on the airwaves.

Guy N4YNU
 
Welcome to the forum. Glad to see another ham on board.

Lamar K4ZTT and Sue....XYL W4ZTT
Nice, you and the wife, I control op for mine but she does not want to take the test hehehe
TY for the Welcome, the forum has already been a great help to me, just got to get a few more odds and ends together and I will be ready to run some trials  :)


Guy / N4YNU
 
 
if you need guidance on the electrical, ask me I am Master Electrician Texas contractor for 33 years., be glad to give you any advice you request. PM me anytime.

HT
It is all done except for the kitchen but that is going to be easy, just have to put in 4 quads on the long wall over the base cabinets, but we will have the rock taken down, that and the end wall are the last walls in the house to be insulated and wiring for appliances already done :)
I have a few friends that are electricians I get to come by and check my work but I had been in the mechanical trade for over 20 years before I had to stop working so I am very familiar with code, not to mention I have a pretty vast electronic background steeped in Ohm's Law so I tend to go old school on wire sizes like the 4 ga on the oven and my Strip Heat for the Heat Pump, this house was built in 46 1/2, had 16ga copper, no ground, got a new panel, moved all wiring to above the ceiling, using 12ga, this house only had 2 outlets per room lol, now 12 in each but 2 rooms, they have 9 due to a short wall with a closet in each.
I really appreciate the offer though, and I will surely keep you in mind.
I am getting ready to pull power to the two buildings (shops) in the back as soon as I can afford the wire and pipe, I will be getting on that, gonna convert a chest freezer to a fridge and use it for my brines, I will not win the war for the fridge !

Thankyou Very Much for the offer

Guy
 
 
Got to protect the radios the smoker and the beer fridge.

          Ed
My fav is Wild Turkey 101, beer puts me to sleep, but do not make a habit of it, but do enjoy it randomly  :)
And now I have a Smoker to protect, my other one is 1/8" steel with a side burner, it needs no protection, 100 mph winds will not even move that pig.
And definitely have to watch the gear, not that fancy, got a Astron 70 Amp PS, with a ICOM 7100 mobile, use a LDG AT-600Proll Autotuner, feeding several antennas, my HF main being a Inverted dipole 35 ft above the cap of the roof on the house, also have a Diamond High Gain Dual Bander for 144 and 440, and a Vertical (Antron 99 w groundplanes) for 10-11-12 meter, it is tuned for 10, it can be used elsewhere but few using vertical polarization around here, have a couple of elements on the dipole, the other tuned for 6 meter, looking forward to getting back in there in the near future.
Nice to see some hams hiding in the SmokeHouse ! 

I guess having my call sign for my User name makes it easy to spot me huh  hehehe

Guy
 
 
Welcome to the forum!

Glad to have you with us!

Al
Thanks again Al, as soon as I get a bit more ready I will be working on some of that bacon you were mentioning, just measured my wire length for power to the barn, so going to price it and see if a couple of my buddies here nearby (electricians) can maybe get a better price, not sure how fast I will get this done though, need 110' 6ga 2c w/ground, the way copper is now I am afraid...................but my buddies own shops and most likely can save me some money since they do volume :)
While I am trying to get that done I am going to be brineing some meat for dinners here and get my feet wet that way until all my supplies get here  :)

Edit - and in the meantime after supplies get here I can use a 10ga extension cord I have for the MES to cook in the driveway/backyard  :)

Guy
 
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if you need guidance on the electrical, ask me I am Master Electrician Texas contractor for 33 years., be glad to give you any advice you request. PM me anytime.  Look at using some # 4 URD Aluminum triplex or quadraplex.,,,will save you some cash...Your guys know what it is ....

HT
 
 
if you need guidance on the electrical, ask me I am Master Electrician Texas contractor for 33 years., be glad to give you any advice you request. PM me anytime.  Look at using some # 4 URD Aluminum triplex or quadraplex.,,,will save you some cash...Your guys know what it is ....

HT
HT,

I am staying with copper, going to run 6/3 w/Ground (4C) 18" deep in pvc conduit, running the 4C in case I want to have a 220V circuit one day, this will solve another issue as I have a Air Compressor in one of the shops that I run a 100' ft 10ga cord to, but it is only 120V but will be nice to just fire it up instead of running that cord.............................
The Barn style shop is where I will have the chest freezer with mod t-stat, most likely honeywell, so it will be my brining fridge, and will be ultra efficient that way as well since it is insulated for sub zero temps.
So load will not be an issue with 4C 6ga, the most the circuit in either shop would see is max 15 amps.
I need a 40 ft length of the wire and a 70 ft length, found it in name brand name for $1.88 a ft which is a good price and shipping is below 30 bucks for 110 Ft total cut to length.
I would love to save money, but the guys I know local cannot even touch that price and I have not found lower anywhere.
Outside of that I am going to install some 70 Amp 4 circuit boxes, so I can have one 120V circuit per shop and then if I have some lighting installed I can use the second one, saving 2 in each box for a future 220V circuit if needed, I may convert my Compressor motor which would min max the efficiency a bit more electric wise.
Got plenty of 4 ga ground wire and about 8 8' half inch copper ground rods for the dual grounds, going to install one on each building, have the wire and grounds left over from a ground plane network I buried in the yard for radio communications years ago.

Let me know if you can beat that price, I would be happy to buy it from you, 6/3 UF-B w/10ga Ground

Thanks, and Thanks for the offer for help, I will surely take you up on it if I have a question :)


Guy
 
 
 
HT,

I am staying with copper, going to run 6/3 w/Ground (4C) 18" deep in pvc conduit, running the 4C in case I want to have a 220V circuit one day, this will solve another issue as I have a Air Compressor in one of the shops that I run a 100' ft 10ga cord to, but it is only 120V but will be nice to just fire it up instead of running that cord.............................
The Barn style shop is where I will have the chest freezer with mod t-stat, most likely honeywell, so it will be my brining fridge, and will be ultra efficient that way as well since it is insulated for sub zero temps.
So load will not be an issue with 4C 6ga, the most the circuit in either shop would see is max 15 amps.
I need a 40 ft length of the wire and a 70 ft length, found it in name brand name for $1.88 a ft which is a good price and shipping is below 30 bucks for 110 Ft total cut to length.
I would love to save money, but the guys I know local cannot even touch that price and I have not found lower anywhere.
Outside of that I am going to install some 70 Amp 4 circuit boxes, so I can have one 120V circuit per shop and then if I have some lighting installed I can use the second one, saving 2 in each box for a future 220V circuit if needed, I may convert my Compressor motor which would min max the efficiency a bit more electric wise.
Got plenty of 4 ga ground wire and about 8 8' half inch copper ground rods for the dual grounds, going to install one on each building, have the wire and grounds left over from a ground plane network I buried in the yard for radio communications years ago.

Let me know if you can beat that price, I would be happy to buy it from you, 6/3 UF-B w/10ga Ground

Thanks, and Thanks for the offer for help, I will surely take you up on it if I have a question :)


Guy
 
 Sounds like you got it figured out. Good to see you using UF since it is wet rated.
 
 
 Sounds like you got it figured out. Good to see you using UF since it is wet rated.
HT,

Been planning the wiring job for the two shops for a long time, going out on an edge financially a bit to get this done but will recover and it is for a good cause, I need that my modified freezer for brining and this has gotten my wife on board seeing we have a packed fridge all the time with normal stuff, so now she is like "you need to get this done"............LOL...........I got approval from the head inspector hehehe  :)

Guy
 
 
HT,

Been planning the wiring job for the two shops for a long time, going out on an edge financially a bit to get this done but will recover and it is for a good cause, I need that my modified freezer for brining and this has gotten my wife on board seeing we have a packed fridge all the time with normal stuff, so now she is like "you need to get this done"............LOL...........I got approval from the head inspector hehehe  :)

Guy
Got to keep them happy.
 
 
Got to keep them happy.
HT,

LOL, well its a team effort, give and take, we both keep each other in check, she loves the smoked food I cook on the side burner smoker and I have kept her in the loop with allot of info and posts on the SMF's and she is as excited as I am to start wet brining and curing along with smoking, and she surely does not want me having bucket of brine in the fridge.................we would have to take half the stuff out just to make room for a 2 1/2 gallon bucket, converting the chest freezer to a fridge will allow me to have 2 5 gallon buckets or a 5 and a couple of 2 1/2's so it will be nice and will be very electrically efficient as well, and if we go off the grid I got battery backup with solar charging to keep me in business  :), got a generator too, but could easily run this chest freezer on the inverter I have for emergencies and backyard lighting  :)

Guy
 
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