Is it just me, and is it wrong

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stircrazy

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Dec 31, 2009
295
12
Kamloops, BC, Canada
to star smiling when the wife wakes you up telling you the upright freezer died during the night
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now for the serious questions, it has a enamaled metal inside and outside, except for the trim towards the front and the inside of the door, so I just need to replace the plastic right?

also has anyone left the foam insulation in or do you need to change it out?  I am only going to be smoking and sausage so 225 and less, if I need to do chicken I have a BBQ for that.

also for a 13ish cu^ft upright how do you decide what size of element you need for it?

I am sure there will be more questions but thats a good start.

Steve
 
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First off I haven't built a smoker out of a refrig before but I do know what I'm talking about. Now if you could can you take some pictures of the smoker/refrig so we can see what the insides look like. That way we can tell you what you need to do. If this refrig has an enamel METAL interior then you should be alright to make a smoker and yes you can leave the insulation behind it too. You should be alright but make sure that it is metal thou.
 
<snip>to star smiling when the wife wakes you up telling you the upright freezer died during the night
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<snip>


Steve
Nope, it's not wrong at all.  I see a lot of stuff that folks leave out on the curb for trash pickup and think to myself "Dang-I could turn that into a smoker!!". Sure as I'd drag it home, Ma Dutch would shoot me in the butt and THEN make me drag it back to where I found it!
 
 
Nope its not wrong,   I even have my wife looking for stainless stuff for me now.

Search around the forum, I have a 1500 watt element that I use for sausage.     I may up that to 2000 watts to quicken the ramp up time.

My box is insulated, about 40 inches tall 20 inches wide, 26 inches deep.    There was a link around for a strip element that grainger sells but costs a little less.   

Post some pics for all to review.
 
nope it died on its own.. going to cost 800.00 for a new one so I could have just bought a smoker a lot cheeper if that was what I was thinking.
 
ok so here are some pics.   ok so pictures are a pain in the but with this new board format so I will do all the descriptions first then post the pictures, and it seams like they posted backwards......  fixed the descriptions

 the third one is the outside, it is 60" tall, 30" wide and 26" deep.

the second one is the inside of the door which is plastic so I will cut a piece of sheet metal and replace that.  is it fine to use the magnetic strip seal that is there?

the first one is the inside.  the clips that hold the racks are plastic so I will have to change them, and the trim around the door area is plastic so I will have to make a new trim.

I am going to use an arduino based PID temp control with cabnet temp and meat temp.  I also plan on making and external smoke generator wich will have its own heating element so I can make smoke at low smoker temps.

any sugestions and coments are more than welcome

60b3fa63_freezer3.jpg
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Ok so I have started to put a list togeather of what i'll need for this,

I am thinking angle irion for the rack supports,

some more racks,

sheet metal to replace plastic trim,

for heat I am thinking of using parts from a 1000watt hot plate, is this enough for a 13Cu^Ft smoker?

Steve
 
Ok, so today I took some of the plastic trim off and confirmed that it is spray foamed and the inner cabnet is infact steel.  so I just need to take the front corner trim off and replce it with sheet metal.  I need to pull the shelf holders off and then get some angle iron to make new supports and take the inside of the door off and see whats under that.

has anyone used a high temp silicone inside there smoker to seal joints? 

I am going to make a smoke daddy type generator, what size screen is used in them?  my other idea was just to build a small burner with a 100 watt element that I can use for burning chunk.  still have to decide which way to go I guess.. maby a quick and dirty smoke daddy to start then an improved unit later..

Steve
 
I used high temp silicone in several places on my smoker and so far so good.  It is rated to 450 degrees if I remember correctly, but I've only had it up to 300.  It was silver but now it is all stained a beautiful deep brown, I even used it to make my own door gasket.  Good luck with the build!
 
Ok, so today I took some of the plastic trim off and confirmed that it is spray foamed and the inner cabnet is infact steel.  so I just need to take the front corner trim off and replce it with sheet metal.  I need to pull the shelf holders off and then get some angle iron to make new supports and take the inside of the door off and see whats under that.

has anyone used a high temp silicone inside there smoker to seal joints? 

I am going to make a smoke daddy type generator, what size screen is used in them?  my other idea was just to build a small burner with a 100 watt element that I can use for burning chunk.  still have to decide which way to go I guess.. maby a quick and dirty smoke daddy to start then an improved unit later..

Steve
 
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