Building a smoker questions?????????

[eyebrowse]

I am in the process of designing and building a vertical wood/natural gas smoker out of concrete blocks, metal studs, cocncrete backer board, and brick veneer. I plan on placing a fire pit next to a vertical chamber with the lower portion made of fire brick and concrete block and the upper portion of metal studs with backer board and brick veneer lining it. I will also have a natural gas burner at the bottom of the smoke chamber. Has anyone built anything like this? Can I use a stainless steel outdoor kitchen access door for my smoker door? I am new at this so any suggestions would be great

 

[morkdach]

i'm not sure on any of your ?'s but someone will be along with some idears.
some schetchs of your idea might be helpful.

 

[mgnorcal]

Be interesting to see if you can get a fire pit and gas to work together for consistent temps.

You could try a smoke generator instead to produce the smoke, then you only need worry about one heat source.
Or build a small side box with a smaller burner and a cake-pan for holding wood chunks, and use always leave this one on and regulate temps with the main burner in the smoke chamber.

Which material would you be using on the Inside of the smoke chamber?

 

[pineywoods]

Sounds interesting got any drawings of you plans? If building it I would also rig it so I could cold smoke in it if possible

 

[eyebrowse]

Like I said I am very new to this but I have heard people talk about using a fire pit on the side of the smoking chamber to produce smoke and then a small burner inside the chamber to regulate the temperature.

On the inside of the smoke chamber I was going to sheath the metal framing with durock backer board and then place brick veneer over that. I have heard that the brick will hold temperature pretty good.

Any other input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eyebrowse]

I have drawings that I have done but I am computer challenged and cannot post them. I plan on building a fire pit on the side of the smoke chamber. How would I rig it to cold smoke?

 

[pineywoods]

Kinda sounds like your on the right path if your figuring on smoke from the outside and the heat from the burner you should be able to do both.

 

[DanMcG]

to cold smoke you will want to get your fire box some distance away from the smoker and feed the smoke in thru a pipe. there was a great thread started by BB53chevy with links to his and others for ideas but it must hat got lost in the crash.
The brick veneer IMO might add to the mass and help maintain the temperature, but I'm not really sure it would be worth the cost or time to install for what you'll get out of it.