Propane Smoker Modifications

[chisoxjim]

The only mod. I had to do with my small GOSM was toss out the small chip box that it came with, and replaced it with the largest cast iron pan I could fit in there. I am using a large "griddle" type cast iron pan that I load up with lump, and wood chunks, I can get about 3 hours of smoke with this method vs about an hour out of the small chip box. Lets me leave the smoker closed doing its work for longer periods of time.

 

[psychobrew]

Has anybody converted an Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse to propane? I've been thinking about it since the cabinet is in great condition. My only concern is how high the temps would get since it's a well insulated unit (especially since there's plastic around the doors that has already partially melted).

 

[sqwib]

I have done the needle valve mod, installed a few more thermometers, designed an adjustable hanging jerky rack and a new fire box (small cast iron pan and nipped off a 1/2" of the rack that holds the firebox)...all have worked well.
Now my next successful mod (depending on the talent in his forum)
Is I have a 1/2 barrel keg I want to convert to a firebox using a hot plate for cold smokes, fish and stuff.

Any Ideas...
Should I keep it vertical and secure the GOSM to the top of the keg or is all of this not worth doing? Should I keep the firebox to the side or is all of this not worth doing? Do I need to add ventilation to the bottom beneath the hot plate? Should I use gas instead of the hot plate?

Are kegs safe to use, are they stainless or aluminum? If they are aluminum is it ok to use with heat, I figured aluminum should be ok as a firebox because the heat wont be that high

Or is all of this not worth doing?

all input appreciated

 

[chefrob]

in my lowes jobby i put pavers in my chip pan, made a charcoal pan, use a dipsposable foil pan for a bigger water pan, and made a smoke stack for better air flow.

 

[chisoxjim]

heres some pics of what I did to get longer inervals between adding wood.

cast iron pan setup:





works like a charm,

 

[buzzy]

Here are a few things I have done to my Smoke Hollow Smoker (SHS):

All of these from the manufaturer because of no low temps.
Smaller control valve
smaller burner
longer stem thermometer

My mods.
needle valve in line
Have smoker in its own little shack (2.5' x 4.5' x 5.5')
Something I just tried last week to cold smoke dry beef was pull off door &
lean it against front of smoker. Outside temp. around 30. (windy also)Inside temp 65-70.
Finally getting consistent result from SHS that I want.
THANKS TO ALL with mod ideas

Things I have been thinking about
Putting a stainless steel plate or other kind of steel in place of water pan that covers the whole area of smoker.(removable) Not completely tight against sides.Then I should be able to put more in smoker & because if things are not hung right over drip pan they dry out on bottom or get over done. Any thoughts about this would be appreciated.
(sausage, bologna, dried beef & anything else I forgot)

 

[azrocker]

About a year ago I saw a horizontal that had a burner mounted underneath the cooking area on the outside.. (in other words it heated the cooker not the food.) It was at one end. I am unable to find that post now but have run the idea around my head for awhile. I think if I heat my horizontal and bring the temp up it would be a quicker way to reach maximum. I looked at tejas smokers site and they have log burners that could be mounted inside but I worry about safety. If the burner went out ....well BOOM might be descriptive. I have a turkey fryer and thought I might give it a try with that. Any thoughts?

 

[azrocker]

Anybody?

 

[dick bullard]

To all you folks that have bought those electric hot plates from Walmart......most are rated I believe at 1000 watts....but they will never produce that with a pan setting on them....the internal thermostat (bi-metal strip type) is responding to the temp. inside of the unit and will cycle accordingly.....you have to by-pass the control so the unit is full on all of the time.....have done several of these with very good results for producing smoke and the heat needed in smoker....just thought you'd like to know you haven't wasted your money....just need to mod. the mod. for your smoker.....!!!

Rick

 

[hailfixer]

For any of you with vertical smokers you may like some of the mods I've done to my Great Outdoors Smokey Mountain smoker with a 16" door.

First was the addition of a Side Fire Box from Char-Griller. I made a template of the opening and used that to trace it on the smoker. I used the circular air vent as a guide to where the cut out would be. I have pictures posted at this site in the Dr. Good folder.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smokey...s/album/0/list

I use the side box for the smoking wood. I normally start some charcoal in the slide out drawer and when it is ready I push the drawer back in and put the grate over the coals and lay the wood chunks on the grate. What I like about this setup is I can control the amount of wood and smoke from the side box without opening the main smoker door, hence no heat loss.

Added a large square stainless steel water pan. It measures 14" x 13". I cover it with heavy duty foil and hot water at the start of smoking activities.

Next mod was adding a gas oven thermostat heat control valve. I did this mod last year and it really works well. Makes this unit more of a set it and forget it model.

The newest mod was adding a glass window to the door. I tried a replacement GE oven door glass first but the oven door had heavy tint so I decided to get a clear piece of tempered glass and to replace it. I called a local glass company and ordered a piece of tempered glass cut to my size. Since I rarely would have the smoker above 350° they said it would work. Their tempering ovens go to 1200°. Plus they sell this same glass for fireplace doors. The glass is 1/4" thick, 11.5" wide by 22" long. To stabilize the door, and to give the glass something to lay on, I made a steel plate frame using 1/8 inch thick 2" wide cold rolled steel . I used the steel plate to frame an opening 10" wide by 20.5" long.

Since I had to remove the GOSM temperature gauge to install the window this was a good time to add a new one. I like the colors and the big numbers on the replacement 3 Inch BBQ Temperature Gauge.

I really happy with the new mods. The smoker performs great and overall it's getting better and better.

Here are a couple of photos

Michael

 

[nwdave]

Interesting mod with the window. Can't get to your Yahoo Dr Good folio. They want us to sign up for their Yahoo program. I've had bad experiences with Yahoo, so I try to stay clear of them. Can you post the other pictures here?

 

[coffee_junkie]

My cooking grates haven't been that clean since I first fired my smoker up! How do you keep them so clean?
I like the glass mod! I wonder how it will affect the temps? Also the placement of the therm might give you a false reading since the temps can vary greatly depending on where you take your measurments. Nice looking rig, exactly like mine....except it looks completely different. I am interested in the gas valve mod? can you elaborate?

 

[hailfixer]

All you need is a yahoo email, no 'program' to sign up for that I know of. There are quite a few photo's there. It would be worth your time to look at them, I will try to get them up to Photobucket sometime but right now they are there for the viewing.

 

[hailfixer]

I cleaned it up for the photos. Just soaked them in the sink and used that yellow/green sponge thingy and a lot of scrubbing.

I keep another thermometer on the shelf in the middle, and just guess from there

.

The glass doesn't affect the temps as far as I'm concerned. It is a hair thicker than the door anyway at 1/8". Plus if there is any heat loss the thermostat will just kick in a little longer I suppose.

Here is a copy of a post from the smokey mountain forum where I got the idea. I have added some comments in parentheses.

All of this came from a member there Ron Olson http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smokey...n/message/3360

______________________________________________

GOSM Gas Oven Thermostat Heat Control Valve

Do a search for Gas Oven Thermostat Heat Control Valve New on ebay and it will come right up.

I'm no plumber either, I just acquainted myself with the Wall-O-Fittings at Home Depot until I came up with the right combination that worked. While you're there, don't forget to buy a control knob, they never seem to be included.

The inlet for the thermostat is the male pipe threaded port that hangs down beneath it. I used these same threads to mount the thermostat into a metal switch box (Home Depot again - hope you didn't drive home already!) which made it easy to mount the whole thing to the control panel of the GOSM. Just out of preference, I adapted the inlet to a more conventional 3/8" flare fitting, so that it would be compatible with my longer regulator hoses. If you want to use the stock GOSM regulator, the fitting must be 1/8" male pipe thread.

To get from the main outlet of the thermostat to the burner of the smoker, shape a supply line out of 3/8" soft copper tubing (or 1/4" if your thermostat happens to use that size - I think the last one I bought did). Depending on where you mount the thermostat, this line may need to be shaped and routed quite a bit. The copper tube installs directly into the largest port on the thermostat. Tighten the compression fitting until the tube is secure. On the other end, install a compression fitting of the appropriate size, and adapt this fitting as needed to fit the 1/8" male pipe thread of the burner assembly. Be sure to use 2-3 wraps of YELLOW teflon tape on all of your pipe thread fittings. Don't use tape on compression fittings.

(I just fitted a hose barb on the thermostat outlet and used high pressure air hose to make the connection between it and the burner control.)

The trickiest part is piping in a pilot burner, which you pretty much have to do unless you cap off the pilot port on the thermostat. I don't recommend disabling it, as the thermostat can potentially shut off the main burner completely from time to time, and the pilot is what reignites it when the temperature comes down. What I did was build one out of 3/16" by 12" hard brake line from the auto parts store. The brake line has flared ends and comes with its own fittings. Chop one end off and insert it into the small compression fitting in the thermostat and tighten it down. For the other end, purchase a brake line terminator from the same auto parts store - just a nut with a solid end to it - to cap off the line. Before mounting it though, drill a very small, maybe .030" hole in the center of the cap. Presto, there's your pilot burner. You will need to mount this so that the tip of it sits just beneath the main burner in the smoker, close enough that the big burner will ignite it, but not so close that the WOOF of the main burner choking off will blow it out.

The other trick part is fishing the long capillary for the thermo-bulb thingy into the smoker without damaging it, and then mounting it up above the highest cooking rack with the bulb exposed to the hot air of the smoker.

If any of this sounds intimidating, just tell the friendly people at Home Depot what you want to do. If their eyes don't glaze over, then they'll be glad to help with finding the right parts.

(Here are some part numbers. I used the Harpco part, but any like these will work. When I did this mod last year I had already bought the thermostat. I think I paid around $25.00 for it then.)

Harper Wyman Part # 5390G0003J

Harper Wyman Part # 5813H0085D

Harpco # 6060H0017 NATURAL OR LP GAS OVEN HEAT CONTROL VALVE

 

[ryanje]

Does cast iron create a longer buring more even smoke? I have a chip box the the one in this thread with bricks in it. Its stamped steal and only the chunks burn that are in the round area above the burner. Stuff at the square edges doesnt really burn.

 

[ryanje]

I found something just like this for 7.50 at a local lowes.

http://www.josephmarc.com/index.php?...&f=57810_1.jpg

Would it make a good replacement to my steel smoker box on my 36" gas smoker? Also it says not for food use on it. Does that matter since it would just be holding wood?

 

[sqwib]

A gas grill can go kaboom also, there's no safety on them if the burner was to blow out.
Try building a pipe burner, mine took about 45 minutes to build.
Here is a link to my blog that has the pipe burner and all the inf you need to build one.

"Frankensmoker"

 

[chisoxjim]

sure did, it burned easily twice as long as the small cast iron chip box that came with my smoker. THis simple mod. allowed me to keep the door closed and the GOSM doing its work instead of refilling the chip box all the time.

good luck.

btw that is a cast iron pan with the raised "grill" bottom, which I think helped keep the wood, and lump raised up a little.

 

[hailfixer]

Yesterday I took the newly modified GOSM out for a ride. Here are the results of my 1st smoke with the new glass door. I really like seeing inside the smoker while it's working. The glass does get a film on it while its smoking, but it not enough to block the view. Here is a picture taken after 3 1/2 hours.

I'm very happy with the results of the mod. Overall it wasn't too much work and costs where reasonable at about $32.00.

Michael

 

[hailfixer]

Here's a build list and photos for the glass door mod.

I used
1/8" x 2" steel plate 2 pieces 24" & 2 pieces10"
A 22" x 11.5" piece of tempered glass
Rutland #76 500° RTV High Heat Silicone
Nuts & bolts (I just used what I had on hand)

The sizes I used allow for the glass to have a 3/4" overlap on the steel plates. The actual glass opening is 20 1/2" x 10"

I annotated the photos to show each step.