Small home built electric?

[smokin365]

Im wanting to build a small electric smoker, but the problem with that is... I dont know squat about electric units. I am a charcoal and stick burner and love it, but sometimes i just dont want to tend the fire. I dont really want to buy one cuz i have all of the materials to make one, if my plan will work. what im thinking about is taking an old filing cabinet, making sure that there are no nasties (galvanized and the sort), burning the paint off of it with a weed burner, using a "hot plate" for the heating element, insulating with foam and covering it with plywood. The only thing that i havent figured out is temp control. i saw the mod using a bulb and calliper and am considering altering that to fit the situation, but is there some other thing that yall may be able to suggest. another thing i am wondering about is the temp control for an oven. i have a friend that deals used applianced and he has a million parts laying around. Im sure he could hook me up with something that would work.

brian

 

[mossymo]

It can be done, I am not trying to tell you that it can not. But I also have access to what is called "another man's junk" and when it comes to electricity; I also have a labor free electrician.

I say when it comes to electic and you are not an electrician, it is less expensive to purchase a quality built store purchased electric instead of trying to reinvent the wheel (IMHO).

But I do think your dollar savings and temp contoil without being thermostatically controlled is affordable for propan or natural gas in the upper midwest of the U.S.

 

[smokin365]

I plan to buy either a gasser or an electric in the future This is just an idea i came up with drivin home from Canada the other night and more of a "see if i can make it work thing" Mossy. I guess that i forgot to put that in the original post. If i get it together and it works once, it will serve its purpose...proving to the wife that all that junk in the shed can be used for something. That will get her off of my back about cleaning it out and i will win twice. I wont have anything other than time invested in it and it will prolly go back into the shed and occupy the space where it was to start. Thanks for the feed back