I'm new to smoking but learning alot.....I figured an old oven would work for smoking since it's insulated and made for cooking stuff.
Sooo, I called an appliance store and they sold me a non working oven for $10...it was in nice shape and had 2 racks....I took it...it was a tad smaller than I wanted but it should work fine.
Since it was small, I had to think of a way to move the burner out of the oven and give more room....I remembered I had an old charcoal grill (still sold at wal marts for about $25)....so I got it out of the junk pile....
I started out by gutting the oven inside.......then I cut a square hole in the top of the charcoal grill. Next I inverted the oven, took the charcoal grill top and put it on the bottom of the oven to mark the hole......cut a hole out of the bottom of the oven....then I simply drilled holes and used sheet metal screws to attach the charcoal grill top to the underneat of the oven....so far so good.....now the more difficult part. I bought a 2 burner hot plate from Wal Mart ($30).....took it home and unscrewed the bottom...had some weird screws in it....I was able to open it up, but then had to take some tin snips to cut out the plates.....I kept working and finally was able to unscrew part of the hot plates and take both burners out.....then I used the old burner housing to mark two holes in the bottom of the charcoal grill....I had to put them almost touching, otherwise they wouldn't fit the charcoal grill. Cut holes out of char. grill and mounted hot plates. Then I used self tapping sheet metal screws and fixed the bottom half of the charcoal grill to the top underneath the oven....so far so good! WHEW lol
Next I cut a hole in the top of the oven and outer metal housing, and attached a dryer vent (aluminum) to the oven...was just the right height for a smoke stack.....last thing I did was drill a small hole and put in a temp guage, (walmart again $5)....last thing was I made a small wood base for it....fired it up and worked great
BUT, I couldn't get to the controls and had to put the chips in through the oven...Well I knew that wouldn't work, so I took the bottom of the char grill off, and cut out an access panel for my chip pan, attached a piece of metal back with hinges, and made a little catch to hold it shut...then I reworked the wood frame to be higher and allow access to the controls....added casters and I'm done
The charcoal grill worked great since it has built in vents already...and a grill grate so I can put in a drip pan through the oven part to catch grease
OH the chip pan was a chicken cooker pan from walmart as well....was $2 or $4.....made of stainless.....perfect size and everything!
My temps get to about 255-260 max but when smoking drops to about 225-250.....I made it for making sausages but I'm happy with it so far...makes a good thin blue smoke now that I've figured out how to work with it some....and I can control the heat with the independent burners...I set my chip pan about 1/4 of the way on the small burner and use chunks of wood and get a thin blue smoke
Well here's the pics...hope this helps someone with a build....it's crude craftsmanship since I used a jigsaw and a drill only...and tin snips...but it works!
Front Controls...I just cut around the dials and attached to the char grill with sheet metal screws...there's vents like this on the front and back
Wood Chip trap door...I take pliers and take out my chip pan, then add more chips
Smoke vent and temp gauge...Im a newb, but I think this is thin blue smoke?
Sooo, I called an appliance store and they sold me a non working oven for $10...it was in nice shape and had 2 racks....I took it...it was a tad smaller than I wanted but it should work fine.
Since it was small, I had to think of a way to move the burner out of the oven and give more room....I remembered I had an old charcoal grill (still sold at wal marts for about $25)....so I got it out of the junk pile....
I started out by gutting the oven inside.......then I cut a square hole in the top of the charcoal grill. Next I inverted the oven, took the charcoal grill top and put it on the bottom of the oven to mark the hole......cut a hole out of the bottom of the oven....then I simply drilled holes and used sheet metal screws to attach the charcoal grill top to the underneat of the oven....so far so good.....now the more difficult part. I bought a 2 burner hot plate from Wal Mart ($30).....took it home and unscrewed the bottom...had some weird screws in it....I was able to open it up, but then had to take some tin snips to cut out the plates.....I kept working and finally was able to unscrew part of the hot plates and take both burners out.....then I used the old burner housing to mark two holes in the bottom of the charcoal grill....I had to put them almost touching, otherwise they wouldn't fit the charcoal grill. Cut holes out of char. grill and mounted hot plates. Then I used self tapping sheet metal screws and fixed the bottom half of the charcoal grill to the top underneath the oven....so far so good! WHEW lol
Next I cut a hole in the top of the oven and outer metal housing, and attached a dryer vent (aluminum) to the oven...was just the right height for a smoke stack.....last thing I did was drill a small hole and put in a temp guage, (walmart again $5)....last thing was I made a small wood base for it....fired it up and worked great
BUT, I couldn't get to the controls and had to put the chips in through the oven...Well I knew that wouldn't work, so I took the bottom of the char grill off, and cut out an access panel for my chip pan, attached a piece of metal back with hinges, and made a little catch to hold it shut...then I reworked the wood frame to be higher and allow access to the controls....added casters and I'm done
The charcoal grill worked great since it has built in vents already...and a grill grate so I can put in a drip pan through the oven part to catch grease
OH the chip pan was a chicken cooker pan from walmart as well....was $2 or $4.....made of stainless.....perfect size and everything!
My temps get to about 255-260 max but when smoking drops to about 225-250.....I made it for making sausages but I'm happy with it so far...makes a good thin blue smoke now that I've figured out how to work with it some....and I can control the heat with the independent burners...I set my chip pan about 1/4 of the way on the small burner and use chunks of wood and get a thin blue smoke
Well here's the pics...hope this helps someone with a build....it's crude craftsmanship since I used a jigsaw and a drill only...and tin snips...but it works!
Front Controls...I just cut around the dials and attached to the char grill with sheet metal screws...there's vents like this on the front and back
Wood Chip trap door...I take pliers and take out my chip pan, then add more chips
Smoke vent and temp gauge...Im a newb, but I think this is thin blue smoke?
