Ok, I'm hoping to get some pics here soon. But I just finished this build. I have a 5 drawer, fire proof file cabinet as the main cook box. I have a cheap, $30 walmart special as the fire box. I used a side burner from an old grill as my heat source and cast iron plate to hold the chunks.
Everything works fine. But I've run into some small roadblocks.
1. I really would like to sanitize the main cabinet as much as possible. And keep it that way. Problem is, there's no heat source in that part of the cooker so nothing to really burn it out with. The only thing I could do is buy some wood and get a small fire in there to clean it out. Any suggestions?? Both to clean it now and keep it clean moving forward?
2. And this is the biggest problem I'm having at the moment. The small cabinet is loosing way to much smoke. It's thin and flimsy by design, I actually want to loose as much heat as possible so it doesn't transfer to the main cabinet. But I'm loosing a ton of smoke mainly around the top door and at the back where there are some openings. Is it easier to just fill it with high temp caulk or possibly a tin plate of some sort? The top door is mainly for show, there will be no cooking done in there at all. My goal is to get a good 90% of the smoke into the cooking cabinet.
I'll get some pictures soon. I have a few other tweaks I need to make but I wanted to get it running this weekend. I have some bacon that's just about done curing that I hope to use to take this on it's maiden voyage.
Everything works fine. But I've run into some small roadblocks.
1. I really would like to sanitize the main cabinet as much as possible. And keep it that way. Problem is, there's no heat source in that part of the cooker so nothing to really burn it out with. The only thing I could do is buy some wood and get a small fire in there to clean it out. Any suggestions?? Both to clean it now and keep it clean moving forward?
2. And this is the biggest problem I'm having at the moment. The small cabinet is loosing way to much smoke. It's thin and flimsy by design, I actually want to loose as much heat as possible so it doesn't transfer to the main cabinet. But I'm loosing a ton of smoke mainly around the top door and at the back where there are some openings. Is it easier to just fill it with high temp caulk or possibly a tin plate of some sort? The top door is mainly for show, there will be no cooking done in there at all. My goal is to get a good 90% of the smoke into the cooking cabinet.
I'll get some pictures soon. I have a few other tweaks I need to make but I wanted to get it running this weekend. I have some bacon that's just about done curing that I hope to use to take this on it's maiden voyage.