New guy with new house

raygunter · Mar 23, 2012

Hi all, New guy here. Well I've lurked for a while and gathered lots of ideas. I live in Texas in the far out reaches of Dallas area.

You know that when ya git an itch one day you gotta scratch it. Here's my scratch and what I came up with.

The basic structure is 3/4 in plywood with a Cedar covering to make it pretty. Its fired with Propane. For the burner I found one that was recommended in another post on this forum. Good size iron skillet gives place for smoke wood.

I'll go take some more pictures, this one was the only one I had on the computer.

Being in Texas I cook pork ribs and lots of beef brisket. So I was looking to make a house that was comfortable running at 250. So far this one works at 250 on idle. I couldn't be more pleased.

Hope ya enjoy it I had a great time building and thinking out how to do this. I looked at lots and lots of house builds on this forum, man what a treasure chest of information you guys have put in this forum.

Ray

pops6927 · Mar 23, 2012

Wouldn't be this burner by chance?

raygunter · Mar 23, 2012

Pops6927 said:
Wouldn't be this burner by chance?

It sure would be, Great find you did.... I went right out and got one

With my house volume I run the two outside rings on about a 3/4 inch flame. Keeps the inside right at 250

Ray

alelover · Mar 23, 2012

That is one pretty smoke house.

raygunter · Mar 23, 2012

Thanks for the compliment, Wife says "if you gonna put that in the yard it better be nice"!

I tell my friends that "We're expanding and adding on"..... that's the lil house out back.

A couple more pictures

This is as it stands today.

I have a damper in the chimney pipes that I can adjust with the knob sticking out of the roof.

I painted a white line indicator on it that tells what position the damper is in.

Fresh air vent down on the bottom

A couple of doors makes it accessible

Bars let me hang the meat or a place to put grill racks.

Rebar is cheap and plenty strong. I thought about the rust but quickly found out that once the smoke gets on them they dont.

This is where the smoke gets going

venture · Mar 23, 2012

Nice job!

Good luck and good smoking.

chuckles47 · Mar 23, 2012

Awesome house - what are the dimensions?

lostarrow · Mar 23, 2012

Love it!

harleysmoker · Mar 23, 2012

Nice job! Can't wait to see some cooks on it.

cdldriver · Mar 23, 2012

waiting for the first qveiw food.

raygunter · Mar 23, 2012

chuckles47 said:
Awesome house - what are the dimensions?

Inside its 30x30

69 from ground to inside ceiling

Peak of the roof stands at 92 which gave me adequate room for my dampener in the chimney along with getting the control knob to the outside cleanly.

Done a couple of cooks. Got the idea of putting the meat in a net bag from looking around on this site. Man that works like a charm. Did 3 chickens and a turkey at 250 for 4 1/2 hours, what a feast that was.

raygunter · Mar 24, 2012

After running this house now for about a month or two, I have some observations and a few questions.

I'm confident that you guys who have much more experience in this as I do can guide me.

The house now is powered by propane. I have Natural Gas available, just have to have a line run and plumb it up.

     1.Would the burner set up I have right now be OK with NG with a jet change of course?

Assuming that conversion to NG happens I'm thinking that an automatic temp control valve setup would be a great setup. Have a knob on the outside of the house where you dial in the temp desired and push an auto-lite button. I travel allot in my work and the wife would like to use it, so its gotta be simple.

     2. Is anything like this available, as a unit, or put together from components?    Hot water heater controls have the same features, temp, autopilot,?????

I have come to a conclusion that a cold smoke in this house, configured the way it is at present is just not going to happen. If I turn down the heat to run around a 100 there's not enough flame to generate a smoke out of my iron skillet. So my problem is how do I get smoke at low temps.

     3. What about running a pellet smoke. I've looked at a few pictures here on some of you setups they really look good. Whats the best pellet smoke setup? Advantages? Whats bad about them?

I have a temp gauge but its pretty basic. Just a dial with a long stem. Need something better. Remote would be great. That way I can sit in my favorite chair and sip a glass of ice tea and not have to get up. Wow an alarm could wake me from a nap.

    4. Any suggestions on temp gauge upgrade?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm just excited about all of the knowledge you guys have and wanting to make my "out back house" really nice.

Ray

davidhef88 · Mar 24, 2012

Great looking build. I am thinking of building one in the next year or so. Hope it will turn out as nice as this one looks.

tyotrain · Mar 24, 2012

Great looking smoke house!

Have fun and happy smoking

puddy · Mar 24, 2012

I don't know about the rest of your questions but I can say with confidence that you should look into the AMZNPS from Todd. It works great and you don't need to waste propane on a cold smoke.

harleysmoker · Mar 24, 2012

The next remote thermometer I buy will be a Maverick ET-732.

michael ark · Mar 24, 2012

Looks great! I would look at getting a gas valve and a pid controler. You could go to a heat and air contractor and pick up a used unit with a busted heat exchanget for dirt cheap. It would even have the safteys you need to do it right. If you need help wireing it up just pm me.

raygunter · Mar 25, 2012

On recommendations I just ordered one of Todds pellet trays. The pics look real good and i do not see any negative reviews from looking through this site from users here. Looking forward to trying it out. I have an idea of placing it below the burner in a tray that could be pulled out from the outside. Kind like a drawer with a knob on the outside. Wife would like something simple.

As far as the natural gas setup I really like the PID idea. When the gas man comes to run the line I'll confer with him on whats required and possibilities. Thanks for that idea.

I had an idea of putting on a lb of bacon. Ran down to the store and bought a package of just store bought bacon, thick sliced. Put it on along with a dozen of so hot dogs.

Sorry no pics..... bacon was so gooooood it was scarey. Raised the bacon to a whole new level. Did you know that a lb of bacon only makes 2 BLT sandwiches.

The cheap turkey hot dogs my wife buys are not fit to eat..... until now

Ray

pops6927 · Mar 25, 2012

I had a problem placing my AMNPS. I originally thought down at the bottom would be perfect but could not keep it lit. So, I moved it up to the drip pan racks and worked much better, either with the gas on or the gas off. Just wasn't getting any oxygen that low. You may want to experiment.

ironhorse07 · Mar 26, 2012

Puddy said:
I don't know about the rest of your questions but I can say with confidence that you should look into the AMZNPS from Todd. It works great and you don't need to waste propane on a cold smoke.

X2, you will not regret it.

Nice looking smokehouse

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