Block Smoker Build in MI

Dave do you think the raining would happen for hot smoking as well?  My intent was for right around the 220-230 degree range for brisket, ribs, shoulder etc.  I suppose i could use it for cold smoking also- but i want to master the hot first ;)  thanks again for your insight

I think the roof of my build, as drawn, will be wood framed, with a sheet of plywood underneath and i'll cover that with some sort of sheet metal.  

Mentioning wood smokers- would those be safe to build a fire in? ;)

Thanks again everyone for your insight-  I figure i have a solid month until its warm enough for me to attempt to begin this quest. or i should say warm enough to be outside for several hours;)

Hi All,  So we had a spring day in Michigan yesturday so I started my build!


The smoker is sitting on my driveway-  I filled all the block cores with Batt insulation


that one block you can see back center is a damper- if it ends up not letting in enough air- i will put a vent in the door




That is a box beam I made to go between what will be the firebox door and the cooker door.  It is made out of 2x8's with a layer of 3/8" plywood to build it up to 7 5/8" tall (height of a block)


I wrapped the beam in aluminum flashing


Inside of the smoker


view of the beam, that block on the right side is where i will put the exhaust stack


full height of the block of the smoker-  it will have a roof atop, A similar box beam will go atop the upper opening.  I used fireblock foam insulation (orange) to fill some gaps on the inside, and regular from the outside.  I plan on trimming it all off once it dries.  Of course i ran out of the fireblock before i finished;)  

Hi Dirtsailor,

blocks are dry stacked, a few have a little construction adhesive on them (namely the top course).  Batt insulation in between yes.  The moisture wicking issue- would painting the exterior offer any remedy to the issue?  

About the supporting structure- with the exception of top course, which i then glued, i hit it a few times tried to push it and it was more solid than i thought it woudl be.  I should have probably said early on in the post we don't park cars in the garage (i should say workshop) so odds of it ever getting hit by a car are slim.  Even if it was grouted and reinforced- if the truck big one was big enough it would still crumble ;)

thanks for your insight btw

Hi All, So the smoker was finished as of last night (less sealing the brick and fixing the leaky roof!)  I started seasoning it last night.  I ran it for 4 or so hours.  Once you can get the fire going it stays pretty warm.  Now i have to learn to keep the fire at the desired temperature.  But that can be done over the coming weeks


smokestack is made from aluminum flashing- any galvanized part (the cap) i painted with engine paint



The top door(open) i sanded the paint off then sprayed it with engine paint.  Prior to seasoning I oiled everything 


Inside of the top of the smoker.  Thats aluminum flashing with osb behind it.  I found out my roof had a leak as it rained yesterday and i came home to find my vapor proof light (guard is off till i get it fixed)  was filled with water.  When it warms up a bit i have to remove the shingles- resheath, re shingle and fix the issue (which was probably just me piecemealing the roof together from plywood pieces rather than a whole piece)


this view shows the inside right of the smoker- hole in the side is the exhaust pipe, when i designed it i intended it to be one course of block higher- but during construction I goofed


view with both doors open. the bottom door i wire wheeled the paint off, and just oiled the door. I figured this part would get a lot hotter and figured it just as well not to paint it


view inside the lower door, that block in the back acts as the damper, it seemed to bring enough air in with the lower door closed- I still need to do the tests to really control the temperature- but at first glance seems good


a view up from the bottom door through the two cooking levels


view down top to the bottom


view with doors half open

Hi Again,

So a bit of an update. I have done dry runs, up to about 6 hours so far (3 or 4) one i cooked some turkey wings on-  Tonight around midnight i will start up my first real test, 1/3 of a brisket and half a shoulder.   I did replace the roof.   In retro spect rolled roofing would have been way easier, but i found another pack of shingles on craigslist for $10.  It hasn't but sprinkled since I fixed the roof so i am really not sure how well the fix worked-  But between re-shingling and re-sheathing (it was peacemealed before, now its 1 whole sheet)  We should be good to go.   I also made a 36x12x12 inch charcoal basket of expanded steel.  I should have some more to post tomorrow evning/sunday morning

ryan

Well so i woke up this morning hoping to find my meat 80% done.  I was in for a surprise.  The long and short is the roof structure caught fire and caved in on itself.  Luckily nothing surrounding (in regards to property or utilities)  was damaged and no people or wildlife creatures were hurt either.  The roof didn't exactly ignite so much as smolder away (so it seemed).   The meat was obviously wrecked,  though i did tear it apart to look at it, and what was not burned to heck, was tender on the inside.  

what was damaged:  All the roof. The wood header atop the upper door.   The top course of brick may need to be replaced (gotta check if its brittle)   I think some of the insulation is spent inside the door (upper 3"  But i can carve that out, either put in lumber, or fill it with fire block foam. oh my pride ;)

What is left:  The block, the grates (though they need a good scrubbing)  the lower door, the coal-basket i made for the bottom.  so really 80% or so is left. below is the photo


What I think went wrong. I burned about 3 logs in the smoker just to heat it up.  As i was getting ready to put the meat on I took them out, scooped up the coals (probably a chimney and a half of lit)   and put them atop my coal basket.   I had put about 20# of unlit charcoal spread in the 12x12x36" basket (so about 2-3" all across)  and added about 3/4 chimney of freshly lit briquettes to the  1.5 chimneys of coals from the fire.  Mind you- this isn't a Weber chimney, the smaller cheaper generic ones.  then i put the basket in my bottom door atop my fireplace grates.

Where i think it went wrong is putting the two chunks of smoldering logs atop the basket of coals. I also put about 3-4 unlit hickory chunks.  The temperature did generally raise quite quickly after that- my digital thermometer said 380 at one point. So i blocked my damper off by 2/3 hoping to choke it down... and the temperature was dropping- slowly Evidently that did not do anything to cool it enough.     In hindsight i should have just left the coals and the few unlit chunks and called it good in general i think that's what killed it from the heat aspect.

How the structure failed- My structure from top to bottom was,  1/2" osb covered with aluminum flashing,  wood studs/batt insulation, 3/4" osb.  asphalt roofing and flashing.   The bottom element was lap jointed with two 20" pieces of aluminum flashing.  with screws every 6" or so to hold them to the wood-  so thats probably where the failure started.  aluminium probably melted, wood ignited- rest is history.

With all that said I have to figure out new way to build a roof/structure- and I'm open to suggestions.  durable suggestions ;)

below is a photo of what i woke up to after i opened the door.