I have read several posts on how to make a stoker for charcoal offset. There is a lot of good info out there so I decided to give it a try. The first pic is just to see if the forced air would give me the results I was looking for:
Forced air worked great. But floor fan did not have the control I was l was looking for.
Started with a basic computer fan and created a circuit that can control the current (speed) with a simple dial knob.
I enclosed the circuitry into a plastic box and covered the wires with heat-shrink tubing.
I found some extruded aluminum tubing to offset the fan from the fire box.
I think I will eventually place the control box on the storage shelf in front of the door and paint the aluminum with some black stove paint.
Combined with my homemade charcoal box the homemade stoker works well. I can hold temps consistent around 250 for 3 hrs on 10 lbs of charcoal. It doesn't have the automatic temp setting features that the online stokers have, but for $7.00 in material vs. on line stoker of $200-$400. I call it a win!!
Forced air worked great. But floor fan did not have the control I was l was looking for.
Started with a basic computer fan and created a circuit that can control the current (speed) with a simple dial knob.
I enclosed the circuitry into a plastic box and covered the wires with heat-shrink tubing.
I found some extruded aluminum tubing to offset the fan from the fire box.
I think I will eventually place the control box on the storage shelf in front of the door and paint the aluminum with some black stove paint.
Combined with my homemade charcoal box the homemade stoker works well. I can hold temps consistent around 250 for 3 hrs on 10 lbs of charcoal. It doesn't have the automatic temp setting features that the online stokers have, but for $7.00 in material vs. on line stoker of $200-$400. I call it a win!!
