Building my own with 'value' wood.

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Thanks, guys! I hadn't read about the durock/osb concern. I'm planning to use a dual burner electric hot plate for heat and smoke so I don't think my temps will get very high. Do you know at what temperature that becomes a concern? I'll do some research on it.


BG, morning..... Hot plates don't work well as a heat source... there is an over temp limit so the burner housing will not get hot.....
 
I'll have to fiddle with it and see what kind of temps I can get. I have a propane burner/turkey fryer that I can use if I need more heat but I'd like to avoid putting open flame inside there if possible. 
 
I finally have the doors on. I reused some old cabinet doors my wife got free from craigslist or freecycle or some such. They aren't ideal and I had to hack them quite a bit so they don't fit very well. I may have to do some more playing with them to get smoke to stay in. They aren't very pretty and don't match the rest of the box so when that starts to bug me I might take them off and make some proper doors.  

They don't look the best.


For the handles I used some antler from a deer my wife's grandpa got years and years ago that were falling apart in the garage.


The lower doors are somewhat rougher than the upper doors.

 
Just realized I hadn't updated this since I finished the smoker.

I tried the electric hot plates and couldn't get enough heatup. Of course it was bloody cold until the last week or two. I picked up a really cheap charcoal smoker and tried it out by itself and didn't like it too much so I just put the bottom of it inside my smoker and that worked pretty well. I did a couple fatties that were really good. I ran out of charcoal and decided to try using the propane burner from my turkey fryer as the heat source and it worked really well so I think I'm going to stick with that. I may try the hotplates again when it gets hot out but for now the propane is the way to go.  I have a water pan on the lowest rack and an old frying pan to put wood in that goes right on the burner and smokes pretty well. I'm having trouble with the chips flaming up so I'll have to figure out how to get it up off the flame a bit.

The cabinet has quite a few gaps between the boards and I tried filling them in with a fire-proof caulk but it just hardened up and separated the first time I used the thing after applying it so that seems like it was a waste of money. I'm not sure if I'll have to try something else to seal it up or if I'm getting enough smoke on stuff. I've really only done fatties so far and the amount of smoke doesn't seem to be as essential to the taste of those.

I'll try to pull some pictures onto this computer so I can post some of the finished product and the fatties.
 

Here she is with the roof on. I used two pieces on the top and married them together with the 1x4 and instead of cutting it down to fit I left the additional so I could clamp a light onto it for night smoking.


Small, cheapo charcoal smoker and an attempt to use it when it was 2 degrees out with high winds and snow. 


The bottom of the charcoal smoker is more useful inside my cabinet smoker.


There she is in all her glory smoking some fatties for my son's birthday.


They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.
 
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