Smoker Build - Stick built

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bkiedro

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 4, 2016
2
10
Eagle River, WI
Hello there,

I am new here from a member perspective, but I gleaned a lot of good information off of these forums which aided me in building my smoker.  Given that, I thought I would share my experience to possibly help some of you folks.  Before I begin, please note that carpentry is not my strong suite.  There is a fair amount of rework on this, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  

The smoker is 3X5X6.  I used 2X4 walls and secured it to 4x4 bases in case I want to move it.  Steel roof with cedar siding.   I lined the interior with sheet aluminum and used Reflectix to insulate it.  

As you can see the smoke source is external with electric heat.  I started with 1 element, but it wasn't quite warm enough.  It could only hold the smoker at about 140 degrees.  I added the second and it works great now.  I did have to add another 4 foot section of pipe to ensure that the wood stove did not inject too much heat into the smoker as well.  With electric heat, I can control it to within about 3 degrees of temperature variance. I'm happy with that.   

Pictures are attached for those of you who are interested.  If you have any questions, fire away.  I'll certainly help where I can as many of you have provided me with information that I used to build this one.











 
Nice build, I do have one question. The cedar siding, does it sit in a routed grove or anything for the corners? It looks very nice, but I see that as a possible water penetration area in blowing wind. No really a criticism, as I can't say it will be a problem, I would just watch to see if it will be one.

Otherwise, I can't see a problem with your carpentry work.
 
I was reading up on Reflectix Insulation and it has a temp range of -60 to +180...   will that be a problem for you ??
 
Thanks for the comments!  As it relates to the cedar siding, you typically caulk those edges to prevent some moisture from getting in. That said, I didn't want to use any chemicals if I didn't have to.  I'm going to monitor it and see if the need arises.  

As it pertains to the Reflectix comment, I went back and forth on that.  I had trouble understanding exactly what temperature it was rated for.  That said, I don't get this smoker any warmer than 175 as I only use it for smoking sausage type products.  

This was a bit of an experiment, so I'll keep you posted as to how it holds up.
 
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