Question on homemade smoker.

meat magician · Aug 20, 2009

I have been trying to find a way to make a nice big homemade smoker with out going to much trouble. I want to be able to do mass quantities(50-100 lbs at a time) of smoked summer sausage and/or jerky and really whatever else I can do. Anyhow I was thinking about buying a steel storage cabinet from Lowes, and converting it to a smoker using either propane or electric hotplates for heat. My only concern is do I need to be worried about the paint in the cabinet affecting the taste of the meat or worse my health. I probably would never run hotter than 275-300* Any advice or info would be helpful, here is a link to an example of they type of cabinet I am refering

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...DWG&lpage=none

beer-b-q · Aug 20, 2009

Seems high for just a cabinet...

Have you considered an OLD refrigerator or freezer for making one? They make good ones because they are already insulated...

davenh · Aug 20, 2009

I was thinking the same thing...save the money for other parts! Checkout craigslists for a free freezer or fridge. You could also put a wanted ad on Craigslist and you will get a bunch of responses for a large working or not freezer/fridge.

meat magician · Aug 20, 2009

Yeah thats just an exaple and not the one I am looking at, for that money I could just buy a 48" vertical smoker and be done with it.

I've seen some cheaper cabinets for around $150 that are darn near the same thing. I am also looking for some thing that is a little more low profile than a fridge and not quite as intrusive to the eye of neighbors. They enjoy the things I make in the pit but the place I would need to put the bigger smoker would be in view of a few neighbor and I don't want it to look like a big hunk of junk sitting in the yard so an old fridge is out, but I appreciate the suggestion.

meat magician · Aug 20, 2009

Here is another cabinet, closer to what I had in mind
http://www.homedepot.com/Storage-Gar...atalogId=10053

I've neve built one before so I don't know what will work or not as far as how thick the metal should be to keep heat in. I am open to any ideas as I am really in the brainstorming phase right know and the cabinet idea seemed to be the easiest/fastest way to get going. I considered a brick one, (I have 500 brick in the garage) but do not want to go to the effort to build an elaborate smoker just to turn around and sell the house in 5 years and have to leave it behind.

bud lite · Aug 24, 2009

Take a look here.....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=80035

and a video here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0EF...e=channel_page

meat magician · Aug 25, 2009

Fast eddie, Bud lite thank you both.

meat hunter · Aug 25, 2009

Its hard to come up with something that will work based on what you say you want. Looks mainly for the neighbors. They said it below and I will say it here again, an old fridge. Already insulated. But heres where you can make it look nice. One, you can give it a nice paint job, or two, you could enclose it in an outside tool storage shed or do like I want to do, and that is build a nice wood building around it, not much bigger than the fridge itself. In fact, I am thinking about making my wood building look like an old out house. Just an idea. I would steer clear of that cabinet as it is too thin and you will have trouble trying to maintain steady temps, and even more so if its windy. As far as propane goes, it is easy to regulate and you can get burners that dont produce tons of btu's. The burners off an old coleman stove are perfect. 20,000-22,000 btu's. As far as regulating your temps with propane, most sausage is smoked at the same temps. If you use your smoker to dry the casings first, all you need is two tick marks on the regulator, one for drying, the other for smoking. I just hang my casings up in a room till they dry and then into the smoker so its not an issue for me to have 2 settings on my smoker. What I did, was find the temps that I smoke at and then tape down the red adjustment knob to that point. I turn the gas on and off at the tank. Consistent temps. Also your temps that you said you would run, 275-300 degrees? Sausage really should be smoked around 165-180 degrees and jerky around 100-125 degrees. Both of these low temps are very obtainable with a low output propane burner like those found on the coleman stoves. You could also use a low pressure propane burner like the ones found on the turkey fryers, only low pressure, and you could use that if you were to say smoke chicken where you would want to jack the temps up at the end to crisp up the skin. Just some ideas for ya.

roksmith · Aug 25, 2009

Rregardless of the temps, I wouldn't cook with anything painted on the insides...ever

meat magician · Aug 25, 2009

This is the kind of info I was looking for guys, thanks, I scrapped the cabinet idea already. Sausage was not the only thing I planned to make in it thats why I stated the higher temps. I will consider the fridg further what type, size and modifications do I need make one, I will do a search on hear a bit later but I will ask now as well.

meat hunter · Aug 25, 2009

If you go with a fridge, look for the older ones, 1940's-1950's. Usually you can have them if you just offer to remove them. Most of the time, they have a porcelin interior so you dont need to do anything other than remove the shelves and maybe a plastic butter or egg tray. If they have the paper insulation, you can usually remove it by removing the back of the fridge and then insert modern insulation. Replace the old door seal with a modern stove gasket and you can find several posts here where people put in propane burners. They really are an ideal smoker. That why so many guys back in the day converted them to smokers once they wore out as a fridge. Nice and thick, and when insulated, will not be adversly affected by cold weather or wind. What ever you do, take some pics for us so we can see what you are doing. Also, as far as getting a fridge, I put an ad here in out local craiglist section, under farm equipment. I got 3 hits in one week from folks telling me I could have their fridge if I came and got it. 2 of the old GE style with the condensor coil on top, really cool, and one from the 50's so they are out there.

meat magician · Aug 26, 2009

Thanks Meat hunter, now a got a good foot forward in searching for one should I decide to go that route for sure. I may build a small structure around it to nice it up for the neighbors, but after a mentioning getting one the other day one nieghbor said he would not care if he had to look at it as long as he got some sausage

beer-b-q · Aug 26, 2009

I believe that suffocating would be very hard to do with a 4" plus vent in the smoker.

meat magician · Aug 27, 2009

Vent or no vent the point is noted, even if the vent was there if no one thought to look for a missing child there it would certainly end bad. I have a three year old boy so it's better to be safe right.

meat magician · Aug 29, 2009

I have not seen that, thanks Eddie, I'll give that a look for sure!

todell7 · Aug 30, 2009

hi check mine out. I can use electric for sausage or gas for smoked meats. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75749
http://www.tejassmokers.com/castironburners.htm

mohlrich · Nov 28, 2012

Did you ever make the refridgerator smoker? I just started mine tonight and was looking for some tips.

Question on homemade smoker.

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