19engr
Newbie
- Dec 19, 2010
- 1
- 11
Great Smoker with a few Mods...
Needing to replace my old smoker for lack of being able to smoke a large turkey or hang sausage, I was ready to build one from a 55 gallon barrel. All the affordable units were just way too small for my desires. When I was at BPS last week and saw the size of the Masterbuilt Extra Wide Propane Smoker, I had to get one. This unit has (4) adjustable 22" wide x 15" deep racks. That's over 1300 sq inches ! The smoke cabinet itself measures 24w x 17d x 33h.
Assembly went rather well, except only one of the front legs had 2 holes drilled for the front control panel. I lined up the other leg with clamps & drilled matching holes.
Regardless of which brand you buy, you may desire to make some personal modifications as I've done...just my personal preferences.
None of the electric or gas smokers have casters which makes them rather awkward to move around. On my workbench I built a grill frame from two 3/16" x 2" x 29" flat bar stock. One for the back and one for the front legs. Make sure alignment is perfectly square. Then connected them by welding (10) 3/8 rods 21" long to create a grill. Then I drilled 1/2" holes for the threaded 3" casters, the front two are locking.
The supplied chip pan is worthless, the holes in the pan allow the chips to ignite. I bent a small grill "U" shaped to position over the burner allowing for air space and I use a cast iron skillet for the chips.
I felt the water pan was rather small, so I got a 14" round Stainless Steel pan for 2 bucks from a used resturaunt equipment dealer for water, and cut the two rails on the water grid frame so I could bend the two larger rails to accomodate the larger pan.
None of the supplied temp guages are very accurate. I use two digitals and hang the probe into the backside top vent. One for the smoker temp, the other is the meat probe.
Just a few modifications and I now have a custom designed smoker, I feel is perfect !!!!
Now Masterbuilt needs to make available a waterproof cover.
19engr
Needing to replace my old smoker for lack of being able to smoke a large turkey or hang sausage, I was ready to build one from a 55 gallon barrel. All the affordable units were just way too small for my desires. When I was at BPS last week and saw the size of the Masterbuilt Extra Wide Propane Smoker, I had to get one. This unit has (4) adjustable 22" wide x 15" deep racks. That's over 1300 sq inches ! The smoke cabinet itself measures 24w x 17d x 33h.
Assembly went rather well, except only one of the front legs had 2 holes drilled for the front control panel. I lined up the other leg with clamps & drilled matching holes.
Regardless of which brand you buy, you may desire to make some personal modifications as I've done...just my personal preferences.
None of the electric or gas smokers have casters which makes them rather awkward to move around. On my workbench I built a grill frame from two 3/16" x 2" x 29" flat bar stock. One for the back and one for the front legs. Make sure alignment is perfectly square. Then connected them by welding (10) 3/8 rods 21" long to create a grill. Then I drilled 1/2" holes for the threaded 3" casters, the front two are locking.
The supplied chip pan is worthless, the holes in the pan allow the chips to ignite. I bent a small grill "U" shaped to position over the burner allowing for air space and I use a cast iron skillet for the chips.
I felt the water pan was rather small, so I got a 14" round Stainless Steel pan for 2 bucks from a used resturaunt equipment dealer for water, and cut the two rails on the water grid frame so I could bend the two larger rails to accomodate the larger pan.
None of the supplied temp guages are very accurate. I use two digitals and hang the probe into the backside top vent. One for the smoker temp, the other is the meat probe.
Just a few modifications and I now have a custom designed smoker, I feel is perfect !!!!
Now Masterbuilt needs to make available a waterproof cover.
19engr