smoke house questions

[gary s]

Pretty neat, That looks good, Can't wait to see smoke coming out

Gary

 

[fishingsetx]

With the rain, I'm not going to be able to work on the smokehouse today so instead I decided to work on the smokebox (cast iron dutch oven) lid. I needed some holes to let the smoke out! The plasma made short work of that!

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 22, 2015

 

[gary s]

Cool,  Raining here too

Gary

 

[fishingsetx]

Sorry I haven't updated lately. Got the exterior finished and some test runs done! Still need to do some more sealing and get the racks built. I want to be able to runbin the 225-250 range and can get it there but it takes more gas than I'd like. I have been sealing up gaps little by little but its looking like I need to go ahead and completely seal it up and install dampers on the top and bottom.

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

I'm using crinkled up pages from an old phone book to fill the gaps and sheet rock mud to seal it up! Seems to be working perfect!

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

In low I can maintain about 100 degrees with plenty of smoke produced but to get the temp up in the 225 range I have to run the gas on high.

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• fishingsetx
• Jan 27, 2015

I'm worried this will not allow me to get the 16 hr smoke I like on my briskets on one bottle of propane. I'm going to finish sealing the roof and add a smoke stack/damper setup as well as a damper to the bottom to control air flow. That should hopefully get me where I want to be and still allow enough air flow to do a cold smoke at low temp if/when needed! Otherwise I'll have to figure out how to insulate it.

 

[gary s]

That's a nice looking smoke house 

Gary

 

[dirtsailor2003]

I'd be careeful limiting the air flow too much. I can say that your intake should be okay to cut down. I'd be hesitant to limit the exhaust. Nothing worse than stale smoke. You have a large uninsulated area to heat so it's going to take longer ad more BTU's to get you up to where you want to be. I would fill in your conc. block with some sort of thermal mass. That will help you maintain temps once up to temp, but will also take longer to get to temp. Perilite or something similar might work best, as it would retain heat and would absorb heat faster than say sand or conc. If you find you need to insulate rigid foam against your existing walls with plywood over would work.

Even my big block GOSM can eat through a tank of propane when its cold, and its probably only half the size of your shed.

 

[masonman1345]

I wouldn't seal it. I have a smokehouse that I built out of pallets. I also use a propane burner. The cracks will serve as ventilation, plus it gives the moisture somewhere to escape.