Hey everyone, posting a new thread here to start over with my process of researching and building my brick smoker. I changed direction pretty drastically after a lot of feedback from posters here (thanks for that, everyone!) and settled on an overall basic design I want to move forward with. What I now have to work with is this Timberline wood stove:
plus two Timberline fireplace inserts of a very similar but smaller design. My plan is to cut the bottom, sides, and back off of the inserts, leaving a metal frame and the doors in front, and stack them on top of the stove. The inserts are 4" narrower than the stove, so I want to cut open a 2" channel on both sides of the stove on the top so the smoke can come up the sides and into the insert frames, where I'll have the cooking grates. From there, I want to build masonry around the whole thing, with either refractory cement or firebrick on the inside, then a layer of insulation, then regular red brick on the outside. Something very similar to this concept. This is a (very) rough sketch. The bricks are angled just because of the angle of the picture, everything would be straight up and down in reality:
Here are my questions that I'm trying to work out:
I'm also going to turn the top hood part of the stove into a chamber where I can slide in a pizza stone and use it as a pizza oven, but that's kind of an afterthought and I think should be pretty simple compared to everything else.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!
plus two Timberline fireplace inserts of a very similar but smaller design. My plan is to cut the bottom, sides, and back off of the inserts, leaving a metal frame and the doors in front, and stack them on top of the stove. The inserts are 4" narrower than the stove, so I want to cut open a 2" channel on both sides of the stove on the top so the smoke can come up the sides and into the insert frames, where I'll have the cooking grates. From there, I want to build masonry around the whole thing, with either refractory cement or firebrick on the inside, then a layer of insulation, then regular red brick on the outside. Something very similar to this concept. This is a (very) rough sketch. The bricks are angled just because of the angle of the picture, everything would be straight up and down in reality:
Here are my questions that I'm trying to work out:
- How big of a concrete pad should I pour for this? I haven't figured out the final dimensions with the masonry yet, but is there any kind of general rule as to how much bigger the slab should be compared to the footprint of the smoker?
- I know metal expands when heated, so I want to make sure the areas where metal comes in contact with masonry account for that. Is there a way I can form an air tight seal between the stove and the masonry, while still allowing for expansion? I just want it to look nice and not allow smoke to escape, so I'm trying to figure out if I need to put a thin layer of a neutral colored insulation, or what I can do to prevent masonry cracking due to metal expansion.
- I'm trying to figure out what to do in the center top part of the stove. I'm divided between keeping the 1/4" steel over it and leaving it as is, or cutting out a rectangle shape where I can sink a metal water pan in.
- I have a 2 year old and another on the way, so time is precious. I was originally considering making an opening where I could fit in a pellet hopper to make it a set-it-and-forget-it system for long smokes, but I'm actually starting to lean more toward just using charcoal and a BBQ Guru controller that I could adapt to fit on one of the air intakes in the stove for long cooks. Anyone have experience with a pellet smoker and a fan controller that has a strong opinion toward one or the other?
I'm also going to turn the top hood part of the stove into a chamber where I can slide in a pizza stone and use it as a pizza oven, but that's kind of an afterthought and I think should be pretty simple compared to everything else.
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!