Recent content by Noseoil

From last year in November, a Costco brisket was going for $3.49/#, now???

55 gallon drum, had to add a 2nd top with rock wool insulation, as the fire box was too small for that volume of cooking space, but it's working pretty well in the warmer temps. I'm at 6,500' in northern New Mexico in a small town, so there's not as much oxygen to burn with here for making...

1st time this season with last years fall project, the home made smoker, a nice 8# pork butt. Nice to have a higher temperature outside, finally. Winter is gong away now & spring's just around the corner in northern New Mexico. It got into the 70's yesterday, so cooking was in order for Sunday...

Dude, that's quite a smoker, hope your business goes well & you make some good meat for the people in your area. There's always room for good food in any town if it's cooked right & tasty. Want to see what you come up with for a store front next!

Took 9 hours to smoke both & they're resting now in the cooler. Internal temps were right at 197f when we pulled them & wrapped them in 2 layers of butcher paper. Thanks for the many good ideas from this site, I guess I got lucky this time...

OK, here's some smoke & pork butts, on sale this week at $.89 a pound. Got a double, 8# each, so we're doing both.

Finally smoked our first meat, a small pork butt (about 6#). It went for 8 hours at "about" 250 - 150 & 225, due to a visit from my son, a trip to the shooting range & not being there the whole time to watch temperature. I know I should have done a better job of keeping an eye on things, but...

My son in the Middle East & my dad (beginning of WWII). Thanks for the sacrifices you have all made for our nation.

OK, it worked! Burning less fuel, making more heat in the smoker and keeping it longer on a colder day. The insulation was the right way to do things, the liner on the bottom works & it's much better than it was. Even with the large volume & cooler temps it's greatly improved (about 37% better...

JD07, I appreciate your concern. That's why I'm not smoking anything yet but the smoker itself. Not interested in wasting a good hunk of meat, so I'll keep trying to make this thing work. If I can't get the temperature correct, I won't use it now & will rework it until it does. I re-ran the...

Sunday's smoke adventure wasn't so good. The temperature had dropped a fair amount from Saturday afternoon & I had trouble getting up to a decent temperature. Glad I was just experimenting, as it didn't work very well this time. I was only able to maintain a steady temperature of about 175...

Quick report, it's working pretty well! Started with some apple twigs & charcoal to get things moving, then waited a bit & added more wood for more smoke. Temperature seems fairly even, but the exhaust stack end is a bit warmer. Inside is getting a nice, smoky black finish now & I'm happy with...

Looks like I'll finally start heating & seasoning it a bit today. I got the casters located & placed yesterday, attached the fire box, caulked & roped the joints into the oven & basically tied up a few loose ends. I want to attach a steering grip on the caster end for moving it around & add a...

Was out of town with our son last week (back from his 5th deployment to the Middle East, thankfully) so it's been a few days since I've posted to the thread. Got a couple of wheels & a fire box when we got back, started back up again on some welding & cutting. Started with setting up the fire...

Finally spoke with a chemistry guy at a large chemical supplier. He said what I figured, don't use the drum for a smoker (liability issues if he had said otherwise). That having been said, he saiid they use steam to purge large tanker trucks to clean the interior of residual solvents with...