55 gallon smoker in the works

[JckDanls 07]

Everything's looking good... Your pipe into the chamber and your exhaust stack have me worried that they are undersized... Thinking the exhaust should be bigger than the intake as well ...

 

[Noseoil]

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 numbers for the fire box size & I'm about half of what I should be, certainly a mistake on my part. This is compounded by a restricted air inlet. The fire box came with only about 5.25 square inches of inlet air, so I've drilled a few more holes on the opposite side to increase the airflow into the box & increase the oxygen supply, but it's likely not enough (with the 7 extra holes drilled on the opposite side, the total intake air is now at about 6.62 square inches). This has increased the airflow into the fire box & helped balance the intake air for the box, but I may need to add a second fire box to the other end to make things work. That, or I can double the volume of the existing box by welding & stretching it. Too bad I didn't know about the Feldon calculator sooner, but that's the way it goes on this one!

This is turning out to be an interesting exercise (hopefully not in futility) in building, thinking & figuring. I enjoy tinkering, so that's a good thing. Add to that a stubborn personality & you get an idea of what I'm doing & why. More to follow...

 

[Noseoil]

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 efficiency with what I did, based on the temperature measured on the two thermometers).

I'm happy with the results now. I can actually cook something soon, so looking forward to some great meats. I had to reduce the airflow a little bit, to get the temperature down for this image.

 

[Hawging It]

Outstanding job!

 

[Noseoil]

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 there was just too much going on that day. He has recently returned from his 5th deployment to the Middle East, so we had a busy day. It's nice to see him & know that he's back safe & sound. In any case, we had a wonderful meal.

I used a sweet rub & left it bagged over night in the fridge, then left it out to warm up a bit prior to cooking in the morning. The butt was wrapped in foil at about 4 hours, after the charcoal & apple wood for flavor, then left to go an additional 4 hours with better temperature control, closer to 240f. It actually came off a little early (201f at the thickest part with a probe) & wasn't allowed to "rest" for an additional hour or two in the cooler to finish, just 15 minutes of wait time, but it smelled too good to wait any longer. There wasn't a bark, due to the removal prior to unwrapping, so it went right from the foil to the table.

Sorry, I didn't get a picture as it was eaten too rapidly, but the bone was pulled easily, the meat consumed with gusto & a pleasant meal was had by all. It was moist, tender, smoky (but not too smoky) and had a nice, pink smoke ring. All in all, it's nice to be back smoking after a 2+ year wait. Our local grocery has pork butts on sale this week for $.89 a pound, so next week I'm doing a bigger one.

Thanks for looking, all is well.

 

[Noseoil]

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.

 

[Steve H]

I think you nailed it! Great results.

 

[Noseoil]

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...

 

[Bytor]

Excellent job, that sure looks like a solid smoker.