Brick smoker - Compete how to

[Bama2Philippines]

Wow I was so thankful to have found this helpful thread. I grew up smoking many things on different types of store bought smokers but never built one.
Now I am living in the Philippines and there are no store bought smokers here that I have found so I need to build one like this but maybe a little longer grilling area as I hope to open a Cafe here next year and want to have a lot of bbq. I am also interested in learning how to cold smoke but anyways are there any more brick built smoker designs on this website or anywhere ???

 

[Bama2Philippines]

Love the awesome brick smoker and appreciate you shared it as well, because it already solved some of the things I was trying to figure out with a build design.

 

[Bama2Philippines]

You may notice I am having technical issues as I have snail mail internet speed.
I am trying to work my way through your thread that is exactly what I was looking for on the best website I have found.
In one of your replies you mentioned a reverse smoker would be ideal. I am still trying to come up with what I wish build in the Philippines where I am limited on materials. I can get all the block, brick,concrete and cut and welded steel I need. I want to use your concept but if possible I would like a reverse smoker design.
That said I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on any changes you would have made and added any idea's on a reverse smoker design.
Thank you and May God Bless You and your family Always

 

[wes w]

Bama, sorry for the delay.  My computer died and finally got around to another one.

The closest thing to a reverse flow and incorporate brick that I can come up with is a offset smoker.   You could offset it as much as you wanted and not be in direct heat of the fire.  I think, it would have the same effect as a reverse flow, only it would be a vertical oven vs. horizontal.   Anyone having ideas on this please chime in. 

 

[brucehere]

Hey Wes,

Greetings from South Africa!

I have a question about how your doors seal if at all? Do the doors need to seal at all, or because of the fact the heat is being transferred straight from the fire to the chimney quite quickly, it doesn't need to seal much?

Whereas with a normal steel barrel smoker you want to hold as much heat as possible without any cracks or smoke being able to leak out.

I read you adjust your damper slightly on top, just so that a bit of smoke stops leaking out the doors.

Would you allow the doors to seal if you had to do it again, or are the doors totally fine as is, with the small gap I'm guessing?

How big is the gap is there is one, between the door and the frame?

 

[jim williams]

Good afternoon Bruce. I have followed Wes into directions that cannot be thanked enough when building a brick smoker! I have personally used 1/2" wide X 1/8" thick Lavalock high temp Nomex gasket mortar seal on each door. This works great for about 2-3 year span and replace, but depending on usage, I run mine a lot. I bought mine from Island Outdoor LLC for $25 for two rolls of 10 feet. Be sure to clean to bare metal with no oil, grease or contaminants before install. I hope this helps you and good luck!

 

[HeyBertHeyErnie]

Thanks for this Wes, I'm going to use a lot of your pictures for reference when I build my own.