Burning dust in the AMNTS

[daveomak]

Keep the exhaust wide open.... keep the intakes wide open...

 

[Bearcarver]

I have a tray that I use for cold smoking. It doesn’t want to stay lit in a hot smoke environment. I like using the tube on short smokes to get a little extra oomph, but it’s kind of hit or miss. Sometimes the flavor is bitter from smoldering smoke. Just looking for a more reliable way to get tbs.

If you know any tricks to keep the tray lit in a hot smoker, lower oxygen, I’d love to hear them!

Like Dave said, "Keep the exhaust wide open", but if you're using an MES, the top vent should just about Always be wide open.

The main things are Good air flow & DRY Pellets.
After that it's soooo important to get it lit really really good before you put it in.
I spend about 20 minutes (off & on) building the cigar-like cherry in the Pellets where I'm lighting it. I'm doing other prep things, but keep coming back to relight it for at least 20 minutes.
I hold the propane torch on the pellets until I get a good flame. Then when the flame goes out, I light it again (doesn't take much to light it again).
Then I keep doing that, until I can relight it just by blowing on the cherry area.
I'll do this a number of times, before I put it in.
Only then will I put it in my MES, and I put it in the best area of the smoker for air flow (depends on which smoker).
Sometimes it takes awhile to get it going more than a trickle, but eventually it gets going so good that you would have a hard time making it stop smoking. Only way to put out is to separate the burning pellets from the unburned pellets. It takes awhile to get used to it, but the only other thing I ever tried was a Big Kahuna, and that was a $100 Joke.

Bear

 

[mike guy]

Thanks for the replies. I’m using a pellet smoker, rt700, which I think when using quality pellets is really good on smokes over 2-3 hours. I don’t really find I need supplemental smoke and it’s on par with a clean burning stick burner.

On short smokes it doesn’t quite leave me with the smoke I want, so the tube helps here. But it also can throw out dirty smoke, so my angle here is to find a way to burn dust to get tbs in the tray or tube inside the smoker while it’s hot and filled with smoke. I have no trouble keeping the tube lit with pellets. I use a looftlighter to get things going and you are spot on with the cigar analogy.

I don’t have vents to open, but the airflow is very high with the fan from the cooker. I just don’t think the tray and dust is meant to work in a smoky environment.

 

[Bearcarver]

Thanks for the replies. I’m using a pellet smoker, rt700, which I think when using quality pellets is really good on smokes over 2-3 hours. I don’t really find I need supplemental smoke and it’s on par with a clean burning stick burner.

On short smokes it doesn’t quite leave me with the smoke I want, so the tube helps here. But it also can throw out dirty smoke, so my angle here is to find a way to burn dust to get tbs in the tray or tube inside the smoker while it’s hot and filled with smoke. I have no trouble keeping the tube lit with pellets. I use a looftlighter to get things going and you are spot on with the cigar analogy.

I don’t have vents to open, but the airflow is very high with the fan from the cooker. I just don’t think the tray and dust is meant to work in a smoky environment.

A tray is meant to work in a smoky or non-smoky environment.
However I didn't know you were using a pellet smoker.
A Pellet smoker is probably big enough & airy enough to use the Tube, without creating Too Much Smoke.

Bear

 

[mike guy]

I’ll have to try the tray again. The tube works fine, it just doesn’t produce tbs with pellets. At least not consistently. This thread indicates some success to get tbs using a crushed pellet dust hybrid, which sounds like fun to experiment with.

Just need to get outside and light stuff on fire and see what I can manage! That’s half the fun anyway.

 

[chopsaw]

The smoke produced by the tubes varies greatly on how " hard " you light it . I fill the tube about an inch or so from the open end . Then I pull some pellets to the end , and that's what I light . I hit it with a torch , and let it burn until the flame goes out on it's own . Then I blow on it until it burst back to flames , when it flames out again , you should see white ashed over glowing pellets at the start of the burn .
Another thing I do is mix in wood chips with the pellets . Smaller pieces work better .
All this works with a MES 30 , and I'm using a mail box to help with heavy smoke . So might be different with your smoker .

 

[Kevinbthgrouse]

Thanks for the tip on making dust out of pellets got some cheese going in the smoker with the amazen tube with a beautiful tbs!