Burning dust in the AMNTS

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i wonder what affect packing it tight versus loose can have on the smoke. i picked up a tube, and did a trial run with pellets last night and was surprised at how much dense white smoke i got out of it. i was using CookinPellets Perfect Mix Smoking Pellets. i plan to convert the pellets to coarse dust for cold smoking.
 
i wonder what affect packing it tight versus loose can have on the smoke. i picked up a tube, and did a trial run with pellets last night and was surprised at how much dense white smoke i got out of it. i was using CookinPellets Perfect Mix Smoking Pellets.
The dense white smoke is why I tried the dust before even seeing chopsaw's thread. I definitely do not want white smoke on a 24 hour cold smoke for Bacon.
Packed tight gave me the perfect TBS I was looking for...loose was still a little heavy, but I have a 36cu.ft. smokehouse so plenty of air flow and oxygen with just the tube burning...
 
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i'll do a trial run with coarse dust packed tight to see if i can get thin blue smoke. thanks for confirming. i know ppl on this forum love pellets, but i definitely plan to stick to chunks in a pan over my propane burner for my hot smoke. all the videos i see on youtube of the tube and pellets show thick white smoke too, so i'm wondering if it's just the way it is with pellets.
 
i'll do a trial run with coarse dust packed tight to see if i can get thin blue smoke. thanks for confirming. i know ppl on this forum love pellets, but i definitely plan to stick to chunks in a pan over my propane burner for my hot smoke. all the videos i see on youtube of the tube and pellets show thick white smoke too, so i'm wondering if it's just the way it is with pellets.
I have found that chunks work much, much better in my propane set up. Pellets suck in a CI pan on a burner....too finicky and lots of white smoke. Dust will work too, but too much trouble to make for use in the CI pan, you need a tall pile so it will not burst into flames...
 
The thick white " smoke " is not always smoke . Condensation plays a large part of what you see .
 
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The thick white " smoke " is not always smoke . Condensation plays a large part of what you see .

yeah i get that too with my chunks on a hot smoke. condensation is to be expected, and it did confuse me at first thinking it was coming off the wood. but all the videos i see of the tube and pellets show white smoking coming off the tube. on my trial run last night with whole pellets, the white smoke didn't smell bad so i guess there's nothing wrong with it. but i still wouldn't want that on a long cold smoke.
 
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Yeah , I get the cold smoke concern . I get the heavy looking smoke from pellets in the tube . Never had any bad effects . The ground up pellets give a nice thin smoke . Give it a try and report back .
 
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The thick white " smoke " is not always smoke . Condensation plays a large part of what you see .
True...and being in south Louisiana, we get a lot of humidity. Sometimes it's TBS mixed with steam and it looks bad, but I can tell by how it smells. If it is bitter and almost chokes you-it's the wrong smoke for meat.
 
Ground up 2 Bradly pucks and packed them tight in my 6” Amazen Tube, had 1 1/4” of a course dust in the tube. Got about 1 hr. 45 mins of TBS. Thought I didn’t have a use for those Bradly pucks.
Good deal . What smoker you using ? I don't pack mine tight . Maybe try that next time , see how long it goes . Also do you have pellets ? I also use whole pellets with wood chips mixed it when I do hams and bacon . You might be able to do that with the pucks . Mix pieces in with pellets or dust .
 
Good deal . What smoker you using ? I don't pack mine tight . Maybe try that next time , see how long it goes . Also do you have pellets ? I also use whole pellets with wood chips mixed it when I do hams and bacon . You might be able to do that with the pucks . Mix pieces in with pellets or dust .
MES 30, I got reading the threads about burning sawdust and thought I’d give it a try. I have a grain grinder for homebrew so why not. I was getting too much white smoke with pellets. I’m planning on grinding some pellets, especially those cherry ones that won’t burn and giving that a try. I like your idea of mixing chips with pellets. The chips I have are too big for the MES, they work but not ideal.
 
Yeah , I get the cold smoke concern . I get the heavy looking smoke from pellets in the tube . Never had any bad effects . The ground up pellets give a nice thin smoke . Give it a try and report back .

Just wanted to report back that it's a big difference between using pellets and ground up coarse pellet dust. Pellets gave me thick heavy white smoke, while the coarse dust gave me thin blue smoke. Can't see myself ever using whole pellets for smoking anything, except to be ground up to be used as dust.
 
So I did the mailbox mod with a MES 30 I picked up for 89 bucks because it had a dent in the door. Pellets burn fine and complete but no TBS, only whitish grey. Drafts well through top of smoker. It's weird because when I smoked some cheese with the tray after first getting it I got TBS and I used it in an SRG . Anyway I decided to try grinding the pellets so I used my Nutribullet with the spice grinder flat blade. It ground it to decently small pieces. Lit it and let it sit for several minutes then put it int he mailbox, worked for awhile then went out. Tried again and this time drilled another hole in the mailbox, went out again so I gave up and went to bed. Might end up hooking the pipe to my Davy Crockett and pumping that TBS into the MES.
 
It was drafting well. Smoke was coming out the top of MES really well. At one point I did turn it on for a few minutes with it set at 100 degrees, didn't seem to make much difference.
Temp outside was around 39*, inside MES was around 57*
 
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