Coldspot conversion

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burroak bbq

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2016
9
10
Hiding in my basement closet for who knows how long was a mid 50's coldspot fridge. Since the thing was so darn heavy I couldn't carry it upstairs. I couldn't even get it out of the closet because it was too big for the door. I've been wanting a bigger smoker. Well, one day I thought; I could use the closet queen in the basement and convert her into a smoker.

So, I did a little research and I found this forum.
I wanted a pellet smoker and I got a lot of inspiration from other builders here who are using the Smoke Daddy pellet hopper ...most notable were scootermagoo scootermagoo and dennis cummins dennis cummins Thanks for the inspiration guys. .

Here are some pictures.

I threw out the old insulation. I've had several basement floods and it smelled pretty funky.
Then I scraped out as much black tar as I could



That's it for now.
 
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Looking good! I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress. Once I retire, I'll be following your lead!

If you run into problems be sure to post questions. They get answered pretty quick here!
 
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After the tear down my next step was cutting the holes for the pellet hopper. I reassembled then marked where I wanted the unit to sit.

Here I taped on the template.

Using my combination square when drilling so holes line up.

Next I cut out the waste out with a jigsaw. It was a bumpy ride.


I ordered 12, 1x1x1/8 x 16 angle steel for the brackets. I used the existing shelf holes as a guide to lay out where the new holes would go for higher shelves.

Using a jig to lay out holes


Here is how it looks right now with brackets and heat deflector in place.



That's how it looks right now. I'm waiting for casters and a steel tube for my exhaust to be delivered .. I'll update when I get them installed.
 
Thanks everyone for the comments.
This weekend I cut the hole for the exhaust.
It's a 4" x 24" 304 stainless tube that I got for $35 shipped from a moonshine still supply outfit.
I plan on adding a diffuser under the hole to catch any dripping from the pipe. This was the simplest solution I could come up with. The other thing I did was added casters for mobility and cut the door skin out of 18 ga. Cold rolled steel.
That's it for now.

Here's a picture.
 
Looking good! Out of curiosity is there a reason you chose to center it? Most I've seen offset. This is for my education, it isn't a loaded question.
 
Hey bauchjw,
I had several reasons for centering it; First, there are four existing holes in the inside liner that I wanted to mount a cookie sheet to, to catch any condensation. The pipe hole is centered above where the sheet will be. Second, it was easiest to find center without measuring. I just used two pieces of string. Third I just like the way it looks.

I was originally going to shorten the stack. Maybe I'll leave it long to help keep smoke out of everyone s face.
 
Thank you! All reasons make perfect sense. Due to current lifestyle I'm still a ways off from building my own, but I want to get as educated as possible before I dive in. I'm enjoying watching your progress.
Looking awesome!
Jed
 
I got distracted and didn't work on this baby for a couple of months. Then I took it to a local metal shop in June to have some metal bent, etc. He said he'd have it done in 3 weeks but it took him 3 months instead. I just got it back on Friday! The good news is he did a great job and only charged me a third of his quote price.

So the work he did fills the gap between the inner and outer shells. He also trimed the latch down so the door skin will sit flush, cut a hole in the skin for the latch, cleaned up my jagged cutting, and drilled some holes.
 
I notice lots of people removing the insulation and putting new stuff it.  I have this exact fridge that I started tearing apart and am wondering if it is really necessary to replace the insulation.  What is this black tar that everyone is mentioning?

Thanks.

Trevor
 
I got distracted and didn't work on this baby for a couple of months. Then I took it to a local metal shop in June, he said he'd have it done in 3 weeks but it took him 3 months I just got it back on Friday!
I had a local metal shop bend and cut sheet steel to fill the gap between the inner and outer shells. He also trim the latch down so the door skin will sit flush and cut a hole in the skin for the latch.
 
Trevor,
I replaced my insulation because it smelled like mildew. The tar is there to seal up the seams in the metal. With the insulation in place it should never get hot enough to vaporize. I removed the tar because I already had the insulation removed.
 
Great looking building. Do you happen to have the link for the stainless exhaust tube and was there a flange on it? If not, how did you mount it inside?

-MeatSweats 
 
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