Today I am starting my smokeshed - smaller than a smokehouse, but bigger than I probably need. I am anticipating that when my friends find out what great stuff I am producing, it will get more use :)
I live on the humid, hot and insect-infested island of Borneo and as such, all my materials will be sourced locally, including the Meranti timber ( Luan/Philippine mahogany)
I opted for 6x1 planks of rough-sawn Meranti on a carcass of 2x2s - because it was dry, cheap and resists bugs, rot, and screws together well. I won't show you the state of the shipping case that we put outside under the carport after 12 months - suffice it to say, it looks like a pile of rubbish has been dumped there. You can tell that it once was plywood, but apart from that, not much of a clue as to what it was. 85%+ humidity and 25-35C temps with a lot of insect action is enough to destroy anything that isn't from here. It was made from pine 3ply and made a tasty meal for all the locals.
My dimensions are: 1200w, 1000 deep, 1200 high (48"w, 40"d, 48"h), for a total internal volume of 1440L or 50cuFt.
I will be hot and cold smoking, but more cold than hot, initially.
The door and roof panels will be made from tongue and grooved 6x1s - the door will have a frame to strengthen it, but I didn't bother drawing it - I will just size/cut it after I have made the frame. I will be using a kreg jig and stainless screws for the frame and countersunk stainless screws for the planks.
My smoke source is a Smokai venturi smoker from my homeland of NZ (kai = Maori for food - so smoke+food :) ) and I am waiting for delivery of a PID setup to go with my single-element cooktop for my source of heat.
My daughter is bringing the Smokai with her when she visits over Xmas. I need to have all my goodies brined, dried and ready to go when she gets here- it will only be 6 days to Xmas.
If anyone sees me making a complete hash of things, just sing out. I'm not proud and the quality of my woodworking is definitely of the 'bush' variety.
I didn't put in a chimney deliberately, but if I am wrong in this, someone give me a reason to put one in. The sliding dampers will allow me to close it right up when not in use to stop the local ant colonies from deciding to set up house - I have counted more than 20 varieties of ant just around our property and they all love to find places to set up shop.
I haven't been able to find a suitably fine mesh to use to keep the small insects out, so I just went for a completely closed box approach. I have some half-centimetre mesh which I will double over to give me a near quarter-cm mesh to keep out the flying buggers while I am in operation and I will stand the legs of the box in old bean tins filled with engine oil to keep the crawlers from venturing up the legs. Making sure it is free-standing is the key here - I had a piece of timber leaning against a stack of plywood and two months later when I went to my ply rack, three of the 3/4" sheets were ruined as an ant colony decided to take a couple of layers off both sides of a sheet and the two sheets facing that, to make a nice ant farm. If oyu give them an easy route in, they will take it.
I live on the humid, hot and insect-infested island of Borneo and as such, all my materials will be sourced locally, including the Meranti timber ( Luan/Philippine mahogany)
I opted for 6x1 planks of rough-sawn Meranti on a carcass of 2x2s - because it was dry, cheap and resists bugs, rot, and screws together well. I won't show you the state of the shipping case that we put outside under the carport after 12 months - suffice it to say, it looks like a pile of rubbish has been dumped there. You can tell that it once was plywood, but apart from that, not much of a clue as to what it was. 85%+ humidity and 25-35C temps with a lot of insect action is enough to destroy anything that isn't from here. It was made from pine 3ply and made a tasty meal for all the locals.
My dimensions are: 1200w, 1000 deep, 1200 high (48"w, 40"d, 48"h), for a total internal volume of 1440L or 50cuFt.
I will be hot and cold smoking, but more cold than hot, initially.
The door and roof panels will be made from tongue and grooved 6x1s - the door will have a frame to strengthen it, but I didn't bother drawing it - I will just size/cut it after I have made the frame. I will be using a kreg jig and stainless screws for the frame and countersunk stainless screws for the planks.
My smoke source is a Smokai venturi smoker from my homeland of NZ (kai = Maori for food - so smoke+food :) ) and I am waiting for delivery of a PID setup to go with my single-element cooktop for my source of heat.
My daughter is bringing the Smokai with her when she visits over Xmas. I need to have all my goodies brined, dried and ready to go when she gets here- it will only be 6 days to Xmas.
If anyone sees me making a complete hash of things, just sing out. I'm not proud and the quality of my woodworking is definitely of the 'bush' variety.
I didn't put in a chimney deliberately, but if I am wrong in this, someone give me a reason to put one in. The sliding dampers will allow me to close it right up when not in use to stop the local ant colonies from deciding to set up house - I have counted more than 20 varieties of ant just around our property and they all love to find places to set up shop.
I haven't been able to find a suitably fine mesh to use to keep the small insects out, so I just went for a completely closed box approach. I have some half-centimetre mesh which I will double over to give me a near quarter-cm mesh to keep out the flying buggers while I am in operation and I will stand the legs of the box in old bean tins filled with engine oil to keep the crawlers from venturing up the legs. Making sure it is free-standing is the key here - I had a piece of timber leaning against a stack of plywood and two months later when I went to my ply rack, three of the 3/4" sheets were ruined as an ant colony decided to take a couple of layers off both sides of a sheet and the two sheets facing that, to make a nice ant farm. If oyu give them an easy route in, they will take it.
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