Kicking off our freezer smoker build

[benny8]

Well my daughter and I ripped out all the tubing, shelves, and plastic trim on this old Montgomery Ward upright freezer. I was worried about reclaiming the freon, but when we got into the demo, 90% of the lines were rusted right through. The guy we picked it up from said it was still working. That was an understatement, the compressor was running, but with the freon lines rotted out, it never got cold. Anyway, it was what we were looking for. The plan is to put the aluminum trim over the edges to cover the exposed fiberglass insulation. I have aluminum to cover the door were we removed the plastic shelves. Got some 1/8" aluminum bent for shelve racks. Got a real good deal on all my aluminum. Have a family friend that owns sheetmetal business who charged me a 30 pack of Bud. I have pics of the case with everything torn out.

 

[tjohnson]

Ain't it amazing how Beer makes a good swap?

Keep posting pics on your progress.....



Todd

 

[smokednarwhal]

You are off to a good start, I'm looking forward to seeing all the details. Aluminum for beer sounds like a good deal to me, that stuff can be expensive.

 

[rbranstner]

Thats going to be a very nice smoker.

 

[benny8]

Finally got to work on my smoker today. Got the angle trim put around the door opening where the plastic trim was covering the fiberglass insulation.

After that, I cut a hole through the roof and attached the smoke vent. I used a starter collar the I had to modify a little. Hooked it to the ceiling with sheetmetal screws and caulked it with silicone outside.


When the vent was complete, I had picked up racks from Home Depot that were left over from last year. They were on clearance for $11.17 each, they are porcielan for easy cleanup. The only downfall was that they were 24.5" long, and I needed 28". So, I made some spacer blocks.


Pretty happy with the progress so far. Cold and windy out today, and with no heat in the garage, called it a day. Tommorrow I will attach aluminum to the door, and install the Afterburner C-Burner in the floor and should be ready to season her up.

 

[omahasmoker]

very nice!

you are also going to need to caulk all around the inside of the cabinet at the top vent to keep moisture out of your insulation. eventually it will get soaked and start to rot. i went through this on one of my earlier builds.

 

[benny8]

Well, I got the burner put in. It is an Afterburner C-burner that runs on propane.


Got the aluminum installed on the door.


Got the propane line hooked up and seasoned it up today and ready to do a Butt and some BB's tommorow. I tried to get a picture of the smoke coming out of the stack.

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice !
I think I see light smoke coming out of the stack, but when it comes to smoking sometimes my imagination gets the best of me!

Bearcarver

 

[roller]

I like it...

 

[timmy7649]

nice. how did the butt turn out? so if my freezer has the fiberglass insulation it is ok to use. even up to 350*? nice looking smoker and looks to be a pretty easy buid.

 

[benny8]

Butt and ribs turned out excellent. Have a post-Butt and Ribs-First Smoke-in the Pork section. Fiberglass insulation is good. Build took me a couple of weekends-couple hours a day. Worked really good.