Looking to build a smokehouse out of my old tool box

[cowbz]

G'day I was directed here from roll call to post questions about building a smokehouse and I haven't done any smoking since around 94 and that was only fish and eel in smoker made out 1 & 1/2 44 gallon drums, I think that = 50 gallons US, with an old plow disc for a lid.  Any way I'm looking at using my old tool box as the actual smoker. Now my tool box is made of 2" thick fridge panel, the stuff they build cold rooms out of, is 43" high 31 1/2" wide and 27" deep with 1 piece of fridge panel for the door. Will be using besser blocks for the fire pit and chimney, besser blocks are kind of a generic name for hollow concrete blocks here in Australia.  The chimney will be horizontal and come out of the side of the fire pit and feed into a section of 50 gallon drum which the old tool box will be fastened to the top of. A 6" hole centered in the bottom of the tool box will let the smoke in with a baffle to get a better distribution of smoke. Will have a chimney on top with damper (from old diesel burner). This is a what ever I can scrounge and don't have to pay for build. The only thing I have bought is the Maverick ET732 wireless Thermometer which I had to order from the USA.

1st Question: are there any issues using fridge panel for a smokehouse.

2nd Question: would 6 feet be long enough for the chimney to go from fire pit to smoker, the hole in the blocks is 4"x5"

3rd Question: would aluminum fly screen be good enough for a baffle in the bottom of the smoker to get a more even distribution of smoke baffle would be about 2" from the bottom and cover the entire bottom of the smoker

4th Question: should I put fly screen in the top chimney to keep the blow fly's out.

Cheers

Brett alias Cowbz

 

[daveomak]

Brett, morning.....  sounds like you are building a cold smoker.... Keeping the temps below  70 deg F, there should be no problem... Refer panels are designed for cold and I'm not sure how well they handle heat....   Dave

 

[cowbz]

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. Cold smoking is a thing to wish for. Right now its 32 C in the shade, that's about 89 F and probably top out at about 38-40 C ,100-104 F, by around 2 this afternoon and that's pretty much summer in my little corner of oz. Which means if I cold smoke at 21 C (70 F) I would have to refrigerate the smoker to get that low in temp. Looks like a corrugated iron dunny (out house) type construction will have to be the go for a hot smoker as your right the cold room panel just would not be good for a hot smoker. Hmmm does any one know if you could use a fridge that actually works as cold smoker. I'm currently building a 102 egg incubator with temp controlled by a PID. If a bloke replaced the fridge thermostat with a PID that would allow the fridge to hold temps at the required 21 C (70F). Does anyone have any tips for that sort of build.

Brett