Mail Box Smoke Modificatio

[DPeterson]

I have a question. I see most of the mail box modifications use a dryer hose to connect the mailbox to the smoker. I have a MES 130 and the chip loader is where I see people hook the hose to. Why not use a 3" coupler attached to the upper center side of the mail box and connect the mailbox to the side of the smoker making it more permanent. In theory smoke will seek the outlet on top of the smoker whether it comes out of the top of the smoker or the side, it still has to find a way out and up. I want to put my smoker on a cart with wheels so I can roll it in and out of my garage and by mounting the mailbox to the smoker would save space and less things to get caught on. What do you think of my theory and do you think it will work?

 

[chopsaw]

I have a question. I see most of the mail box modifications use a dryer hose to connect the mailbox to the smoker. I have a MES 130 and the chip loader is where I see people hook the hose to. Why not use a 3" coupler attached to the upper center side of the mail box and connect the mailbox to the side of the smoker making it more permanent. In theory smoke will seek the outlet on top of the smoker whether it comes out of the top of the smoker or the side, it still has to find a way out and up. I want to put my smoker on a cart with wheels so I can roll it in and out of my garage and by mounting the mailbox to the smoker would save space and less things to get caught on. What do you think of my theory and do you think it will work?

The length of the connection helps to clean the smoke , leaving condensation and such in the hose and not the smoker .
I have mine set up like this , and it works good for me .
4 " coming out of the side of the mail box , then reduces down to 3 " at the start of the rise .
The 4 " helps to start the flow of smoke , then the 3 " necks down to fit the box , but also helps trap nasty stuff from rising .

 

[DPeterson]

Thanks Chopsaw I like that idea might have to re think my cart.

 

[chopsaw]

No problem . If you see the 2 pics , the one with the long run was how I had it at first . It huffed like a freight train .
I cut the 4 " down , just to make more room , and it ended up perfect , by accident . Nice slow even flow of clean smoke now . 12 " tube burns nice and slow . Got 10 hours out of the last smoke I did .
Good luck .

 

[DPeterson]

Chop Saw do you have an internal picture of your set up? Do you remove the chip device that is in the 3" hole?

 

[chopsaw]

Do you remove the chip device that is in the 3" hole?

I did not . My set up pulls out and slides back so I can still use the chip loader . Sometimes I like to add a little more smoke or color after the tube runs dry .

Well , I'm reading again what you asked , not sure what you mean . The inside of mine is all there , the loader gets taken out to use the mailbox .

Or

 

[johnmeyer]

I was going to use a long length of hose, but bought the wrong stuff (it was plastic inside), so didn't use it.

Instead, I use a filter I "invented" to get more creosote out of the smoke. I just used two elbows to connect it to the smoker, so it is almost exactly what the OP described. Here is a link to where I described my device:

Mailbox (Popcorn) Mod

This is the filter material:

61IES5EDv3L._AC_UL320_SR312,320_.jpg

• johnmeyer
• Feb 28, 2017

and here is what the mod looks like attached to my MES:

Smoker Mod_04.jpg

• johnmeyer
• Feb 4, 2017

I can't say for sure, since I never ended up trying the long length of duct, but I think this works almost as well for cleaning the smoke, and it sure it easy to set up, and also to store (everything fits inside the smoker).

 

[DPeterson]

Well I got an old shopping cart and started to build the portable smoker. Got some work to do and will paint it to make it look a little better. My son says it looks redneck, I must of done a good job.