MES side cold smoker attachment

[meaturmaker]

Haven't been here in a while guys and hoping someone might be able to help. Love my MES30 but finding my AMNPS a little finicky at times. Unfortunately, I cannot find the MB side cold smoker attachment in stock anywhere. Lot's of places list it but they all say "out of stock". It's a Masterbuilt MB20100112 part number and I'm hoping someone here might know of a secret place to find one.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BigW.]

Do a search on here for "mailbox" There are several threads on how to make your own. Pretty easy and cheap. Home Depot will not be out of parts. Good luck.

 

[smokerjim]

i'm with bigw. look into the mailbox mod, if you don't want to go the mailbox route or maybe you did try it, you really don't say, maybe bearcarver could help you with your attachment, he knows everything about masterbuilts

 

[bregent]

I've got one I may be willing to part with. Just sent you a PM.

 

[jcam222]

I ordered one a couple years ago on amazon and it didn’t fit. Sold it to someone who modified it

 

[meaturmaker]

Wow, I had no idea mailboxes were a "thing". Read some of the threads and watched some youtube videos - quite interesting and gives me a lot to think about so appreciate the tip!

 

[johnmeyer]

There are many other enclosures you can use beside the mailbox. Someone here first did it with a mailbox, and it was such a success that everyone did the exact same thing, without questioning whether a mailbox was really the ideal enclosure. I initially looked at mailboxes, but it was tough to find one that wasn't painted; wasn't zinc coated (not ideal for food); didn't have plastic parts; and wasn't $100 or more.

I used a popcorn tin which has the advantage of already being "food grade" material, and having much more surface area on which to condense the creosote before the smoke gets siphoned off to the smoker. You get them for free, if someone gives you a popcorn gift at the holidays, and you can get them for less than $15, through the mail, brand new. Here's a link to my post where I described my experience:

Mailbox (Popcorn) Mod (with a small twist)

I too looked into the external MES smoke generator, but did not like the idea that it might require plugging it into an outlet that was fed by a different circuit. This is because the heating elements in the MES combined with a similar heater in the smoker attachment might overload the circuit breaker.

All problems with the AMNPS not staying lit, and all the problems with the lousy smoke taste using the internal chip "burner" in the MES went away once I built the external smoking enclosure.

 

[smokerjim]

I had no idea mailboxes were a "thing

if you are going to try that route and you have fleamarkets around you, you can find them for pretty cheap, I got a couple for 5 bucks each, they aren't new by any means but are good enough for the mod.

 

[meaturmaker]

All great stuff guys! Didn't know about the circuit issue and where I'm planning on using it, I may not have two different circuits available so really good to know now. Love the popcorn unit - looks about the same size as the trash pail I use for embers.

Sounds like tinkering with building a homemade external unit could be fun!

 

[daveomak]

You can always add a small hot plate and pan in the popcorn unit, with a fairly long dryer duct, to create smoke from chips or dust or pellets... Might take some fooling around to get it to work, or if you have fruit trees around, cookies in a pan work... I use them in my Totem Smoker...

Heating element change.... 1200 watt element using the thermostat from the hot plate to control the heat.....
..

 

[meaturmaker]

Took a little while to source some of the aluminum bits but here it is and it works great. Don't seem to need to do anything special with the pellets - after they've been lit for a while, blow it out, put it in the mailbox and set the fan on low. Variable speed fan was pricey ($29) but good quality and works really well. Pellets probably burn a little faster than normal but I do get nice smoke. Mailbox temp did not exceed 103 degrees and that's sitting in the Cleveland sun.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[daveomak]

If you use pellet dust, you will lower that 103F significantly... If the dust flares into flame, plug 1 or 2 of the holes in the door...

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/making-dust-from-pellets.271863/

 

[meaturmaker]

Have lots of pellets to play with so will try some dust and see how it goes - appreciate the thread, didn't get through it all but enough to see it's worth a shot.

 

[daveomak]

I have switched to smoking EVERYTHING with dust... I really like the smoke it puts on food.. This bacon has 2 full AMNPS loads with dust.....

 

[meaturmaker]

never seen that much bacon in my life!