Need your Ideas

[ghost308]

Hi everyone
I want to build my own smoker / cooker/ smoke house, so if you have any ideas drop me an email or an answer here.
I'm a laser operator and have access to mild steel and stainless steel both from .030" all the way up to .5"
So far what I have in mind is a 3 system smoker.
#1 a fire pit " for that thin blue smoke"
#2 firebox to provide heat for cooking
#3 a seperate smoke house for cold smoking
Heres what I need to know, how big a firebox should I make ? should I line it with fire brick ? what wood should I use for a smokehouse ? I want my fire box to provide for both smoker and smoke house a simple damper should take care of that and is easy to make, I won't be useing both at the same time eather.I'm not feeding an army so I don't need one that needs a trailer, so give me your ideas any feed back is welcome

 

[zardnok]

It is hard to say really what will work best. A lot depends on your situation, your skill cutting and welding, your access to metals, the size of the smoker you are wanting to build.

I am sort of unsure about your listing of fire-pit and fire-box both. Are you planning on having a pre-burn area for your fire-box? Do you plan on having your smoke chamber/house connected to the fire-pit or the fire-box or both??

Your best bet might be to Google homemade barbecue smoker and see what happens. Just follow your fingers and look at tons of pictures. Look at the pictures in this forum. Grab a piece of paper and start to sketch out what you are visualizing.

 

[tonto1117]

This might help to address #3.

http://www.smoking-meat.com/smokehouse-plans.html

 

[ghost308]

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear enough on what I want to build.
First I'm borrowing SoFlaQuer's idea of a burn barrel but I'm going to use brick and line it with firebrick,
I'm not crazy about barrel's myself, but it's still a great idea, from there coals and embers are moved to a fire box,
with 2 dampered 6" outlets, one is to supply heat and smoke to a smoker/cooker 36"h x 20""w x 20d ,
the other supplys a smokehouse 48"h x 36"w x 36"d which will be set 5 feet from the fire box for cold smoking only.
I've been working with steel , stainless and alum, for over 20 years and can hold a tolerance of .003 cutting, brakeing and welding
which should be plenty good enough for a cooking :) LOL
Right now I can get my hands on plenty of polished 14ga 304 SS and was thinking of useing it to line the smokehouse
but I'd rather use wood probally oak unless someone has a better idea.
So what I need is , how big a firebox ? how heavy ? 1/4 ? 7ga? or go lighter steel and line it with firebrick ?
What wood for a smokehouse ? oak ? hickory ? I know I will insulate it and cover it with sideing and mount it on legs.
Sounds like a big project dosn't it HAHAHAHA ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, IT's GOING TO BE A BLAST !!! :)


P.S. I did check out the link but he didn't say what kind of wood he built his smokehouse with

 

[deejaydebi]

I can't see that it would mater what kind of wood but I would go with a hardwood like oak.

 

[dawgwhat]

here is some Ideas
http://www.bbqinstitute.com/SmokerModifications.pdf

I can't take credit for the link
but after I saw it I knew what I had to do to my barrell smoker

 

[teacup13]

here's a bunch of bbq plans, maybe you can use them or incorporate them into your design

The Mahorney Brick Pit

http://geocities.com/swinetinglingbbq/brickpit.html

Big Baby Double-Barreled Cooker

http://bbq.netrelief.com/pits/metalpit/bigbaby/build_big_baby_metal_bbq_pit.shtml

Parts Supplier: http://www.vogelzang.com/barrel_stoves.htm

Big Smokey Smoker Designhttp://www.mikesell.net/smoker

Wilbur D. Hog http://www.ibiblio.org/lineback/bbq/wdh.htm

Propane Tank Smoker Plans http://www.azbbqa.com/docs/SmokerPlans.pdf (1.7mb pdf file)

The BBQ Lodge http://www.bbqlodge.com/bbqpit/bbqpit.htm

The Magnum Force http://www.randyq.addr.com/friends/mikey/magnum_force.htm