New AMNTS Oval tube will burn Dave's Coarse Pellet Dust

[indaswamp]

My thought is that dust would probably work in the tube for cold smoking but could catch fire if hot smoking but Todd is likely playing it safe/CYA. Hard to please everyone. indaswamp Are you gonna try hot smoking with it? I plan to make some dust soon and compare to Todd's dust and then someday try hot smoking with it. I think @TomKnollRFV converted to all dust recently and that has piqued my interest.

I do not need a tube for hot smoking...or even warm smoking for that matter.... I run propane and becasue I have such a large volume in my cooking chamber, I can run the gas a little hotter than guys with smaller commercially made set ups.
With one row of jets blocked off on my 18,000BTU burner, I can run as low as 90-200*. I have micro control over the flame to +-3*.
For hot smoking, I pull the 4d nails blocking the jets and run both rows. I can run ~180-275*.
I use the leftover charcoal formed from the previous cook to get a fast flame started. I use mainly chunks on my 16" CI pan.
Pellets are too finicky in my set up and put out white smoke often. With the chunks, I get 4~6 hours of good TBS from a small flame fire. It works for me.....

 

[solman]

thanks for posting this. i'm trying to figure out the best cold smoking method for my first try at bacon, and this might be it. i wonder how well the coarse dust would work in their new expanding oval tubes. any thoughts on that?

 

[daveomak]

Looking at the size of the slots, it should get plenty of air... Do you have clamps to raise it up from the floor ?? Might be worth it...

..

 

[indaswamp]

thanks for posting this. i'm trying to figure out the best cold smoking method for my first try at bacon, and this might be it. i wonder how well the coarse dust would work in their new expanding oval tubes. any thoughts on that?

No different than the regular fixed12" Oval that I have. You could probably get 12~14 hours of TBS with the expandable 18".....

 

[indaswamp]

I would try using the dust in the tube below 160, then when smoke is done, crank up the heat.. Of course, that's for cured meat only... or, whole muscle meats due to the meat being sterile on the inside....

Exactly Dave...
I will only use it for cold smoking, and I might try it as a supplemental smoke generator for when I smoke andouille when I want a punch you in the mouth heavy smoke on the links...

 

[solman]

i don't see myself ever needing to smoke something for 12+ hours, so maybe the 12" will be good enough. i plan to have it sit at the bottom of my 40" propane smoker right above the burner so it should get plenty of airflow without having to elevate it too much.

 

[indaswamp]

FYI, my trial run was with no propane. Just the oval burning as a test run for cold smoking bacon. As Dave mentioned, might not work well with dust above 160*. You will have to experiment.

 

[zwiller]

Hopefully someone will test but I wanted to let you guys know there are several guys using DIY/Dave's Dust (NKA DD LOL) in MES at high temps with success. I plan to try it myself soon on some ribs. Hopefully it works in a gasser.

 

[solman]

FYI, my trial run was with no propane. Just the oval burning as a test run for cold smoking bacon. As Dave mentioned, might not work well with dust above 160*. You will have to experiment.

the tube and dust is only for cold smoking bacon right now with propane off. for regular smoking, like ribs and such, i plan to continue using wood chunks and propane, which out really well for me.

 

[normanaj]

Hopefully someone will test but I wanted to let you guys know there are several guys using DIY/Dave's Dust (NKA DD LOL) in MES at high temps with success. I plan to try it myself soon on some ribs. Hopefully it works in a gasser

Excellent success in the MES.

U-bolt mod and crushed pellets(not dust) is the way to go.A cheapo coffee bean grinder and a bag of pellets is pretty much all you need.

A packed 6" tube will go over 5hrs easy.I hit it with the torch really hard to get it going and let sit in the open for 5 mins or so and then in it goes.

 

[indaswamp]

I want to share some info with you guys...
When using a heat gun to light the wood dust, it will blow the dust embers all over everywhere. The key to solve this issue is to use about 1/2 ~ 1 TBSP. of whole pellets on top of the dust. Light the pellets with the heat gun (they won't blow off the top of the oval).

Tube filled almost full with Dust...

1/2 ~1 TBSP. of pellets...

Pellets on top...

My tube holder... a tin veggie can. Keeps the oval from falling over while lighting...

 

[indaswamp]

FWIW, the oval will hold 223 grams of coarse pellet dust, packed tight with a short rod of 3/8" rebar, which is just shy of 1/2lb.... so now I know how much pellets to wet to make Coarse dust...

 

[solman]

so you're able to get 8-9 hours when using a 12" amazen oval tube with coarse dust packed tight, or roughly 223 grams worth? that's impressive. i have a knock off hexagonal shaped smoker tube and get 4 hours using 350 grams of pellets. with the same 350 grams converted to dust, i can't get over 6 hours.

 

[indaswamp]

That's right solman....9 hours of clean TBS...packed tight as I can get it.

 

[Walchit]

This gives me high hopes for my oval!

 

[indaswamp]

This gives me high hopes for my oval!

FWIW, you can get the heat gun @Harbor Freight for like 9 bucks with a coupon...works great lighting pellets, I just put 1TBSP of pellets on top the dust to light.

Thanks Holly2015 for the tip on the Harbor Freight heat gun.....

 

[Walchit]

I have a small heat gun I use for putting shrink bands on my hot sauce! Not sure it would do it though. Is there a reason the heat gun is better than a torch?

 

[indaswamp]

I have a small heat gun I use for putting shrink bands on my hot sauce! Not sure it would do it though. Is there a reason the heat gun is better than a torch?

Both work. but you have to buy refill canisters for the torch....
I think the torch is faster. I like the ease of the heat gun.

 

[indaswamp]

BTW, on a whim (because I have dinner plans weds. night) I decided to do a cold smoke session today during the day. Temps. out side running 62* with the front that has passed, so I thought sure....why not? Temps should not rise that much in the smokehouse...
Well, I can report that with my smokehouse being lined with the 1/4" Hardiboard, it is acting as a heat sink and cooling the smoke chamber about 5 degrees. The ambient air is heating up faster than the hardiboard as the day progresses, and the hardiboard is sucking up the extra heat from the smoke chamber. The smoke chamber is running 2~2.5* above ambient during the day with the oval lit. When cold smoking at night, the residual heat in the hardiboard held the temps higher and lagged in cooling down from the ambient temp. So it was adding heat to the smoke chamber. I was running 7.5~9* above ambient temperature. This is one reason why I am not getting creosote build up on my meats, and why the ziplock bag test was a success and did not collect creosote.

I'm a happy smoker.....

 

[solman]

That's right solman....9 hours of clean TBS...packed tight as I can get it.

i think my math was off when i originally said i couldn't get over 6 hours. yesterday i did another cold smoke and i packed 220 grams of coarse dust into my knockoff smoker tube and got 7 hours of smoke.

maybe the type of pellets matter. i used Cookinpellets Perfect Mix pellets that i watered down, dried and crumbled. what pellets did you use to get 9 hours of smoke?