New plywood smokehouse

[meat magician]

I spent the last month working in my spare time to complete a midsized smokehouse. I'ts made from plywood, 2x4's and other assorted materials. I got the idea to use floor vents to vent it after seeing them in another build on this site(thanks

) I tried to power it with a 1500 watt 2 burner hot plate and had a terrable time trying to get the temps I wanted. The body of the burner had speacial tamper resistant screws so I could not bypass the temp controls and using a 12/3 extension did not help so I scrapped that idea and decided to go propane.The only 10/3 cords I could find were 50 or 100', way to much length and cost to justify. I purchased a cast iron camp stove that produces 15,000 btu's from Cabelas, attached a 11" w.c. hose and filled the bulk tank for my gas grill.

I test ran it yesterday and got heat up to 230* in five minutes

Today I set it up to do a rack of ribs for another test run and it was 10* here. With a drip pan in place and the rack set on the top I kept it at 200* for 2 hours while they smoked. I removed the drip pan and foiled them for 2 more hours and ran the temps at an almost constant 250* It ran a bit high at first but the vents gave me pretty good control of the heat. The last hour they whent in without the foil above the drip pan to finish.

The ribs turned out almost as good as they do when I make them on my pit so for a first try on a homemade cabinet smoker I was pretty pround of myself. I plan to use this set up more for jerkey, summer & smoked sausages so the higher heats are not neccesary. 140-180 is all I need for that stuff, On occasion I get asked to do a couple of butts or multiple racks of ribs for get togethers and it would be nice to have a bigger rig to work with, now I have it

Here are some pics of the smoker, I have some of the build in proccess but need to find them.











All said and done I am quite pleased but do have a few modifications to make, first and foremost will be to add cementboard to the bottom 24" (another idea taken from a fellow member

) Second I will look to place the drip pan a bit higher from the heat source. and I may re do the door and make it more like that of a kitchen cabinet door. There are other thing to tweek a bit but I will wait till summer for that since that is the time it will be used most, may as well wait for those condition before making to many mods. Anyway sorry to get to long winded about it hope you enjoy the pics and approve of the build, later all -M.M.

 

[solaryellow]

Nice job!

 

[pops6927]

DEFINITELY want to follow this thread as I intend to do a plywood build this year too; my biggest concern was the heat source and you've seemed to have solved that easily! You did not insulate it, correct? And, it's performing fine at below freezing temps, then in Texas there shouldn't be much problem (during the summer I probably could use a Bic Lighter to get up to 250° or more, lol!). Keep me posted on your progress!

 

[pit 4 brains]

Great smokehouse! What's all that white stuff around it and on the ground?

 

[meat magician]

Though I originally intended to insulate it I did not. I used 1/2 inch plywood for the walls using construction adhesive and 1/4" crown 7/8 leg staples to attach it, afterwords I sealed it all with high temp morter. It's applied just like caulk, through a tube with a gun, the stuff is resistant to 2000* and is only $5 a tube, barley used one tube. I periodically felt the outside of the whole housing for heat and I could barely feel any heat radiating through the walls.

 

[marksmith]

Nice build!


I tried that same model burner for my wee little house. Way too big. What the wife doesn't realize is since I have the burner.... I getta build a bigger house!


Hope to see more results! The first looks mighty tasty.



Take care
-Mark

 

[cheapchalee]

Nice loking smoker. Might get some of those adjustable shelf rack strips to put inside to make the shelfs adjustable.

Charlie

 

[mulepackin]

Nice looking Rig. All of you folks that have made wooden ones have smokers that look like a "smokehouse". Makes my freezer conversion look pretty trashy. Might have to build a wooden shell to surround it with now.

 

[Bearcarver]

Great Job !
Looks like a winner !

BC

 

[tn_bbq]

Looks neat.

 

[mballi3011]

Very nice there MM. You did one heck of a job and I like the 1x4 for trim and it looks like a gun locker instead of a smoker too. The one question I have for you is how low will it go?? I want one and but I want it for smoking bacon and sausage at low temps.

 

[beer-b-q]

Nice Job on the smokehouse and the ribs... both look great...

 

[treegje]

You have built a beautiful smokehouse

 

[waysideranch]

..........................Points!

 

[nwdave]

Same here. How L-O-W can you go

? Are you planning to line the bottom of the smoker with some type of easy cleanup material, to catch the drippings missed by the drip pan? Memories of the bottom of my GOSM bring up this question. I like my GOSM but it just won't hack the lower temps required for sticks and sausauge, and yours and
MarkSmith's smokers look like a good fill-the-bill.

I do have a concern about the propane hose part which is inside the cabinet. How much heat is on that hose in such a confined space? Is it a real concern? I have a Bayou Cajun burner setup that I use for boiling crabs, that is going to be used for the smokehouse. The hose comes with a Needle Valve Control (lucky me

) but is rubber covered. They do sell a stainless steel covered hose, with a Needle Valve Control that would definitely be safer. Any thoughts by everyone would be definitely appreciated.

~Dave

 

[meat magician]

Do not know for sure with the propane, on the lowest setting, and the drip pan acting as a heat sheild, she hummed along at 170-180 on the cooking grate before I turned up the gas. I need to do some testing in the summer to see what kind of mods I need to do to keep the heat low enough to do sausage and stuff. Keeping it low in the winter does not seem to be an issue, but add 80* of outside temp and I just do not know. For the summer months I could probably go the hot plate route for lower temps and not have any issues.

I figure to just line it with aluminum foil each time I cook, take it out when done and toss it.


It was a definite concern to me at first, I checked the hose inside the smoker frequently during my first test and each hour during my 5 hour test cook and was cool to the touch and never once felt to warm to raise an eyebrow. If it does become an issue I can bore a 1" hole through the back, turn the burner 90 degrees and have the hose and connecter completley outside the housing.

I am definatley going to look into that thank you! I'd feel a lot better with that.
Thanks for the replies, questions and suggestion are really appreciated

 

[davef63]

too funny, we have been up to the same thing the past month. nice smokehouse, im still doing trial runs on mine.
dave

 

[mgwerks]

Ever since I saw jeanie's I have been wanting to build one of these - one that will also allow me to do cold smoking as well.`Yours show great executiona nd design, thanks for sharing!

 

[silverbone86]

How do I view the pictures of the smokehouse OP?

Thank you very much!

 

[hounds51]

Looks Great!!!!!! I have the same burner in my smokehouse, and they work great. In my own opinion though, because of the wood construction, and that you are using an open flame. You might want to consider using some aluminum flashing on the lower third. Just a thought.