new smoker any help and info appreciated

[DEERMAKER]

Hello guys,

Getting ready to start cutting holes and making improvements . Any info or ideas are appreciated.
Have a 1500 heating element, some sheet metal to cut to size, new wheels (no flat), 2 round air dampers, smokestack made from welder on ebay 2 in hole

Honestly, tell me what not to do or do!
looking to run temps as low as 100 to 180 very important to me
I dont want to cut holes and patch later
treat me like I have no ideas Wont be offended
uploading pics in a few min thx for alll the help in advance

 

[DEERMAKER]

Hello guys,

Getting ready to start cutting holes and making improvements . Any info or ideas are appreciated.
Have a 1500 heating element, some sheet metal to cut to size, new wheels (no flat), 2 round air dampers, smokestack made from welder on ebay 2 in hole

Honestly, tell me what not to do or do!
looking to run temps as low as 100 to 180 very important to me
I dont want to cut holes and patch later
treat me like I have no ideas Wont be offended
uploading pics in a few min thx for alll the help in advance

 

[JLeonard]

No help for you.....But I'll bump it so it'll go back to the top.
daveomak any suggestions for him?

Jim

 

[tallbm]

Hello guys,

Getting ready to start cutting holes and making improvements . Any info or ideas are appreciated.
Have a 1500 heating element, some sheet metal to cut to size, new wheels (no flat), 2 round air dampers, smokestack made from welder on ebay 2 in hole

Honestly, tell me what not to do or do!
looking to run temps as low as 100 to 180 very important to me
I dont want to cut holes and patch later
treat me like I have no ideas Wont be offended
uploading pics in a few min thx for alll the help in advance

Hi there and welcome!

That's looking pretty good. I have no experience building something like that directly but I do run rewired and PID controlled masterbuilt digital electric smokers (MES) units. I definitely run it within those temp ranges to do dehydration, sausage, bacon, jerky, etc.

All I have is a question.
How do you plan to generate smoke in it when running at those low temps?

The element may not burn hot enough at those temps to smolder any wood in the case where you may be thinking of putting wood chip pan on the element or just above the element.

My thoughts are that it would be kind of nice to do the equivalent of a "mailbox mod" and use the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray to produce 12 hours of perfect smoke that goes into the cabinet there.
Now while fabricating and assembling would be a good time to sort that out so I figured I would ask my question and bring up this situation :D

 

[DEERMAKER]

i was going to try to use a cold smoke tube or playing with idea of exactly as you described

 

[tallbm]

i was going to try to use a cold smoke tube or playing with idea of exactly as you described

Nice! I can tell you that having that 12 hours of perfect smoke from the tray and it being OUTSIDE vs inside the unit is a game changer.
I put on briskets and pork butts and just go to bed and wake up when the remote thermometer goes off to check things.

I know you are talking only sausage but imagine not having to babysit sausage or bacon for that time over night :D

 

[civilsmoker]

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like a hole in the top for a vent stack, one in the bottom for a ball valve intake vent, a grommeted one for the heating element, a shelf for a water pan and a shelf/space for a pellet tray. Then controlled by a Aubers PID smoker controller and one of Aubers circulation fan kit and it would virtually be a professional set and forget smoker.....

Aubers fan....

 

[DEERMAKER]

Yes , babysitting is getting old. Can you give me example that you like of the mailbox retro you spoke of? Pics? Details?

 

[tallbm]

Yes , babysitting is getting old. Can you give me example that you like of the mailbox retro you spoke of? Pics? Details?

Here's some examples of it on an MES the 1st two pics are actually my mailbox mod and you can see my AMNPS tray with pellets getting ready to be put in the mailbox mod in pic #2:

Others:

I like the ammo can style that is attached directly.

Again these are mailbox mod ideas for MES and units like that. You have the ability to fabricate some kind of box on the side where you then run the AMNPS tray inside of it and now your smoke generation is independent of heat generation and you never have to open the smoker to reload more smoke... if you needed.
Also this gives you a little more control over cold smoking as well if cold smoking is something you might do :D

Let me know if this gives you ideas and ask any questions you have :D

 

[DEERMAKER]

That is perfect ty!

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like a hole in the top for a vent stack, one in the bottom for a ball valve intake vent, a grommeted one for the heating element, a shelf for a water pan and a shelf/space for a pellet tray. Then controlled by a Aubers PID smoker controller and one of Aubers circulation fan kit and it would virtually be a professional set and forget smoker.....

Aubers fan....

View attachment 687394

Would it be a good idea to rewire this to work with a pid. Fan location would be back into the right front area. I wasnt goig to use this assembly because heater broken and shorts out when plugged in but tested fan and works good. Lmk thoughts on it. Ty
Goes in base of unit original pics its not inserted

 

[civilsmoker]

That is perfect ty!

Would it be a good idea to rewire this to work with a pid. Fan location would be back into the right front area. I wasnt goig to use this assembly because heater broken and shorts out when plugged in but tested fan and works good. Lmk thoughts on it. Ty
Goes in base of unit original pics its not inserted

I didn't realize you had the heater/fan unit....I thought you just had the box. That fan will work perfectly.

If it were mine, I would use the insert with the fan and just put a new heating element into it and wire it for a PID controller. However, I probably would just use a relay controlled PID vs an SSR as you really won't need "full sub 1 degree control" switching that a SSR gives over a relay. The relay doesn't need cooling either.

This is my control box for my tempering oven. It has a convection fan as well, which is wired to the green switch and I used this relay based temperature controller. This one will drive 30 amps and your 1800W element in 120 is 15 amps so it would drive it. I used a 16 amp circuit breaker to double for fuse and power switch. Wasy easier to wire and cheaper. The draw back to this temperature controller is that it's limited on temp probes but it fits the need for my little oven. It also doesn't have the proportional math, so it overshoots at start up but once its warmed up its +/- 5 degrees.

You have some options on controlling it, but if I were building it like I said above, I would lean to a 32 din PID with a relay so the box is compact or I would get the wifi plug and play box from Aubers and have to meat probs with it. The simplest would be the later and just add power to the fan. Also note that you only need enough air flow for the smoke to move through it, which is very little.....

 

[tallbm]

That is perfect ty!

Would it be a good idea to rewire this to work with a pid. Fan location would be back into the right front area. I wasnt goig to use this assembly because heater broken and shorts out when plugged in but tested fan and works good. Lmk thoughts on it. Ty
Goes in base of unit original pics its not inserted

I believe civilsmoker has some great info for you!
I agree that you may as well go with a PID. It will give you the control and ability that is superior to other controller options and you won't have to worry about melting out fat on your sausages because of repeated overshoots/spikes/valleys like other controllers use.

Looks like you are getting all the details ironed out for this build. Can't wait to see what is next and where it lands :D

 

[JLeonard]

It will be interesting to see when you get it all put together!

Jim

 

[DEERMAKER]

It will be interesting to see when you get it all put together!

Jim

haha agreed hope I make the right moves here lol
i was planning on using the box and fan( in the orig fan area)
and install heat element above on the metal flat .....mistake?

 

[JLeonard]

haha agreed hope I make the right moves here lol
i was planning on using the box and fan( in the orig fan area)
and install heat element above on the metal flat .....mistake?

I have no idea! LOL! It just amazes me with the stuff y'all come up with!

Jim

 

[DEERMAKER]

I have no idea! LOL! It just amazes me with the stuff y'all come up with!

Jim

Some progress on smoker.
Have chiney vent stack in. Lined it with a black pipe nipple and flange. A little food grade silicone and all set !
Did lots work on the gasket material on doors, air circulation, etc
More pics tmre did te ammow box adapt on the smoke machine side of unit.
Did work on racking. Just about readt to crank it uo soon. Soon.... Don

 

[DEERMAKER]

Some progress on smoker.
Have chiney vent stack in. Lined it with a black pipe nipple and flange. A little food grade silicone and all set !
Did lots work on the gasket material on doors, air circulation, etc
More pics tmre did te ammow box adapt on the smoke machine side of unit.
Did work on racking. Just about readt to crank it uo soon. Soon.... Don