No fire box on my stick burner

[jhudson3030]

I just bought a used homemade wood burning smoker in rough shape. I patched some rust spots and now I'm ready to use it. I do not have a external fire box but I have a lift gate/access door where I can build a fire on one side in the bottom. Everything I've seen has external fire boxes and I was just curious about mine operating ok without. I have built a fire in it and have played around with controlling my temp and that I had no problem with. I just didn't know what the cons would be of having the fire inside instead of externally

 

[jhudson3030]

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• jhudson3030
• May 13, 2014

 

[jhudson3030]

Here is a picture of the smoker and on the bottom closest end you can see where the fire is built

 

[daveomak]

If you can control the heat and smoke, what else do you need... a cold one maybe.....

 

[brooksy]

With no separate firebox I consider it indirect grilling with some nice added smoke flavor. I have been using a cheapo wally world smoker that I burned the firebox off of and cooking everything in the indirect method adding some wood for flavor.

 

[buttburner]

I would at least add a deflector plate to channel the grease away from the fire so you dont have a grease fire on your hands

 

[jhudson3030]

That sounds like a great idea