Options for building new smoker

[nlife]

I've mainly been running a Bradley with the mailbox mod and a pellet tray with decent results. I've found that I'm usually bumping against the upper limits on capacity and have thought about building a smoker for some time now, but I have been struggling with how to heat it.

Well tonight, the bottom door hinge on my Bradley decided to give out on me and it's given me a strong push in the direction of "better git to it!"

I've been pouring over the threads and looking at various builds. I'm leaning towards propane as my heat source since I rent and can't install a 220v plug to run an oven element. I also can't build anything permanent out of brick, again due to the whole renting thing. I'm in Northern British Columbia and won't be smoking much after the snow flies.

I'm a bit lost in all this, but I'm thinking something along the lines of 3'x3'x'5 to give me enough area to run larger batches of snack sticks, sausages, bacon and hams. Given that it's a smoker, I'm not looking at much past 200f.

I'd certainly appreciate any advise this fine group might have.

 

[Fueling Around]

Off the top of head
Keith @JckDanls 07 has an electric a little smaller than the size you are thinking
Don’t remember if he has a build thread but I have seen it in action

 

[chopsaw]

This is the one I used to do an electric kettle . It's analog , but about 35 bucks .
It's a Masterbuilt replacement for the analog smoker .

I don't have just a pic of it , but you can see the plug in with the dial . ( kind of )

 

[Up_In_Smoke]

EDIT:

Didn't see chopsaw's reply.

 

[normanaj]

@chopsaw that unit is awesome! Never knew you had that.

That's got the 'ol brain thinking electric WSM!

 

[chopsaw]

That's got the 'ol brain thinking electric WSM!

I went the other direction after seeing this thread a while ago .

The e-WSM mod.... a convertable electric & charcoal WSM smoker

For those who have seen some of my recent sausage & snack sticks posts you know I had been using a 1,100 watt counter top heating element in the bottom of my 18.5" WSM for low temp smokes. That little element would go up to 185 degrees so it was great for smoking at lower temps and then...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

I've done ribs on that electric kettle plugged into the Auber . I have that spinner ring , so I can get 2 levels if I want .
It works pretty good .

 

[SmokinEdge]

I'm a bit lost in all this, but I'm thinking something along the lines of 3'x3'x'5 to give me enough area to run larger batches of snack sticks, sausages, bacon and hams. Given that it's a smoker, I'm not looking at much past 200f.

I built a 3x3x7 smokehouse that is ran on propane, but I’ve seen them also built to go over something like a BGE for heat source so there are options.

 

[ifitsdeadsmokeit]

I am planning mine as well. I was thinking 34”x34”x72”. Reason the 34 instead of 36 is so would fit through a standard exterior door. May still bump up to 36 since I will be keeping it in garage and less material cutting. I plan on using 220 electric element with a pid. Will also be on casters and leveling legs since I dont have a level spot to set it up.

 

[processhead]

I built this one from an old upright freezer. The interior was almost all metal, but I had to replace the plastic inner door panel with a sheet of metal.
I used a 1400 watt 120 volt hotplate which has more then enough heating capacity. Inkbird PID controls and a SSR to switch the element on and off.
Cut openings in the top and bottom for vents and added a metal ammo can on the bottom for an A-mazin pellet smoke generator.

 

[nlife]

Thanks for the replies all. I was doing some digging the other day on Amazon and was looking at the low pressure burners to see what's out there. The turkey fryer idea seems to fit the bill fairly well. It's kinda the reason I was thinking about going with 5' tall since the fryer is going to eat up about 1' off the bottom of the smoker leaving me with about 3 1/2' of smoker space without getting too close to the heat source.

I built this one from an old upright freezer. The interior was almost all metal, but I had to replace the plastic inner door panel with a sheet of metal.

My grandpa made his smoker out of an old 40s/50s fridge and used a two burner hot plate in it. He sure smoked a LOT of salmon in that over his 40 years fishing the Skeena River. He's long since passed and the smoker is gone.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks for the replies all. I was doing some digging the other day on Amazon and was looking at the low pressure burners to see what's out there. The turkey fryer idea seems to fit the bill fairly well. It's kinda the reason I was thinking about going with 5' tall since the fryer is going to eat up about 1' off the bottom of the smoker leaving me with about 3 1/2' of smoker space without getting too close to the heat source.

That’s why I went 7’ tall. The bottom 3’ is the burner space, 4’ above for meats. If you go 5’ tall it’s workable but plan on a fairly large heat defuser or deflector above the burner to spread the heat out.

 

[nlife]

That’s why I went 7’ tall. The bottom 3’ is the burner space, 4’ above for meats. If you go 5’ tall it’s workable but plan on a fairly large heat defuser or deflector above the burner to spread the heat out.

Ah that makes sense. Going to have to go a bit taller then.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Ah that makes sense. Going to have to go a bit taller then.

You really don’t have to, just plan for a steel plate maybe 2’ square above the burner. I just use a 12” cast iron skillet on top the burner but I have more distance to the meat. The skillet works good to smolder wood chunks in also. I only use it for smoke in the winter, the rest of the time I use a smoke generator.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I also use a pair of large aluminum pans at the bottom of the cook chamber to further disperse heat and to catch any drippings.

 

[nlife]

I've been away from the forum for some time now and a fair amount has changed for me. We moved to my hometown after purchasing our first house, and I've been doing a lot of renos to take care of the small things inside. I have to do a lot of landscaping work as well. That said, it's time I circle back to this project as I'm finally able to build on my own property and smoking season is upon us here in the north.

Prior to moving, our neighbour grabbed a lot of off-cut 2x4s for me as he gets them for free. The mill he works for allows employees to take home rejects that they can't sell. By reject, I mean under 6' in length. Other than that, it's perfectly fine, untreated spruce/pine/fir dimensional lumber.

For simplicity’s sake, I like your build @SmokinEdge. Given the amount of wood I have on hand I may make it a bit shorter. Did you secure it to the ground so that it doesn't blow over during storms?

Neil

 

[SmokinEdge]

For simplicity’s sake, I like your build SmokinEdge . Given the amount of wood I have on hand I may make it a bit shorter. Did you secure it to the ground so that it doesn't blow over during storms?

No not anchored to the ground. I did line the bottom with full size bricks though for heat management and that makes the base kinda heavy. It also has a full framed floor sheeted in 3/4 plywood, doesn’t add much but still I’ve never had a problem with wind.

 

[archeryrob]

The inside of my smokehouse is the same color as charcoal, but I use wood and makes my house a chimney.