Proofer smoker conversion w/Q view

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motoman3b

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 14, 2009
36
18
Hey everybody I've been lurking on these forums for awhile this is pretty much my first post.  I'll give you guys a little background I'm an avid hunter and cut up alot of deer for friends, got into smoking meats last year with a smoke hollow electric which worked but I was starting to outgrow it and want more capacity as well as cold smoking abilitys.  Well heres my proofer I picked up at an auction it has a 2000w element built in (had it up to 200 with 1/4 more turn to go on the temp dial)  and a circulating fan.  I built the smoke generator out of a cocktail shaker.  Doing a small piece of cheese for its test run just to see how its gonna work.  The circulating fan creates a disturbance in the smoke generator so I think I either need a bigger air pump to overcome the backflow or for a temp fix I just threw a papertowel over the inlet to slow the fans flow and that seems to work.  The pump I got puts out 2000cc/min or something like that would like it to work with full air flow when I do a batch of jerky or sausage.

Here are some pics
 
I'm jealous Motoman, I've been looking for an affordable proofer for more then a year now. Looks like you've got a nice smoker there.

And Welcome to the forums!
 
Nice rig, I too would like to find a small proofer, just to do pastry at home if nothing else.   Just curious, you're just lighting the wood chips in the cocktail shaker?  Looks like a good bit of smoke for such a simple design.
 
Yeah the smoke generator is the only thing creating the smoke.  I got about 1.5 hours of smoking with it completely full of chips, gonna try to use some bigger chunks and see if I can get 2 or 3 hours out of it
 
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First off Welcome Moto man to SMF.  Nice smoker by the way. You'll like it here for there are a lot of really good folks here that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking. Now there are a lot of proven recipes for some amazing things here too. So if you need sign up for the E-Course it's free and it will give you the basics of smoking and some good methods to use also. So the next big thing for you to do is go out and get you something to smoke and if you happen to have any questions just post it here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Welcome To Your New Addiction        
 
Motoman,

Nice Smoker!

That poor little piece of cheese looks soooo lonely though.
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Bearcarver
 
Thanks for the compliments guys, The cheese was lonely but I'm glad thats all I put in for my test run.... the smoke generator wasnt flowing correctly and must of created creosote cause it tasted nasty nothing like i've smoked in the past in my old smoker.  I've figured out a way to get TBS out of it but I need to buy a bigger air pump as my pump obviously isnt flowing enough air to create the correct draw.  I confirmed this by hooking up compressed air and adjusting the flow that way and I may need to lay the generator sideways instead of vertical... with it sideways creating a draft that first hits the end where the chips have been lit creates a nice clean burn I'm gonna go to a look for a bigger pump today and when I get it working right I'll take some more pics and hopefully be on my way to producing some good smoked stuff soon!
 
Thanks for the compliments guys, The cheese was lonely but I'm glad thats all I put in for my test run.... the smoke generator wasnt flowing correctly and must of created creosote cause it tasted nasty nothing like i've smoked in the past in my old smoker.  I've figured out a way to get TBS out of it but I need to buy a bigger air pump as my pump obviously isnt flowing enough air to create the correct draw.  I confirmed this by hooking up compressed air and adjusting the flow that way and I may need to lay the generator sideways instead of vertical... with it sideways creating a draft that first hits the end where the chips have been lit creates a nice clean burn I'm gonna go to a look for a bigger pump today and when I get it working right I'll take some more pics and hopefully be on my way to producing some good smoked stuff soon!
Let us know when you get it right, and explain a little how you did it, because that's all I ever got out of my Smoke Daddy "Big Kahuna", except when it got all gooey in there and I'd have to jam a screwdriver in it to get it creating creosote again. I really hate to complain about it, because the people it comes from are very very nice, but facts are facts.

Bear
 
 
Alright I got it working great now... I went and brought a 45l/minute pump from a hydroponics store near me... it comes with a 1/4" line that runs to distrubution block of 6 1/8" pipes... I just used it straight from the 1/4" line and hooked a valve inline where my old 1/8" barb was... although I pretty much run it wide open.   I only run the shaker about half full and position it horizontal instead of vertical like it was, Light the chips from the strainer side (used to be the end pointed down) and the draw from the pump draws air in across the chips and you can see them burning nice and red and it basically just burns towards the T fitting until there all burnt up.  Creates nice LBS way better then the way I had it.  I'll take some pictures of it tomorrow.  I'm thinking you could run the smoke daddy similar but you might need a bigger air pump to get the draw right.  The pump was a little pricey about 45 bucks but its built a hell of alot better then the little aquarium pumps and puts out a ton more air
 
Welcome to SMF, that's a good looking smoker you have there and I like the way you made the smoke generator work.

Watcha' cooking in the green shed in the background, ...nosey aren't I?

Gene
 
The green shed is an outdoor woodburner used to heat my house, hotwater and barn.
 
I've done about 120 lbs of sausage in it so far and a few batches of jerky, Works awesome the only thing I might do is upgrade the heating element to 220v for some faster cooking times usually takes about 8 hours or more for a batch of summer sausage
 
i'd like to find one just for sausage making............. nice set up.
 
I've done about 120 lbs of sausage in it so far and a few batches of jerky, Works awesome the only thing I might do is upgrade the heating element to 220v for some faster cooking times usually takes about 8 hours or more for a batch of summer sausage


You sure you want to do them faster?

8 hours sounds about as quick as I would want mine to go---And still get nice smoke on them.

Bear
 
that is EXACTLY the same thing i was going to make a smoker gen. out of!!!  a big old martini shaker.  nice to see it works!!  how long does the smoke last with it the way you have it now???
 
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