Smoke hollow cold smoke mailbox mod

[loucarisma]

I saw the posts about mailbox mods. Most were for the masterbuilt smoker as it has a 3" hole for the elbow to attach to. The smoke hollow has a 2x 7 hole whetw the smoke box slides into. Here's my fix for a cold smoker mod for these smoker's. First off I used a bread loaf pan to attach to the smoker. Cut the hole and made it 3/8 inch smaller on the 2 " side then cut on each end to the 2" line and bent this slightly past 90 degrees for an easy way to put it on. Then used sheet metla and made a lid with a half inch bend on top again for easy install. Then I cut the 3" hole and attached the elbow. Then cut a hole in the back of the mailbox for the other elbow. Then I drilled 3 3/4" holes in the door and made a draft adjuster for that. I also bought some 1/8" thick weather strip for seals. I used document clips to hold everything together so as to revert back to the factory design without changing the smoker itself.

 

[AllAces]

Nice clean mod.

 

[loucarisma]

Thank you. You can also see in the second pic of the opening of the smoker the fender washers under the heatshield to raise up the element. These don't like to make smoke at lower temps. I put washers under all the mounting points to raise the element up so the factory smoke box now sits on the heating element. It helped but not as much as the addition of the amns.

 

[chopsaw]

Nice work . Did you try it out yet ?

 

[tallbm]

Great job! I think you are well on your way to some fine hassle free smoke generation :)

 

[loucarisma]

Chopsaw no I haven't tried it yet but will when it's colder outside. It's been around 90 and above. I mostly made this for smoking cheese. So far I've made a brisket turned out awesome real smoked beef jerky again awesome some salmon for my mom and yesterday made homemade Canadian bacon terrific. I have a pit boss pellet grill but you don't get the deep smoke of a true smoker.

 

[loucarisma]

Ok so it was cool tonight so I thought I'd give my mod a try. Bought some cheese and here's what happened. I used a mix of apple hickory and pecan in my amazen 12" tube at 11pm. Opened the damper on the smoker and mailbox wide open for good air flow. Good smoke generation. Went in the house and checked at midnight and the fire went out. I don't know if it wasn't lit well enough or what but this is what I did. Relit the tube and put it into the smoker with the cheese and after a half hour it was 90 degrees inside to hot. So I opened the door and put the tube back into the mailbox and this time I cracked the lid open for more air to the tube. An hour later at around 2 am the temp was 65 degrees inside. Went to bed. Got up at 6 and the smoker was still at 65 and still smoking! Took out the cheese and vacuum sealed and labeled. One 2lb brick sharp cheddar two 8oz bricks Xtra sharp cheddar 2 8oz habanero cheddar and 2 8oz Gouda. Will post follow up in a month after the flavors blend.

 

[loucarisma]

I think I'll drill 3or4 1/2" holes in the bottom of the mailbox for more air intake. I can still close the damper as needed if I get too much air. After that I now have some buckboard bacon on as I'm posting this. Thanks for the great site guys.

 

[tallbm]

Looks like some productive testing!
I don't know if it will matter for your setup but cold smoking with my MES I was getting a stronger smoke flavor due to stale smoke lingering too long. With such a lack of draft and tight temps with TX heat/weather I can't just heat up the MES a little to make sure it is hotter inside than outside... outside may be just slightly cooler, same temp, or slightly hotter than internal temps.

My solution was to create a little cold smoker assist device that generates draft when I place it over the vent hole of my MES. It worked like a champ! Here it is and it may give you some food for thought if you run into stale smoke causing a stronger less desirable smoke flavor while you cold smoke:

ColdSmokeAssistDevice

• tallbm
• Dec 21, 2017
• 2

Basically it is a cardboard tube that uses a little computer blower fan to blow a draft up the tube which then sucks/drafts air from the MES when this device is placed over the top MES vent hole. Works very very well to do 2 things:

1. Suck the air/smoke up and out to keep it moving so it doesn't get stale
2. Actually helps suck air all the way through the mailbox mod to keep a good airflow on the pellets since there is no natural draft on my cold smokes and the pellets struggle to get as good of an airflow as they get on a hot smoke that does the same thing

 

[loucarisma]

I was getting a good draft and smoke was flowing through the smoker. I was also thinking of using a computer fan also to bring in fresh air into the mailbox. But when I cracked open the door the pellets stayed lit and had a good flow of air. If you look at my setup I've routed all the piping upward from the mailbox to the smoker. As you know heat rises causing a natural flow of air through the system eliminating the stale smoke. I believe that I dont have enough air coming in when the pellets are lit to keep them burning. My cheapest option is to drill the holes and see what happens. Also there's a thread about drilling a hole up high on the lid to alliviate recirculating smoke that robs the oxygen to the pellets. Thanks for the input. The cheese turned out awesome and in a month after mellowing out will see if it was a success. When the weather gets much colder then I might have to use forced air to keep things going because of the colder ambient temperature.

 

[loucarisma]

Here's a link to the post.https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/problems-keeping-amps-burning-in-mailbox-mod.278192/

 

[tallbm]

I think you'll get it ironed out. Airflow and/or pellets just needing to be microwaved some will very likely solve your current issues :)

 

[loucarisma]

My pellets are opened and then kept in a air tight container. It was the first time they went out. So either I didn't get them lit well or had an air flow problem. Thanks for the help.

 

[chopsaw]

My pellets are opened and then kept in a air tight container. It was the first time they went out. So either I didn't get them lit well or had an air flow problem. Thanks for the help.

I use the tube in a mailbox . Never had to dry my pellets . I'm using a MES 30 . What does the exhaust look like on your smoker ?

 

[loucarisma]

It's three inches round and in the middle of the back near the top.

 

[loucarisma]

Chopsaw how does your mailbox mod work in the winter months? It gets below zero here in the winter and above 100 at times in the summer (Iowa).

 

[chopsaw]

We get the same weather here . I used to bird hunt in Red oak . Mine works great , summer or winter . I just made some changes to the length of the pipe , and the support for the tube . Went from good to great . I think you need to add a hole in the door above the lower holes . That helps alot . Is the tube elevated ? If not it needs to be . Get a good hard light on it also . You might need to shorten up the connection hose . Seems long to me .


I added a U-bolt to the front of the tube .

 

[loucarisma]

Ya I forgot to mention that when I relit the pellets I made the hose as short as it would go I think 3'. My reasoning for the longer run of hose was it would cool before reaching the smoker. I think I'll try the top hole first before anything else. Thanks for the info.

 

[chopsaw]

I think I'll try the top hole first before anything else. Thanks for the info.

Yeah . Change one thing at a time so you know how it changed if any . Let us know .

 

[loucarisma]

Will do