Smoker reccomendations please

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This works very well at those temps but the mailbox mod would be nice for cold smoking option, and yes I think two would be needed.
What about fabricating a metal box big enough to house an electric countertop burner or maybe a small gas burner and burning chunks in a CI skillet on it? You might have to set it a little ways away so there is enough pipe for the smoke to cool some.
 
Simple yet effective, I love it! Do you have an adjustable vent near the top anywhere?
At the top of the back wall on the center is a screened vent for exhaust. It is not adjustable. If I did an adjustable vent, it would be the intake. Smokers, in my view, need positive exhaust always. With a live fire this is true, but with propane as heat you need positive fresh air feeding the burner. Closing off the exhaust or restricting the exhaust cuts the fresh air intake. So I opted for free flow intake and exhaust. You can play with the size of each, but I would let them flow.
 
SmokinEdge SmokinEdge What's in the bottom under the bricks, cement board? Also, the intake vent is below the floor, so how does the air get up into the chamber? I'm trying to get some early planning in.

Edit: you were responding while I was asking lol
Yes, cement board is on the floor.
The vent is at floor height but slightly below the brick on the floor, but I keep about 8” clear in front of the vent (no brick) and this allows air to feed the burner very well. The air is rising from the time it enters to the time it exits.
 
What about fabricating a metal box big enough to house an electric countertop burner or maybe a small gas burner and burning chunks in a CI skillet on it? You might have to set it a little ways away so there is enough pipe for the smoke to cool some.
I assume this metal box would be outside the smokehouse and smoke piped in? This would work fine for more of a cold smoke, but I think you would struggle to get warm smoke temps up to 170* in the smokehouse.
 
I assume this metal box would be outside the smokehouse and smoke piped in? This would work fine for more of a cold smoke, but I think you would struggle to get warm smoke temps up to 170* in the smokehouse.
Yes, piped in for cold smoking, and fired with a burner inside the smokehouse for warm smoking. Kind of a dual purpose smokehouse.
 
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Yup, I believe that would be workable. A little more involved that a dual mailbox mod, but only because of the burner or hot plate. But yeah it would work.
Yes, piped in for cold smoking, and fired with a burner inside the smokehouse for warm smoking. Kind of a dual purpose smokehouse.
 
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Shouldn't be much of a job to weld up the box and pipe it to the smokehouse. Sizing the air intake on the box may require some trial and error though.
 
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Four 2 in holes at the bottom of the front with a slider plate for adjustment seems the easiest route.
That’s fine build what you want, but keep in mind that 4 two inch pipes do not equal one 8” pipe. If you double a pipe size, say 2” to 4” you triple the volume. One 8” pipe will flow 3 times what one 4” pipe will flow.
 
I use my UDS with either a smoke maze or a smoke tube. It works well for my K.I.S.S. keep it simple, stupid method. My UDS has a weber kettle lid, which I used a Uni Bit to open up the vent holes as much as I could, too where the spinning adjustment plate that it comes stock with still works.
My UDS has a carbon disk bottom, one of the discs that they drag behind the tractor to break up the soil before planting. I welded a 2'' wide x 3'' long pipe nipple over the hole in the center of the disc to use as an ash clean out. I normally run the UDS with the nipple capped off, but for cold smoking I remove the cap for more air flow to keep the maze or smoke tube burning well. It works great for my needs.
 
That’s fine build what you want, but keep in mind that 4 two inch pipes do not equal one 8” pipe. If you double a pipe size, say 2” to 4” you triple the volume. One 8” pipe will flow 3 times what one 4” pipe will flow.

Not 3 times. It's 4 times.
 
I built my Frankensmoker for sausage. Got maybe 50 bucks in it and it works like a charm. An old Masterbuilt Electric Smoker (MES) given to me with the controls fried. Did an easy rewire on it so the element works straight off the plug. Then built a PID controller to control temps form 0 to 500 degrees. Scary accurate and easy to build. I'll include a pic...you can see the PID controller sitting on top of the unit. A smoke tube goes into the pipe on the bottom right. Heat rising up the chimney pulls the smoke into the smoker. This way I can change the smoke tube and never have to open the smoker. Also if I can cold smoke if I want to. Let me know if you would like links on how its done.
 

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I was having the same problems. I fitted my homemade smoker with an electric burner, PID controller and a smoke generator. I’ve yet to use it on sausage, but have tested flawlessly and can go as low as I want and up to 180 without issue in cold Iowa winter temps.

Keep us posted on what you come up with. I’m anxious for my first run with this and will report back too.
 

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