Thoughts & Ideas on making a smoker cabinet using a wine cooler (long post)

[stringman]

Hi Guys
Its been a while since i last posted.
At the moment i have a simple small cold smoker. Small fire box with maze pellet smoker linked to a 3ft x4ft wooden smoking chamber.
It works well but, like everyone the summer temperatures can make it tricky. So i thought i would have a go at designing my own smoker unit.

Firebox
We have trouble buying large post boxes in the uk so i decided on one of these.
https://www.homebase.co.uk/texas-round-portable-bbq_p496550

My thought is that i will either take the smoke pipe from the centre (where the handle is) or where the current air vent is.
The lid clips on so it should provide a nice tight seal.

Fire box questions:
Would it benefit the smokebox to have some vent holes cut into the side? bottom? or both?
What size smoke pipe would work best? Ideally I would like between 2-4" .

Smoking chamber.

I had this idea of using a standard domestic fridge. There are plenty that don't get cool enough ( 10-20 deg c) which would be fine for cold smoking. There seems to be some who say you need to strip out the plastic and others who say its fine if you just cold smoke.

Then i had the thought of a commercial fridge as the inside will be stainless steel
Again i would buy a faulty one that only cools to 10-20 deg c

My final idea was to buy a wine cooler which only has a working range of 7-18 deg c (so could be used to cure meat as well .
The fridges would be about 6ft tall and the cooler about 4ft

Any thoughts on which would be better?

Build

So my plan is to cut a hole at the bottom for the smoke pipe. cut a hole in the top for a chimney (I am hoping that 3 inch would be sufficient as i have a spare 2ft of 3" copper pipe.

Would this work?

I could foresee a problem with the warm(ish ) smoke sinking to the bottom due to the cold air in the fridge.
So i thought that putting a small fan in the fridge would prevent that. Would the fan be best in the fridge to just blow the air around? or put it on the chimney to drag the air out?
I will use a temperature sensor to control the fridge and bypass the thermostat. if the temp gets to cool it will switch the fridge off and if it gets too warm.

Before i start cutting away at things i would really appreciate your thoughts and advice.

Many thanks

 

[chef jimmyj]

I'm not a build guy, PM DaveOmak, but when I read the title I had to see Who it is wants a Wine Cooler ATTACHED to his Smoker!
That would be pretty fancy. Me a Beer Refer attached sounds like a fantastic idea!
Good luck...JJ

 

[stringman]

Ha ha,
maybe my title is a little confusing.
The wine cooler theory comes from want one as a curing chamber and realising that there are plenty that are broke and can only get the temps down to 18deg c

 

[chef jimmyj]

If you don't mind, I can edit to" From " rather than " With ". Besides I have to move the thread to Builds...JJ

 

[texas19delta]

Any updates on the build I was just given a commercial fridge that I’m going to turn into a vault pellet smoker

 

[stringman]

Well i have sort of given up on the idea as everyone said i needed to get rid of the plastic and foam ( even though i was only going to do cold smoking)
So i have ended up buying a commercial fridge.
I have posted on the fridge forum about that.