Upgrading the smoker with wifes approval

[mossymo]

My wife has told me it is time to spend some money on my old sausage smoker and make it more of a set it and forget type smoker like our MES’s. Right now it runs on propane that I also have a regulator set up for smoking in warmer temps, 40º and cooler. This set up has worked great for me smoking sausage -10º to 10º. Summer weather is just too warm for my set up.

Since we relocated last year (home building and new job) I have not had a chance to process and smoke the 9 deer in our freezer (185 lbs. of ground venison, the rest is back straps and roasts). Now I need my sausage smoker to be efficient in the warmer temps. I have already purchased a “Big Kahuna” Smoke Daddy - smoke generator for warmer temp smoking. Now I am trying to figure out if I should look at electric or propane with a thermostat. Electric seems the easiest, with not having a pilot light that will get blown out. But first I wanted to get others ideas and maybe get pictures of what they have done or possibly web links of what I should be looking at. Cost will be a consideration, but having my wife’s blessing really helps open up the budget.

Below I will post a few old pics of my sausage smoker to give you an idea of what I am working with. It used to be a 7’ tall commercial stainless steel refrigerator that I acquired for free and believe it or not, it was still working well when I tore it apart. When I received it, it had no shelves so a buddy and I fabricated and framed expanded aluminum shelves that are approx. 23 ½” X 23 ½”. There are 6 shelves and the smoker has room for 11.







Any thoughts you have are appreciated and thank you in advance.

 

[1894]

Bump to the top

 

[trapper]

I made a sausage smoker using a design similar to the kits the sausagemaker sells like this: http://www.sausagemaker.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1370 I had a lot of the stuff already so I didn't have to buy most of it, it is kind of expensive. After a couple of years of using it the main thing I would do differently is I would use a pid controller for the temp instead of a regular thermostat. There are pretty big swings in temp from the time it starts and stops. With the pid controller I could even use it as a curing chamber for fermented sausage.

 

[mossymo]

OK, besides being busy, I am kind of slow..... but we are finally getting somewhere. We had the basic/main parts right away, but it was the small parts that we did not think of and finding the right fitting parts... took some time.
Here is a pic of the main set up on the smoker - The Honeywell gas ignition kit and the 120 to 24 volt transformer.

and a close up of the modules

The thermostat and controller box

View of the burner and electronic ignition from the front side

View of the burner and electronic ignition from the back side

Tonight we finally got to a point to try ignition, had one gas leak right below the pilot light and we were good to go.
First issues we are seeing is the flame on the burner pulses; meaning not a strong steady flame.
Second issue is the electronic ignition does not light the pilot light every time.
With the burner not burning steady I am wondering if this a regulator problem off the tank (regular gas grill regulator) or if there is adjustments that can be made with the Honeywell gas unit?
On the electronic ignition of the pilot light I am wondering if gain there is an adjustment with the Honeywell gas unit that can be made or if I need a tighter positioning of the pilot light to the ignition unit. Sometimes it lights and other times it does not. When the electronic ignition will not light the pilot I can hold a torch to the pilot and light it immediately.
I am excited to get this all corrected and get my smoker back together. Looking forward to check out the temperature swing between shutting down and firing back up on its own. With thermostat probe hanging on the outside of the smoker it seemed to shutting down great and wanting to fire back up at the right times.

 

[countrysmoked]

I see you went with the propane heat source looks like you have it under control. You might want to move the electronic igniter closer and lower to your pilot. I don't know much about the regulators but trying a different one should be simple enough, I would try and wind proof the bottom of the freezer as good as I could. With my old one (manual temp control) I had problems with the wind blowing the fire out when on low. I Have that exact unit (still running) in my butcher shop, I sure like the room in it. Good luck on your build.