Anyone made a meat smoker on here?

[demographic]

A mates father owns a bit of land with woodland on it, lots of cherry trees, birch, ash, beech, apple and several other indigenous species that I can't remember.
Anyway there's power lines running over a part of the land and the power company has cut down a swathe of trees (I fully understand why they did it and agree with their reasoning) under the lines.

The decent sized logs we are cutting up for firewood and we plan on making a pretty small charcoal burner (mostly just to give it a go and see how we get on) to use up some of the smaller stuff.
But...it has occurred to us that cherry wood might just make some really nice smoking wood.
Anyone got a home-made smoker and if so is there a chance you could post some pictures of it? Just to get a few ideas?

Thanks, Scott.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

Lots of good ideas and pics here http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=95346

 

[trapshooter9]

I have done a fair amount of research on this topic as I too plan on building a smoker (I currently use an offset smoker). Do a search on UDS or upright drum smoker. These are also called ugly drum smoker. Very easy to build out of a 55 gal drum and inexpensive. The consensus seems to be that they are very easy to use too. I got my drum, now just need to get it built.

 

[blades]

used an old (1950 vintage) GE refrigerator. No plastic in them days and glass batting for insulation in them. Really tough to find anything like that nowadays though.

 

[jags]

You mean like this: (I built it out of a hot box that was taken out of a bakery).

 

[Kong]

Like Blades the only one I ever built was from an old refridgerator, which I think was probably a GE too.

They used to have the motor/compressor in the bottom and a chest up top. The one we made we just ripped the guts out of the bottom and the little freezer section out of the top. We ripped the seal out of the door because it was rubber and might get hot and melt. The I shot a hole through it (side to side) with a 12gage slug to put two hole through which we passed rebar to hang meat and fish from. We cut a hole in the bottom, 6" diameter if I remember correctly, and then ran stove pipe about 20 feet to a burner that we made out of a 55-gallon drum. It was outside on a hill so the burner was downhill by about 5~6 feet. The 'fridg had stainless racks in it too, I remember they were good for smoking fish, we did some hams in it too, which worked well. I'm sure we didn't have over ten bucks in it, because we didn't have over ten bucks back in those days.

 

[Iska3]

You mean like this: (I built it out of a hot box that was taken out of a bakery).

That's a great idea! We called those proofers. We had a bakery go out of business around here. I'm sure there has to be a few around for next to nothing. I used an old refrigerator for years but your idea has them all beat.

 

[jags]

That's a great idea! We called those proofers. We had a bakery go out of business around here. I'm sure there has to be a few around for next to nothing. I used an old refrigerator for years but your idea has them all beat.

Thanks for the kind words. What really had me sold on using the proofer was that I KNEW is was food grade and not a plastic or rubber part on it. I can maintain an easy 120F - 400F temp. It may not go low enough for cheese, but basically anything else does great in there.

 

[LipDawg]

This is 160lbs of kolbasi smoking over cherry.

 

[warjohn]

Apple is my favorite wood for smoking.

 

[trapshooter9]

Here's my offset smoker. As you can see, I like to use cherry. This type of smoker is good if you don't want to use a lot of charcoal. You can maintain a nice wood fire in the burn chamber. The down side is that it is a lot harder to regulate the temperature than vertical type smokers where you can regulate oxygen flow a lot better.

Here is the nearly finished product (chicken, pork shoulder, beef chuck).

 

[demographic]

All great information folks, thanks very much.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use for it but a mate and I built a wood burning stove a while ago that's currently doing nothing so we might use a gas cylinder to make the smoker out of to go on top.

After making sure its well purged before we start cutting it open, obviously.

 

[kennertree]

Here is my little offset smoker that a made a few mods to.

 

[kennertree]

I installed a baffle plate to help even out the temps throughout the smoke box, also installed a convection plate to allow the heat and smoke to come through and run the length of the smoke box.

 

[kennertree]

I moved the stack to the opposite side and increased the diameter of the stack and made it longer to get a better draw. I lowered it to about 3/4 of an inch above the grate. Uner the convection the smoke box is lined with fire brick to help hold heat and regulate temps as well. My next project is going to be an ugly drum smoker.

 

[demographic]

kennertree.
I notice you have heat resistant rope around that door, how have you attached it? Does it need to run in a groove or have you managed to glue it on without a groove to hold it in position?

I have some fire rope but on the stove me and a mate built we didn't put any on the door which I personally always felt was a bit of a compromise and would have rather used some to seal the door properly.

If it sticks well onto a surface without a groove it makes things far and away simpler to do.
I like the idea of the baffle plate.

What kind of thermometer do you use and what kind of temperatures should I be seeing?

Scott.

 

[kennertree]

The gasket was put on with gasket cement and its on flat metal without a groove, you should be able to find it where they sell the gasket. Make sure you have a clean surface and it should bond really good. This type of smoker is a cheap made smoker and there are gaps everywhere. It still has a few gaps but they are small. As far as temps go I can get it pretty hot. I smoke chickens around 275, sometimes hotter. For ribs and pork I keep it 210-225. The thermometer I use is a taylor digital meat thermometer that I bought at lowes. I drilled a hole in a brick and used jb weld to hold the probe in. I put it on the grate right next to the meat to get the most accurate temp. The thermometer on the outside of the smoke box will have a 40-50 degree tempature difference.

 

[trapshooter9]

You mean like this: (I built it out of a hot box that was taken out of a bakery).

Nice motorized barstool in your avatar. In the paper today it said the authorities in our neighboring county (Licking County, Ohio) are ebaying the one confiscated from the owner who crashed it after drinking 15 beers. He was charged with DUI. He told the cops it had a max speed of 38 mph! They are auctioning it to apply toward his unpaid child support.

 

[mickeyd]

I moved the stack to the opposite side and increased the diameter of the stack and made it longer to get a better draw. I lowered it to about 3/4 of an inch above the grate. Uner the convection the smoke box is lined with fire brick to help hold heat and regulate temps as well. My next project is going to be an ugly drum smoker.

very nice work ! Why did you move the stack ? dont you want the smoke to travel the length of the smoker box before going out the stack ?

 

[kennertree]

Thanks. Most of the smoke comes from the firebox and moves all the way down to the end of the convection plate. The side closest to the firebox has small holes drilled so only a little smoke comes out there, so most of the smoke has to travel all the way down the smoke box then across the grate and up the stack.