My spring project - fridge build

BJY151 · Feb 20, 2014

I pried open the door of my new International Harvester tonight. Built in October of 1950 and has been waiting to be a smoker since.
I am hoping to complete this build before I bring home a wild spring turkey, but I have accepted that's a bit quick for my laziness.
I have a good idea of what I want todo, stick/charcoal burner just not positive how I want todo it. All inside the cabinet would be nice for keeping in garage but not sure if it's the best use of this future smoker. Open to any and all comments, criticism, and help.
Before photos now- progress photos to come.

Name plate October 19th 1950

Built in bottle opener on latch, not much help I the inside of the smoker.

Outside and in. Fairly small folding chair for reference.

TroyA65 · Feb 20, 2014

Looking forward to following this one!

BJY151 · Feb 21, 2014

I am looking for a fire box for this, any suggestions for how to make one, or a good premade one?
I talked to a guy today about powder coating the outside, I know this is not necessary. What would anyone else suggest for paint? (If powder coated I was thinking husker red, he wanted me to stick to the Internation Harvester theme and put and IH symbol on it.)

dwfisk · Feb 21, 2014

My very first smoker was an old porcelain & steel fridge. We just put a smsll CI habatchi in the bottom with a few hsndfulls of charcoal and used it to smoke mullet & chicken; very low heat, probably 200* or less. One caution to take into account is you will probably only have the one big door and don't want to open it much. I think I might be tempted to design a firebox that would give me a long burn and maybe include a 1/4"-3/8" heat diffuser plate about 6"-10" above the fire.

THoey1963 · Feb 21, 2014

I have no experience at this at all, but agree with DW, I would think the biggest issue would be the single door. I might almost think about having an offset fire box so you don't lose all your heat / smoke whenever you opened the door.

BJY151 · Feb 21, 2014

I was thinking an offset side fire box, I thought I saw a link to some prefab ones you can buy. I have been doing so much reading the last few days I can't remember where it was.

dwfisk · Feb 21, 2014

Several folks sell pellet assemblies, here is one
http://www.pelletprogrill.com/parts.html
Never used a pettlet smoker but it might work quite well with your fridge.

cowgirl · Feb 21, 2014

If you're going to use an offset firebox and pipe the smoke in.... a cut down barrel works great.
Looking forward to watching your build.

BJY151 · Feb 21, 2014

I was thinking charcoal/stick burner. I have a bradley and could take the smoke generator off that but that's not the flavor I am going for. I was hoping not to have to weld a barrel firebox to the side.

cowgirl · Feb 21, 2014

BJY151 said:
I was thinking charcoal/stick burner. I have a bradley and could take the smoke generator off that but that's not the flavor I am going for. I was hoping not to have to weld a barrel firebox to the side.

I use a barrel cut down to about 1/4 size for my smokehouse.. I build the fire in the barrel and smoke travels down the pipe to the house.
Might work for you if you used a shorter smoke/heat pipe.
http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2008/01/building-cold-smoker-smokehouse.html
The barrel has the same air intake system around the bottom that I used on my UDS.

but if you want to keep the cooker inside your shop it wouldn't work.

cmwr · Feb 21, 2014

About 15 years ago I built an electric smoker out of a 1950's fridge and oven racks. I used an electric sauce pan wired full open and it all ran through an oven thermostat I had in a control box mounted to the side of the fridge. I just put wood in the electric pot and it smoked to beat the band. I used this smoker a year or 2 then gave up and tossed it out 10 years later. I couldn't heat proof the electric cords going to the pot and they kept burning through. All in all though it worked well.

BJY151 · Feb 22, 2014

Some progress.

Is this stainless? Got the smoker torn apart and started sanding. Wow a lot of work ahead of me and a drinking buddy, if he comes back. I hate fiberglass insulation.

USMC · Feb 22, 2014

I've been looking for an old refrigerator like that to build a mullet smoker. Can't wait to see the rest of your build!

cowgirl · Feb 22, 2014

Not sure if it's stainless but it's looking great!
Looking forward to seeing your build!

dwfisk · Feb 22, 2014

BJY151 said:
Is this stainless? Got the smoker torn apart and started sanding. Wow a lot of work ahead of me and a drinking buddy, if he comes back. I hate fiberglass insulation.

cowgirl said:
Not sure if it's stainless but it's looking great!
Looking forward to seeing your build!

IDK, looks like steel but if I remember correctly, stainless is not magnetic so I guess you could test it with any good magnet, if it sticks it is steel, if not or the connection is weak, might be SS.

Edit: I did a little reading and most common stainless steels are not magnitic, but there are some ferric stainless steels with weak magnetism.

BJY151 · Feb 23, 2014

Progress as of Friday, I was gone the rest of the weekend but spent a lot of time dreaming up its future.
A bit of surface rust on top paint and inside steel. Sanding takes forever may have to use a wire wheel and if that doesn't help talk to someone about sand or glass blasting.

In this picture you see the insert, where the hole is in the back was a light bulb, would this be good placement for exhaust? I would make it bigger and go out of the back of the smoker. All of the clips are metal but may replace for safety.

oifmarine2003 · Feb 24, 2014

dwfisk said:
IDK, looks like steel but if I remember correctly, stainless is not magnetic so I guess you could test it with any good magnet, if it sticks it is steel, if not or the connection is weak, might be SS.

Edit: I did a little reading and most common stainless steels are not magnitic, but there are some ferric stainless steels with weak magnetism.

You are right that most stainless is not magnetic, meaning a magnet will not stick to it. If it is cheap stainless (400 series), it has no nickel in it like the better stainless and a magnet will stick to it. 301 ss CAN have a slight magnetic pull but the difference between steel and stainless in terms of the magnetic pull is very big. If the magnet just drags a little along the material, it is stainless.

As the grade of stainless increases in quality, the amount the amount of nickel increases, the amount of chrome typically decreases, and the amount of iron decreases. That is why the better stainless is not magnetic and the crappier stainless can have some magnetic pull.

jestridge · Feb 24, 2014

A cold smoker might be ok , but in my opinion it not worth the effort, when you finish, you still have an old fridge

BJY151 · Feb 24, 2014

It will be a pretty old fridge that can smoke meat when I am done.

USMC · Feb 24, 2014

I think it's going to make a fine smoker!

My spring project - fridge build

Got Wood.

is one Smokin' Farker

Got Wood.

Quintessential Chatty Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Got Wood.

Quintessential Chatty Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Got Wood.

somebody shut me the fark up.

is Blowin Smoke!

Got Wood.

is one Smokin' Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Quintessential Chatty Farker

Got Wood.

Babbling Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

Got Wood.

is one Smokin' Farker

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