tommiegunnz
Knows what a fatty is.
After a winter of thinking about various mods for my fridge smoker I set about turning it into a pellet pooper after seeing one built on another forum I belong to.
Not being a welder I had to play Dr. Frankenstein and mash some things together.
First I aquired the brains, an Omron E5CN temperature controller set to on/off mode and the heart, a Traeger motor and auger that the kind folks at Traeger Canada sold me after I walked in their office because they were giving me the run around over the phone.
Next I needed a hopper and "borrowed" a metal trash can from the laundry room. I mounted a plywood floor and mounted the motor to that. For the hopper it self the can had a thick plastic liner that I mated to my auger tube and mounted slightly off level to make the pellets slide forward.
From there some pipe was cut a fan mounted for the air (with adjusted voltage so I can speed up or slow down the flame). Above the mounted a cast Iron baffle and set a cast iron pan on it to use as a water tray. I used this with great success before and was reluctant to give it up.
On Thursday I gave "Frankensmoker" the first test run. I found I had the the hystersis (deadband) set too high at 5* and when the temp dropped that low and the motor kicked in it would spit too many pellets and temps would spike.
Friday I thought I'd test "Frankensmoker" with a small rib cook. Set the hystersis at 1* and still spiked more than I'd like so I turned it back to 0.2* and it cruised pretty solid from then on.
Results of the first cook, very impressive!!! Nice pleasant smokey flavor, light but there not over powering in the least. Nice smoke ring on the ribs can't wait to cook up some deer in there.
Here is a link with a few pics!
http://s1017.photobucket.com/albums/af297/tgartner1/Frankensmoker/
Thanks for looking,
Tom
Not being a welder I had to play Dr. Frankenstein and mash some things together.
First I aquired the brains, an Omron E5CN temperature controller set to on/off mode and the heart, a Traeger motor and auger that the kind folks at Traeger Canada sold me after I walked in their office because they were giving me the run around over the phone.
Next I needed a hopper and "borrowed" a metal trash can from the laundry room. I mounted a plywood floor and mounted the motor to that. For the hopper it self the can had a thick plastic liner that I mated to my auger tube and mounted slightly off level to make the pellets slide forward.
From there some pipe was cut a fan mounted for the air (with adjusted voltage so I can speed up or slow down the flame). Above the mounted a cast Iron baffle and set a cast iron pan on it to use as a water tray. I used this with great success before and was reluctant to give it up.
On Thursday I gave "Frankensmoker" the first test run. I found I had the the hystersis (deadband) set too high at 5* and when the temp dropped that low and the motor kicked in it would spit too many pellets and temps would spike.
Friday I thought I'd test "Frankensmoker" with a small rib cook. Set the hystersis at 1* and still spiked more than I'd like so I turned it back to 0.2* and it cruised pretty solid from then on.
Results of the first cook, very impressive!!! Nice pleasant smokey flavor, light but there not over powering in the least. Nice smoke ring on the ribs can't wait to cook up some deer in there.
Here is a link with a few pics!
http://s1017.photobucket.com/albums/af297/tgartner1/Frankensmoker/
Thanks for looking,
Tom
