Stainless steel welding rods to hang jerky

For small diameter and low weight applications you want GTAW rods (aka TIG rods) which are bare electrodes and 36" long. They are sold by the pound. You can specify the alloy and the common ones for stainless are 308, 309, 316 etc. As far as diameters go, for a jerky rack I would guess something from 5/32" to 1/8" would work. 3/16" would be pretty stout.

Here is a jerky rack for a BGE I built many moons ago, these rods are 5/32" diameter.



Tig rods cut easily with a hacksaw, cut-off wheel or bolt cutters. For end prep, either a point or ground at a 45° angle, a sanding disc for an angle grinder works good, or a stone on a bech top grinder. You want to use a new wheel, more specifically one that has not been used on carbon steel.... otherwise the carbon steel molecules can migrate to the stainless and cause rust down the road.

I wash these kind of things my hand never in a dishwasher.

Try mcmaster.com. They appear to have everything.

roademier said:

Thanks
Can you recommend something I can order from Amazon or the internewt?
I read stuff that said it would cause cancer in California which , I don't live near .Actually on the other coast .

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You can relax on the warning.... when you weld with certain alloys (including stainless steel) the fumes can cause cancer. Stainless TIG rods are very pure and have sort of an electro-polished finish on them. Here is the full warning that appears on all packaging, MSDS sheets and sometimes even the invoice.

WARNING: This product, when used for welding or cutting, produces fumes or gases which contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause birth defects and, in some cases, cancer (California Health & Safety Code Section 25249.5 et seq.). This warning is used for all welding and cutting equipment, plasma equipment, oxyfuel equipment, and all other consumables.

Can you post a photo of the inside of your smoker?? This should get the site's creative minds working. :thumb:

I guess your approach would be to figure out what the span in the smoker would be, then determine what diameter rod will work best. Market price for TIG SS rods is ~$11/lb, and in the 1/8" diameter X 36" long, there are 10 pieces in a 1# tube. You might call a local welding supply store and see what their prices are before shopping online.

If you are worried about the rod sagging.... One thought here would be to make wooden hangers for the smoker that have 3 stainless hook eyes screwed into them (ends and center) on the bottom side. You could thread your jerky strips on to the SS rods, then just set each rod into the hook eyes. Having wooden hangers & hooks would allow you to hang other (heavier) things like links of sausage, slabs of bacon, skin-on smoked fish, ham shanks, rack of ribs etc.

Re California warnings, they make me laugh. From reading them, one would expect the streets of the cities there to be littered with dead bodies. But writing them probably provides employment for people who might otherwise not find work.

For reference, check out the MSDS for Dihydrogen Monoxide: https://www.dhmo.org/msds/MSDS-DHMO-Kemp.pdf

Just go to a local welding supply store so you can see what you are getting. I have used SS rod in a small smoker but in my smokehouse (past - I moved and left it behind) i use string, actually a heavy duty sewing thread. I will look for some pictures.

roademier said:

"Can you post a photo of the inside of your smoker?? This should get the site's creative minds working. "

It's a Stump's XL Baby.
I figured I would take out the racks and put the rods/dowels in their place .
Thanks for the info.

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I looked at the spec page on the Stumps site and the internal cooking space says 21"W X 19"D, and the rack size says 19"W and 21"D. This tells me the distance from the left 'runner' to the right 'runner' is either 21" or 19". The depth of each runner is 1/2"??

I took a 22" long piece of 5/32" rod and hung a 1# weight dead center. I got around 3/16" deflection (sag). This probably would work as weight of jerky is distributed along the entire length. But a 3/16" rod would be stouter. I would still consider a wood option with hooks to hold the rods of jerky, and with wood hangers, you could also hang so many other things.

roademier said:

Thanks for the idea about the wood with the hooks for added weight capacity.

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For things like this shoulder ham or a turkey, you could keep the top rack in and just use some stainless 'S' hooks. Hanging is such a good technique for certain things.