Homemade Smoker made by non-pro / Comments-Suggestions

[nyshodog]

I had the opportunity to bring my homemade smoker over to Willie B's in Bay Shore for some comments and suggestions. What a great guy Will is as he was helpful and excited that I brought it over! Here's a link with some pictures as well as a more detailed description below. Any other suggestions/comments welcomed! Thank you all!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/nyshodog/HomemadeSmoker

The box itself is made of redwood and it is lined with heavy stainless steel sheets. Two compartments were designed, the top to load and smoke the meat and stays shut during smoking and the bottom is where the electric burner/charcoal goes and where the chip box lies. There are two steal grates in the upper compartment, the lower one is for the water/drip pan, and the top grate is of course where the meat goes. On the left hand side there is a temperature gauge, the top you can see the chimney for the smoke and at the bottom right hand corner there is about a inch and half hole for the electric cord to run through when using electric.

I've used both electric and charcoal and I feel the charcoal is the way to go with some unsoaked wood chunks thrown right on top. The thing that is crazy about it is that I had stuck another thermometer right above the water pan to measure the temperature, it was registering about 30degress less than the sides of the chamber. Thus, I was getting about 240 on the sides around the water pan and about 210 right in the middle above the water pan where the meat will lay. I think this will be OK.

Thanks for reading my lengthy post! Any comments and suggestions would be much appreciated! Again, thanks for Willie B over in Bay Shore for suggesting this site to me, it is great!!

Smoker Enthusiast,
Jonathan

 

[parrothead]

Now that is interesting!

 

[Arlin_MacRae]

That's beautiful. It reminds me of antique iceboxes you see from time to time. Great work there!

Aren't you afraid of eventually consuming the redwood as fuel, though?

 

[Harbormaster]

It certainly is different. Looks more like furniture than a cooker.
COOL!

 

[Porky]

That is pretty enough to put in the livingroom of your house. I have one of those old 3 door ice boxes, maybe I should convert it !!!!! Welcome to the board.

 

[Oldbob]

Great Job Brother !! The Craftsmanship Looks Great !!

 

[Meat Burner]

That's definately cool. Welcome to the forum!

 

[tony76248]

Intersting, I would love to see pictures of it in action. Have you ever used it?

 

[N8man]

Beautiful Wood

That's outstanding!!!! How do you like the way it smokes? Is there
much heat transfer from the stainless to the cabinet? Good job!!!!

 

[Single Fin Smoker]

Looks like a big screen tv should be sittin in there. Does it weigh very much?

 

[eatmyque]

Very pretty. I'd be afraid to use it and spill meat juices and grease all over the wood

 

[FatDad]

That is very creative. Great job !

 

[ultramag]

Very cool smoker. The craftsmanship looks top notch.

 

[HeSmellsLikeSmoke]

I agree, the cabinet is well built and looks really good.

On the comments/suggestions front:

(Most of these may be due to the fact that I haven't seen it in person and probably don't understand how things work, so forgive me if I am off base.)

Seems like the grate has very wide spacing which will limit the size whatever you may want to smoke. Also it seems like you will want more grates eventually.

The top vent looks like a temporary solution? If not, it is not up to the level of the rest of the unit. Gotta find something as nice looking as the cabinet.

Seems like the drip pan needs to be a much better solution. With a cabinet of that size, with more racks, handling the dripping juices will be a significant event.

Is the heat source the electric toastmaster buffet range? Don't totally understand how that works?

How is smoke produced and controlled? I don't see any bottom vents?

 

[WineMaster]

Looks really cool. Wheres the fire extinguisher?

 

[bowhnter]

That is pretty cool!

 

[tkuehn5410]

Looks like you could use that to prop up your feet on your converted beer cooler chair and never have to worry about the meat at a party or miss a moment of the games.

 

[jpw23]

Nice.....very cool:biggrin:

 

[nyshodog]

Wow! Thanks to everyone for responding so fast and the great comments you left! You guys are great! To answer some of your questions...

1) Yes, I have used it quite a few times. The last couple of times I've used charcoal and smoked some ribs for about 5-6 hours. The temperature holds great in it.
2) Again, smoked a bunch of times, and upon inspecting the sides of the box i felt little if no heat transferring to the wood. Again, the inside is lined with stainless steal and we had to cut it with a special steel cutting blade!
3) Right now there is only two grates in the smoker, one for the waterpan and one for the meat. I am going to put one or two more in. All the grates are adjustable to any height so it's customizable... ;-)
4) As for the top vent, it's fine for now, i can take it off whenever I want to, cap off the box to store it.

I used to use the electric heat range but I use charcoal now with much better results.

Smoke is produced by simply throwing some wood chunks on the charcoal. Before if I was using the electric I had a metal wood chip box I would put the chips in.

As for the bottom vents, right now there is a small hole in the bottom of the box. However, I have been controlling airflow by leaving the bottom door open slightly and it seems to be getting plenty of air flow. This unit is pretty much set up like a weber bullet. I was thinking of putting another hole on the side but we will wait and see about doing that...

For those who wanted some more pictures I will be away for the next three weeks but when I get back I will be taking pictures of the entire process that I will post to share.

Again, thanks for all for the complements!!

Jonathan