Building a smoker

[DocIndy]

That's quite a do it yourself project! Looks awesome. What kind of price tag comes with such a project?

 

[Rookie]

Right around $1,500 in materials.

 

[Fenway]

Awesome!

 

[dieselrealtor]

very nice, makes my Mastercraft look like a tinkertoy....

thinking of which, I need to dust off the tinkertoy & smoke some brisket & shoulder.

 

[Rookie]

Well, I learned something tonight. Just because your fire basket is 24x24x8 doesn't mean you have to fill it up. I hit 600 in the cabinet! Lol, she's holding steady at 350 right now, but there's still a lot of fuel in there...

 

[dieselrealtor]

got any pottery you need fired?

 

[Rookie]

No kidding. Forget the smoker, I've got a pizza oven!

 

[Hexlobular]

Well, I learned something tonight. Just because your fire basket is 24x24x8 doesn't mean you have to fill it up. I hit 600 in the cabinet! Lol, she's holding steady at 350 right now, but there's still a lot of fuel in there...

Heh; that's a good lesson. I made an expanded metal box (heavy-duty from an old commercial propane tank storage cabinet) to put in my firebox, and put it on another expanded metal rack to keep about 3 inches of space under my wood and coals. It really helped with keeping the temps up, and getting a good burn. All the ash falls underneath and doesn't choke the fire.

 

[Rookie]

I've got five inches under the fire box. She's dropped to 300 now. Warped the fire box door with my raging inferno.

 

[Hexlobular]

I've got five inches under the fire box. She's dropped to 300 now. Warped the fire box door with my raging inferno.

Ugh, that stinks; hopefully it'll straighten out when it cools down. Sounds like you've got plenty of room. Here's a pic of my firebox setup before the initial burn-in. Crude, but functional (and free)...

 

[Rookie]

 

[Crbn79]

Ugly Drum Smokers. Cheap, easy to build, effective. Please update your build. I'm currently collecting components for my own smoker build. I'm going to be using an 80 gallon air tank for the cook chamber. It will be a reverse flow design and I'm trying to decide if it will have an additional cook chamber above the firebox or not. Long way from lighting the torch due to too many projects though.

With all the various smoker threads perhaps a sub-forum in the break-room is appropriate?

This is a good idea, I'm doing that when I build my fuel oil tank smoker. It's supposed to help with stable temperature across your primary cook area, rather than the temp drop close to the dampers.