# Who has Smoker Plans or has built their own?



## Helmet_S (Mar 18, 2010)

I am going to build a new smoker. I would like to hear about smokers that you guys have built or some ideas on how to make them better. Lets get some ideas flowing.

Whatever I come up with out of this discussion I will draw a set of plans up for it so that we can post them out there for everyone.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Talk to Bigdrowdy1 he has a smoker to die for and he ain't afraid to use it.


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

What kind of smoker do you have and to what extent or are your goals, for making small amounts- like 50# batches at a time of sausage or fish? Have built a few over the years so have pretty well gone through all the headaches and fine tuning that one will learn.


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## Helmet_S (Mar 18, 2010)

Hassel,

Currently one of my wife's relatives does the smoking and he has basically a shed made into a smoker and smokes a ton at a time. I would like to do smaller batches 50# or less at a time. My father-in-law and I will be building it and really have never messed with building one before.

any tips would be great.

Also do you guys like to cold smoke or hot smoke your meat? Typically everything that we had made before was cold smoked I beleive.


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

If making summer sausage,smokies etc. you have to hot smoke them in order to bring up the internal temps. to safety standards, you can make a smoker to do both but you'll use the hot side of it more often. Old fridges are the most common smoker people use and if you do, have the heat source separate from the smoker so it won't catch fire from drippings.


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## bar-d (Feb 3, 2010)

Helmet_S said:


> Hassel,
> 
> Also do you guys like to cold smoke or hot smoke your meat? Typically everything that we had made before was cold smoked I beleive.


I tried to smoke a sausage once, never could get it lit. Collapsed a lung puffing on it.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Have you not heard....smokers are not allowed on public property any more except in Tennesee


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## onereddawg (Feb 24, 2010)

Just got a 1950's fridge. Cleaned out the insides and underneath. Have to do some cleaning and figure out how to cut the smoke hole in the top and bottom. The insides of the fridge are enameled steel, so the inside is great. Need a heating source and a temp gauge and some racks, new fireproof seals and i should be good to go. There is alot of info online that have plans on building one. I'm going to try one.


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## RoughNeck (Mar 16, 2010)

bar-d said:


> I tried to smoke a sausage once, never could get it lit. Collapsed a lung puffing on it.


 LOL ur to funny bad-d:roflmao:


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## RoughNeck (Mar 16, 2010)

It all depends on what material your gonna use and if you have a welder it helps, my brother made one in high school and won several awards for it ill try to find the plans for it, but would need a list of materials your gonna use and how big you want it


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## Helmet_S (Mar 18, 2010)

as far as materials I can use anything that I decide will work. I work for a mechanical contractor that designs commercial/industrial HVAC and Piping systems.


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## Bigdrowdy1 (Jan 29, 2010)

I used a 24 dia.pipe with 5/16ths wall thickness. Cut the pipe to make a 48in.smoke box and used the remaining 24in. for burn box. 5 in smoke stack with damper. Welded angle inside to make slides for removalable racks. 3/4 in angle for slides and frame work for trays using 3/4in flat exspanded metal for grates. Can use burn box for grilling if you make a removalable tray for it. Dont just cut opening for heat transfe as it will be extremely hot in that area. Cut 1/3 moon shape where burn chamber meets smoke box. Cut additional piece of pipe with small to larger perferations as you move from burn chamber to smoke box going about halfway down smoke box this spreads heat evenly and eliminates the dreaded hot spot. The thicker the wall on your plate and pipe(within reason) the easier to control you heat and the less wood needed for smoking. My smoker ways in around 680lbs empty. Put solid tires with lockable casters for moving around purpose.With my newest smoker I can smoke trice the meet with half the wood. Thats my smoker with the sausage smoking on it in the picture forum. Hopes this helps and aint too confusing. Bar-d be glad nobody took a picture of that one, YD would have used it against you. LOL


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## Helmet_S (Mar 18, 2010)

bigdrowdy

That definitly is a nice looking smoker. do you have any problems with your sausages sticking to your grates and tearing when you remove them? I am considering a very similar design but havn't decided on hanging the sausages inside the smoker or laying them on a grate. Do you recommend either one over the other?

I was thinking about the same size on the pipe and length but making removable racks for grilling/smoking slab meats and removable hangers for smoking sausages and such.

I have been told that having sausages on racks causes hot spots and actually cooks the meat where it is in contact with the grate rather than smoking it. Any truth to that in your opinion?

I have also been considering using a multiple position motorized damper hooked to a hi-temp themostat to make the whole thing kind of self regulating. I know that with the thick side walls of pipe the temps would regulate pretty well on their own but it would be cool to be able to just open it a said amount and know what the themp wouild be and not to have to touch it until you want to adjust the temp again. If you were to take your smoker somewhere that doesn't have electrick it would just act as a normal manual damper and you would have to tend it just like a normal smoker. Do you see any need to ad this or does yours refulate temperature so well that it would just be an unused expense?

I like your idea of using another pipe with holes in it to distribute the smoke more evenly throughout the smoker. I will definitly utilize that. Do you have a slide damper that covers each hole to moderate the smoke or just one big damper at the firebox to control all at once? I would assume that you also have a serperate vent stack on the firebox to exhaust the rest of the heat and smoke that you don't use?

Helmet_S


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## Bigdrowdy1 (Jan 29, 2010)

One of the things I do before I ever use new metal is season it. I generally bring the smoker up in temp 300 to 400 degrees to burn any oil residual from the metals. Once this is done I buy a small fresh ham( it can become you first testing meat) and take the skin off it and rub all surface areas where my meats will be cooking on with this fatty skin until it is used completely up.I will rub the surfaces down about ever hour of so and continue keeping the temps up around 200 degrees for several hours. When you finished all your grates will have a shiny sheen to them and you should not have anyproblem with your meats sticking to them. I then let every thing cool down and smoke the next day.I do this about twice a year. This works great in the smoke chamber but dont hold up on the grate in the burn box.I dont have any problem with hot spots on the grates but I generally turn my sausages over to get an even smoke on it. An automated damper sounds neat but thats why I have an ice chest of beer because I (need) to monitor everything LOL. I have a damper on my door as well to control the burn box. As far as let heat out I just use the damper on the smoke box. If I had it to do over I would have put a vertical box on the end of the smoker for hanging meats (even whole large hams) and put removable racks for jerky. This would have allowedme to smoke more jerky at a time. I would have also added a counter wieght for opening the door.(After tilting beers allday the door gets heavy) As far as regulating the smoke inside the smoke chamber you could use another piece of pipe cut to overlay if you wanted though I have never had any problems. Hope this helps


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Only ever built vertical smoke houses, so much better for hams, bacon, stainless screens for the jerky, probably the best sausage book out there is by Rytek Kutas, has everything in it that you would ever need, from building smokehouses, doing dry cures etc.; and have used many of his recipes.


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