Easy to Make Cold Smoke Generator

Postby georgebaker » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:17 pm

Hi
secondhand car tyre?

George
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Postby Richierich » Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:12 am

georgebaker wrote:Hi
secondhand car tyre?

George


Just scrapped the wifes car, could have taken the spare.
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Postby Richierich » Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:58 pm

Figured I should let you know how I got on smoking the bacon on Saturday.

Stuck the soldering iron in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning the air on. Placed it in the smoker and left it for 3 1/2 hours, decided I needed to shake it up to move the fresh wood down into any pockets (probably shouldn't have bothered), left it for another 2 hours, was still going strong. Although the smoke seemed denser before my shake. I was surprised by the heat, it did get quite hot, although it only put about 3 degrees into the smoker, which was not too bad, the soldering iron was increasing temperature by around 10 degrees, although the weather was cooler on Saturday evening.

I think next time I will fill the tin, try to get a little more weight on to the wood to make it fall down, I have quite a wide tin, maybe should have gone for a taller, thinner one.

Poured the wood out into the ash pan to cool down and most of it has actually burnt away leaving a white ash similar to charcoal residue.
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My little bit

Postby Hoggy » Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:17 am

Hi all,

I saw this on Ebay also and did some testing myself, because it does not really look like rocket science and I wanted one that would smoke much longer.

Am a Ducht guy for 7 years now in Canada and I wanted to make a smoker that I can use in the basement without all the smell and I want to be able to cold smoke several days, but also to be able to smoke with higher temperatures.
I want to use a stove/oven that I will close very well with gaskets so it is "leak-proof" against the smoke. I saw the smoke generator at Ebay and in the afternoon I read this topic, here is " my bit ", it might help you all.

* To do my first test I used a muffler extension 2 1/2" x 8"
* I used Ssteel mesh, the ones you use to clean pots and pans, bought
at Walmart, cost almost nothing.
* The air pump I also bought at Walmart, costed me 13$, you might get
it cheaper somewhere ( Dollarmax ?)
Here are the specs : JetStream 1500 **1500 CC/min

Here is the first pic :
Image

On top of the mesh I put some burning wood chips and then I filled it up around 2" high. So I started to burn from the bottom, and it took 1.3 hours to burn up, practucally no left overs, but I had to shake once or twice, the chips were too big I guess, the 5 x 5 mm chips are better I think then what I had.

Here is the second picture from the same test.
Image

I had perfect smoke all the time, exect the one time I had to shake a bit.

The second test I used the same filling, but now I started to burn from the top, same filling, same chip.
THIS SECOND TEST BURNED 3 HOURS...only 2" high wood chips.

This 2nd test result was good enough to start to think BIG, I mean bigger capacity, because I only want to fill up once a day, in the morning and one time in the evening.

I want to use it as a side-unit ( like on Ebay ) that I can re-fill and of course it has to be bigger.
Went to an autoshop and bought a bigger extension muffler pipe, this time 3" x 20" Cost around 8 $

* I put the side pipe almost at the top
* On the bottom I use a strong round magnet with a gasket
paper inbetween, easay and fast to remove, if I take it away,
nothing falls out because the mesh is still on the bottom.
* On top I found at Rona ( Lowes or so ) an aluminium cap for
fences that fitted almost perfect, I taped it just to be sure...it costs 2$
* The air hose goes at the bottom through a hole in the pipe in the mesh.

Here is a picture, it is " live " and dark :
Image

This is my first test with the " big one ", I have a burning piece of charcoal at the bottom, and filled it up with a mix of wood pellets and hickory chips.
I filled it up for 6 " and it is smoking now for 4 hours. The smoke is hard to see, but it is there.
I have started again with burning from the bottom because I could re-fill from the top, very convenient. I use the pellets as a mix because the are smooth, small and will go down easely.

Well, that's it for now.
Let me know if you are interested in follow ups, I will try to post them.

Hoggy.
" The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. " ( Frank Hebert )
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Postby DarrinG » Thu Oct 11, 2007 2:09 am

Hey Hoggy what part of Canada are you from?

BTW nice looking rig. Is the exhaust pipe galvanized? Did you ever try the smoke pipe/exhaust lower down? I've got mine a couple of inches from the grate. I was thinking about redoing mine with the pipe on top but didn't know how it would work. I get bridging and the chips sometimes get stuck and the fire goes out.

I don't know about your idea for a smoker inside. I do know that they have commercial units for indoor use but they are also hooked up to an exhaust fan.

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smoke pipe lower down

Postby Hoggy » Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:28 am

Hi DarrinG,

I live close to Montreal for now, but we are planning to build our ( last ) house close to Victoriaville next year.
I have put the smoke pipe on top AFTER the good results from the second test, burning top down, I thought it would be logical that the smoke wouldn't have to go down. Afterwards I realized that re-filling from the top would be the easyest way but the smoke pipe was already on top. I dont think it matters much, as long as " the stuff " is a bit open and lets the air through. My smoker went out after 6 hours, when I emptied it, the piece of chacoal was finished and the wood pellets don't stay burning by themselves, because there was still a lot left over in the pipe.
In the future I will shred maple, I have a lot of that and will mix that with hickory chips or apple or so. My idea to use pellets was, that they do not leave much ashes, so I can re-fill several times without that I have to empty the pipe.

Next week I will do a new test, same setup, but will fill the tube as following :
* 1 lump of burning charcoal
* 3" of " stuff" , chips etc
* 1 small lump of non-burning charcoal ( I hope this will be ignited
by the one on the bottom when it gets there, to avoid the heat goes out
* 3" of stuff
* 1 lump of charcoal
etc etc

The charcoal makes the smoke temperature 90 F when it comes out of the pipe, but the vulome is almost nothing.

Yes, I forgot to write it in my first message, but I will make a small exhaust opening connected with a hose from the inside of the oven to outside, but that will have the size of the smoke pipe, around 1/2"
This is to avoid overpressure by the airpump.

The muffler pipe was galvanized, but I used acid on it, it is now pure as a virgin :D

I have seen commercial smokers, my friend has a hotel and he has one, costed 10,000 $ and with that one they still have to open the door to put wood in......
If I close the door of my oven well, and my smoker works a 100%, I don't need to open the door at all. It has heating element which is directed by the thermostate and I can go all temperatures. I don't have to look inside, because the door is from glas and there is light in the oven. But probably I will connect a small ventilator from the oven to outside in case I want to open the door. This unit will be in the basement or garage, but still I want as less smell as possible.

How big are your chips DarrinG ?
Any pics ?

Hoggy
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Postby saucisson » Thu Oct 11, 2007 2:56 pm

Nice work Hoggy and welcome to the Forum,

Dave
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Postby saucisson » Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:12 pm

Update: I've got a new heftier 45 litre a minute air pump here and an 80cm wide airstone on its way from a koi supplier for the upgraded version :) I also plan to try my rocket out that I thought of a while back and then shelved...

Dave
Last edited by saucisson on Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Rocket

Postby Hoggy » Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:50 pm

Hi Dave,

I sure hope that rocket won't go as far as Canada !!!!

I did a few other tests and have prepared salmon for the first try-out tomorrow, I will make some pics and give it as an update, but can someone explain to me how I put the pics in the topic ? Obviously I did something wrong in my first message...

Has the count down already begun Dave ? :shock:

Hoggy
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Postby saucisson » Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:16 am

Try Oddley's tutorial here for posting images:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1610



Dave
Last edited by saucisson on Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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How to smoke a side of bacon in 25 seconds

Postby saucisson » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:57 pm

Image

Getting a better airflow seems to have done the trick, but the rate of smoke production was a little more than I needed :lol: , I need a bleeder valve to control the airflow now and I'm all set.

Dave
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Postby Euan » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:49 pm

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and to smoking but really want to give it a go soon.

I like the design of your "industrial" smoke generator Darrin G, I think I'm gonna give it a bash. Was wondering how you prevent the ash and residue from the woodchips blocking off the air pipe? Also what type of chips are recomended for this style of smoker?

Thanks

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Postby DarrinG » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:39 pm

Honestly Euan with the unit hooked up to the air compressor the pressure created (even with such low air flow/pressure) the burn is so complete that there is very little ash.

I also used wood chips. Very small chips.

DarrinG
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Postby Euan » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:41 pm

Just another couple of quick question about this set up:

I'm planning on using a metal dustbin as the basis of my smoker however I'm having problems finding one thats not been galvanised. Since I also plan to put a hot plate in the bottom for hot smoking I suspect this is a problem. Does anyone know any shops or websites I can get one from.

Also I've got a mate who is a heating engineer to try and source the nipple piping for the body of the smoker but just incase he cant get it does anyone have suggestions on where I could buy something similar?

Cheers
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Postby Richierich » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:48 am

saucisson wrote:Update: I've got a new heftier 45 litre a minute air pump here and an 80cm wide airstone on its way from a koi supplier for the upgraded version :) I also plan to try my rocket out that I thought of a while back and then shelved...

Dave


Just reviewing some old posts, did you really mean 80cm wide air stone, or 80mm?
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