I have turned up my nose in the past to electric and propane but now that I am making my own sausage and jerky I had a need for something different. I have been plotting this one for a couple months now and finally pulled the trigger and built my own. Hopefully I will do my first batch of summer sausage and snack sticks this weekend in it. I have a couple more things I need to do but I am pretty proud of what a buddy and I did in about 9 hours.
Me drilling holes while another buddy works on cutting out some expanded metal for his UDS. A forstner bit is the way to go. A lot less pain than using a hole saw.
One of the sides done.
5 hours of planning, cutting, head scratching, etc yields 30 minutes of assembly. We used both biscuits and wood screws.
And the semi-finished result (yes, my garage is a mess):
Some more recent pics:
The dimensions of the smoker are 66" x 28" x 20". I arrived at those dimensions because that was the biggest I could build from two sheets of 3/4 hardwood plywood. For the vents, I used normal HVAC vents. For cold smoking I use an electric hot plate and for warm - hot smoking I use a propane burner from a fish cooker I bought for cheap at a local sporting goods store.
To make the dowel holders, we drilled 1 3/4 holes with a forstner bit and then ripped the piece in a table saw. When we cut the doors out, we cut the hing side first and then attached the hinges before cutting the rest of the doors out. It made for a perfect fit without having to make any adjustments.
Feel free to ask any questions if you have any.
